An Old Prison With a New Attitude
Warden Daniel Bertrand is justifiably proud of the 102-year-old Green Bay Correctional facility. He sees the prison as an invaluable part of Wisconsin’s correctional system and is confident the facility will always keep up with changing times. “We will continue to modernize our physical plant and upgrade technology as much as possible,” promises Bertrand. But it’s not just technology that changes. “New and modern approaches to correctional programs also are implemented,” he adds.
The facility dates back to 1898 when the original cellblock was built using prison labor. Throughout the years, the prison continued to expand and now has a rated capacity of 740 inmates-but the recent average population has been about 1,000 inmates. A master plan calls for future construction of four new housing units although there currently are no major projects underway.
Warden Bertrand has been at Green Bay for 26 years, starting as a correctional officer and becoming warden in 1996. He has spent nearly his entire career at this maximum-security prison and continues to work closely with his staff to ensure the 19th-century facility is effective and functional in the 21st century.
Bertrand keeps Green Bay up to date through a combination of modern technology and inventive programming. New technology consists of video visitation-an innovative system that is increasing in popularity with correctional facilities. The equipment allows for video arraignments, attorney visits, education, training, and even medical discussions. He also is proud of several forward-thinking programs at Green Bay that address education, domestic violence, and inmates vulnerable to negative influences.
Technology
Because of age and architectural limitations at Green Bay, technological upgrades are difficult. The walls of the prison’s older sections are three feet thick, so cabling and high-tech retrofits and installations are generally tied to new construction.
Video visitation at Green Bay is targeted to families and attorneys visiting inmates in the facility’s newer segregation unit. Inmates in this building-there are approximately 110 of them-are separated from the general population primarily for disciplinary reasons and the video system allows them to remain in a highly-secure environment while still participating in the visitation program. Inmates also continue to have access to their attorneys through this system.
Warden Bertrand said that the video visitation program, a completely in-house, localized system installed by the Cremer Engineering Company of Middleton, Wis., is extremely successful and is meeting all expectations.
Green Bay has four complete video visitation sites within the Segregation Unit and inmates are required to pre-schedule all visiting time. Inmates don’t leave the unit to go to the visiting room, but are instead escorted to one of the secure, in-unit visiting sites-basically small, self-contained video booths. They are then linked to their visitor who is stationed in front of the system in the visiting room located in another part of the facility. While in the locked visitation booth, an inmate doesn’t need the close supervision normally required in a face-to-face visit; Bertrand finds it possible to use one escort crew for all inmates taking part in video visitation. “I would love to use it for all my visitors,” says Bertrand. “It would nearly eliminate the introduction of contraband into the institution and we could use staff more effectively.” He adds that he hasn’t had a single complaint from inmates about the system and noted, “we haven’t even had an attorney complain about it.”
Programming
Technology upgrades are not the only way Green Bay maintains its modern perspective. According to Warden Bertrand, the prison has some forward-thinking programs. “We have a couple of noteworthy endeavors. One is called Challenges and Possibilities,” explains Bertrand. Individuals from the community come to the facility to talk on a variety of topics, and in the process, challenge the inmates’ to think differently. “The District Attorney from Milwaukee-one of our bigger feeder cities-was one recent presenter,” says Bertrand.
Green Bay is equally proud of its domestic violence program. The program, which started about two years ago and is presented about four times each year, involves a curriculum of restorative justice segments. Victims of domestic violence and victim’s rights groups address the inmates and explain how violent actions and crimes affect both victims and society. The program was proposed by one of the facility’s teachers based on a release program used at another facility. However, since inmates at Green Bay usually are not released, the program is tailored to different needs. “It affords inmates the opportunity to learn some things and think about the way they have lived their lives. We hope to make them better inmates with these programs,” says Bertrand. Response to the program has been very positive.
Additionally, the Mainstream Unit, a program unique to Green Bay, targets inmates with IQs of 80 or lower who are vulnerable in a prison environment. Among other things, the program teaches inmates sewing skills so they can work in Green Bay’s prison-industry sewing enterprise.
“Our goal is to teach these men basic living skills, as well as how to deal with inmate pressures. We try to get them integrated into the population,” Bertrand says. “We’ve been running the program for about ten months and it’s helped potential victims become less vulnerable.” The program even goes so far as to create a separate housing unit where inmates live, eat, attend classes, and enjoy recreational activities.
Eventually, inmates should reach the level where they attend regular classes-although they will still live in the unit because it acts as a kind of support group. “We have three men who, within a month or so, will graduate back into general population. They will go to the dining room and school and have recreation with the general population. The only difference is that they still live in the Mainstream Unit with their peers,” Bertrand points out.
Warden Bertrand is equally proud to point out that none of the programs-Mainstream Unit and Challenges and Opportunities included-require extra taxpayer funding. Reallocation of existing space, use of volunteers, and the redirection of staff enable these programs to run without additional costs.
Here to Stay
Warden Bertrand and his staff are using time-tested correctional procedures and modern techniques to operate Green Bay as an efficient, contemporary institution. “We are in good shape and probably will be here for a long time to come,” Bertrand concludes.
Video Visitation Gamble Pays Off for Reno Jail
By Morgan Jones
Less than two years after being the first from-the-ground-up corrections project in the nation to incorporate a video visitation system, the Washoe County Jail in Reno, Nevada, is moving to a larger PBX super-hub system as they prepare to retrofit the main building. The 930-bed facility currently processes 800 inmate visits a week with 38 visitation seats, a number that will soon be expanded.
Most new corrections projects now include video visitation, but Washoe County’s groundbreaking project led to a technological development none of the planners expected. Soon after a connection was established to the public defender’s office via codec video modem and ISDN lines, jail administrators received a call from a law firm interested in linking their private offices to the system.
Jail administrators recently approved a link with a third law firm. “There have been many other inquiries,” said David Grey, central control supervisor at the facility. “In fact, law firms are probably not purchasing their systems as fast as they’d like, but that’s just as well because our system is somewhat limited right now.”
Grey says connecting private offices to their network requires little additional systems management and no cost to the county; the capabilities linking the jail with the public defender’s office easily accommodate other off-site locations.
Making History
The county’s first system was installed as part of a four-pod housing expansion project completed in 1999. The architecture and planning firm of Ganthner Melby LLC of Reno specified visitation technology for a stand-alone, cost-effective facility that has no civilian traffic in inmate areas. The new housing units have their own staff areas and are connected to the main facility by a long, secure corridor. Video visitation minimizes inmate movement through the compartmentalized facility.
VUGate of San Antonio, Texas, is the company that installed the world’s first video visitation system five years ago in Brevard County, Fla.. They were hired to provide the technology during Washoe’s 1999 project and have again been retained for the expansion and retrofit. The company also provides technology services to the law firms. “The jail is out of town, so reducing travel time for our attorneys was key,” said Sheri Hornsby, office manager at the Law Office of Scott Freeman, the second firm to tap into the network. “The inmates know Scott has the video capability, and this attracts clients.” Hornsby says the firm saw the system improve their efficiency in contacting inmates immediately. “We feel we got a great value for an $8,000 outlay, which included the extension of VUGate’s support and maintenance contract by two years,” says Hornsby. She estimates the law firm recouped their expenses within six months.
Balancing the Budgeting
Because of Washoe County’s tight budget, creating a state-of-the-art facility was not its main goal. Initially, video visitation was a solution to the sheriff’s goal of eliminating all civilian traffic into the jail. The fact that it also reduces prisoner movement, therefore helping the county avoid building a new, $371,000 visitors’ lobby and paying additional staffing costs of $219,000 per year, is an added benefit-as is the fact that “video visitation has reduced the flow of contraband significantly,” said Grey. The county’s initial outlay for the jail’s video visitation system was $134,000; existing personnel operate the system. Grey says the system is simple to use. “Even a temporary employee working as a PBX operator can connect video calls. They check if the caller is authorized, the temp verifies the information, and if the person is cleared, they connect the call, and they’re done with it.”
Hornsby also cites the user-friendliness of VUGate’s system at the law firm. “You just turn on the machine and point and click on the icon that connects us to the jail.” A TV-equivalent video image of the inmate then appears on the monitor. Documents are legible onscreen, and couriers are used when signing is necessary. “VUGate isn’t TV quality, but it’s very, very close,” says Hornsby.
An Insider’s View
Inmates have never been enthusiastic about the system; the most common complaint being that video visitation is impersonal, according to Grey. To compensate for the move away from glass pane booths, visitation periods were extended from 30 to 45 minutes. All visits are timed to disconnect automatically after 45 minutes, with a warning appearing one minute before shutoff. “There used to be some bickering about visit lengths when we had just one staff member trying to monitor nine people. An inmate would complain that someone else got five minutes more than they did. Now there’s no accusation of bias,” Grey said.
“We took a survey of the inmates after installation, and the inmates had an unfavorable reaction to the system,” said Administrative Deputy Rick Rose. “But as time went by, many of those inmates were transferred or released, and we no longer receive any written complaints. There’s also clearly been some adaptation.”
