NCIC Mobile Video Visitation

This app connects people to a family member or friend who is incarcerated. Text messages, emojis, photographs and video messages can be sent, and remote video visits can be conducted from home. For families separated by distance, cost or the practical impossibility of travelling to a facility during visiting hours, that access matters enormously, and for children in particular, seeing a parent's face is not equivalent to hearing a voice on a phone. Notifications arrive immediately when a message comes back, which reduces the waiting that otherwise structures these relationships. Account history and funds can be managed in the app, since services of this kind are paid for by the family rather than the facility. Two honest points. First, services vary by facility: what is available where your relative is held is determined by that institution, not by the app, so the feature list is a maximum rather than a promise. Second, the cost of prison communication services is a subject of long-standing criticism and regulation, and families should understand the charges before relying on a service. Within those realities, an app that lets a child show a parent their school drawing is doing something worth doing. The app itself is free; the communication services are what you pay for, with funds added by card. It is worth confirming with the facility which formats are permitted and at what hours, since the schedule and rules are set by the institution.