eVisit System

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department schedules over 114,000 Inmate Social Visits each year. In the past, this was done exclusively by the public calling Sheriff’s staff to schedule the visit in the Department’s Jail Information Management System (JIMS) computer system. The problem this posed was extended wait times to speak with limited staff schedulers during a narrow time frame causing a bottleneck. Social visit scheduling changed in late March of 2011 with the introduction of eVisit. Members of the public (that have internet access) are able to schedule themselves for an Inmate Social Visit via the internet as an alternative to calling in for a visit. The same criteria and restrictions for all visits apply to eVisit scheduling just as to phone scheduling. The real key is the secure, real time interface to JIMS where the Public can schedule their visit quicker than waiting for a staff person to become available to take their call during extended hours. Staff still verifies all visitor information once they check in for their visit. Currently 50% of all Inmate Social visits are scheduled by eVisit scheduling. This has led to a more efficient operation for the Sheriff’s Department since the reduced call volume allows for some staff to be re-allocated to other pressing tasks.