Orleans’ Old Parish Prison was built in 1929 to house inmates of the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office (OPCSO), the office responsible for the care, custody and control of all inmates within New Orleans. By 1973 the condition of the aging jail had led Federal courts to consider closing it down, but a new sheriff in town helped to turn things around. Working with Federal courts, newly elected Sheriff Charles C. Foti, Jr., launched renovation of the maximum security facility and began construction of a community corrections center, an intake and processing center, and the Templeman complex.

Thirty years ago, when the sheriff began the Old Parish Prison overhaul, the inmate population at OPCSO totaled fewer than 800 prisoners. Now the United States’ eight-largest jail - still under Foti’s leadership - the OPCSO occupies approximately eight city blocks; houses an average total of 6,800 municipal, state and federal inmates each day; and processes an average of 300 arrestees each day. In addition to housing inmates, the criminal sheriff’s office administers the Intake and Processing Center, provides security for the Criminal District Court, and serves subpoenas for three court systems.

In the years ensuing the renovation and expansion of the prison, the criminal sheriff’s office and its inmate records system were fully computerized. Though this transition cut down on manual record keeping and thus eased OPCSO’s administrative burden, the sheer size of the facility had become a problem. The constant transfer of arrestees, inmates, lawyers, judges and other officials throughout the facility posed a security risk and required the involvement of a substantial number of deputies.

To address this issue, the criminal sheriff’s office took another technological leap forward, bringing online a video distribution system that not only added to the facility’s surveillance and monitoring capability, but also enabled remote arraignment of inmates. The ViewCast VBX video communications system that OPCSO officials implemented transports video, audio, and data in a cost-effective, streamlined distribution system that allows judges and lawyers to perform arraignment duties remotely from within the campus’ one magistrate and two municipal courts, while the inmates being arraigned remain within the Intake and Processing Center.

“Using ViewCast’s VBX with the extensive fiber optic infrastructure we have built for voice, data, and video, we have been able to implement two-way, interactive video to facilitate safer, easier, and faster arraignment.” Said Deputy Gerald Hammack, director of the Technical Services Division of OPCSO.

A standards-based platform for video communications, the VBX video switching and distribution system acts as a gateway that connects one or more remote locations using H.320, H.323, and MPEG standards. Because it can support and control systems from a variety of manufacturers, the VBX can build on a facility’s existing infrastructure to provide hundreds of video endpoints. OPCSO is using these video endpoints to scale down the physical transfer of detainees throughout the campus and rely instead on a remote, video-based communications.

The Intake and Processing Center features a secure video station at which detainees communicate with both the judge on the bench and, in a private communication, their attorneys, who are also in the courtroom. Because every inmate has the right to the presence of a judge and counsel, the system approximates as closely as possible a face-to-face experience. According to ViewCast IVN Product Manager, Mark Hershey, the quality of the video is so high that each participant in the proceeding can read clearly the other’s facial expressions.

Because judges are able to perform their duties from the bench, rather than travel to or from the lock-up, and inmates remain within the intake center throughout the arraignment, fewer OPCSO personnel are required to manage what has become a much safer and more secure process. The overall result has been that a smaller number of deputies are capable of managing more work, faster. These cost- and labor-savings are critical to the long-term viability of the facility.

An added benefit of the VBX system has been its value in security and surveillance applications - critical at OPCSO and similar institutions. As arrestees are processed at the intake center, an open area in which new arrivals are processed, video from four cameras within the area is routed through the VBX system and streamed to the Internet via ViewCast’s Osprey Video capture cards, providing for the public a window into the facility.

“Any technology that can help us effectively manage 72,000 bookings per year gets our interest,” says Hammack. “As arrestees make their way through stations located around the perimeter of the room, video from several cameras is made available on our Web site. We’re using the system internally to monitor and maintain security, while also giving the public an awareness of the intake process.”

The criminal sheriff’s innovative use of the VBX system will continue as the facility moves forward in instituting remote, video-based visitations. These video conferences will further reduce the need to transport prisoners and their visitors within the facility while continuing to provide inmates with an interactive means of communication.