A Democratic candidate for Chatham County sheriff said if elected he would end the existing ban on in-person visits to the jail between family members and those detained while awaiting trial.
Candidate Richard Coleman made the policy announcement during the League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia forum Monday. He’s running in the May 21 primary against Kevin Burns for the Democratic nomination. The winner will take on incumbent Republican Sheriff John Wilcher in the November general election.
The issue has gained traction after a 2023 investigation by The Current revealed that Coastal Georgia jails, including the facility run by Wilcher, increased revenues during and after the Covid-19 pandemic by restricting free in-person visits and charging high fees for phone calls, text messages and video meetings.
READ THE ORIGINAL INVESTIGATION
In 2021, the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office collected approximately $500,000 in phone fee revenue alone, and approximately $400,000 annually in 2022 and 2023, according to invoices from the telecom company contracted with the jail, Pay Tel Communications.
Coleman, a former police chief for two small Georgia cities and an interim chief in Thunderbolt, told attendees at the forum that Chatham voters have complained to him about how they can’t visit family members in the jail, that the video system in place for virtual visits doesn’t work very well, and the prices are too high to use those services.
“I’m not going to punish family members for going out there to see their loved ones,” Coleman said. “We’re not trying to dehumanize anyone. They are there for the crimes they committed, but their loved ones are still concerned. Grandma needs to see that child.”
In records requests to the county in 2023 and 2024, the sheriff’s office has not been able to turn over any contracts, invoices or documentation from jail video provider JailATM — so no number on total video revenue can be determined.
The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t allowed true face-to-face visits for over a decade, since the agency moved to its current jail site off of Chatham Parkway. Before COVID-19, free and in-person visits to the jail were allowed, but a family member visiting a detainee would have to video conference via an on-site facility while the detainee sits in another part of the jail. In-person, but not face-to-face.
After Covid, Wilcher’s agency instituted a virtual visit policy, whereby detainees use tablets that allow video calls, like one does for Skype or Zoom. Attorneys, not families, are the only parties allowed to visit in-person and face-to-face with Chatham detainees — who are in jail awaiting their trial and not been convicted of a crime.
Those video calls cost families $8 for 20 minutes. The sheriff’s office said it allows each detainee one free video visit a week through JailATM but any more than that will cost. A 15-minute phone call from the jail costs close to $3.00.
In records requests to the county in 2023 and 2024, the sheriff’s office has not been able to turn over any contracts, invoices or documentation from jail video provider JailATM — so it is unclear how much revenue was earned from video visits.
After the forum on Monday, Sheriff Wilcher’s chief deputy, Gary Taylor, said he and his boss called detention centers in other Georgia counties to see if “they had ideas on doing things differently.”
Taylor said that jails in Fulton, DeKalb, Bibb, Troup and Clayton counties did not allow in-person visits.
“It is not industry standard,” he said in a phone interview Wednesday.
Taylor called it a safety issue for detainees and the staff, to be sure that contraband is not given during a face-to-face visit. For many jails during Covid, prohibiting in person visits was a health necessity to prevent the spread of a contagious virus into the enclosed jail environment
Over the course of reporting its investigation, The Current heard from Chatham County residents who said the fees to stay in touch were a steep financial burden, and the video platform provided by JailATM did not work well. Audio and video were known to cut out and impact visits.
Coleman said families told him they had trouble getting their money back from JailATM after technical difficulties shortened or canceled video visits.
Video quality became such a problem that the Chatham County Public Defender’s Office filed a motion on behalf of 41 defendants in March 2023, complaining about the mandatory use of JailATM and restrictive visitation policies. Sheriff Wilcher has since tweaked the rules to allow for more visiting hours for attorneys and ordered repairs to be done for the jail’s video equipment.
At the forum, both Burns and Coleman said the fees that Wilcher charges are too high and they would reduce them if elected.
Burns said that the signing of a new law last week by Gov. Brian Kemp requiring cash bail for more misdemeanor crimes will add another burden on families of detainees. The money used on phone fees, he said, should instead help get their loved ones out of jail. He anticipates overcrowding as a result of the law.
“If I can lower the fee, make it lower than what it is, so that way people can still talk to see their loved ones,” Burns said. “At the same time, maybe they’ll have some money to also just bond out, so they can be with their loved ones.”
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