DOI: 10.3886/icpsr36843.v1
title: A New Role for Technology? The Implementation and Impact of Video Visits in State Prisons, Washington, 2012-2015
title: Version 1

description: Research shows that prison visitation is integral to the success of incarcerated people, reducing recidivism, facilitating reentry into the community, and promoting positive parent-child relationships. However, people are often incarcerated long distances from their home communities in areas that are difficult to reach by public transport, creating significant barriers to in-person visitation. Departments of corrections are exploring the use of computer-based video visits as a means to address some of the visitation needs of those in custody in a cost-effective way while continuing to encourage in-person visits. To learn more about this practice, the study team conducted the following research activities: A survey of incarcerated people: The study team surveyed 211 people incarcerated in Washington State prisons about their use of video visits, their perceptions of the service, and their experiences of in-person visits more generally. This was a self-administered, pen-and-paper survey. An impact evaluation of video visits: The study team analyzed individual-level administrative data from the Washington Department of Corrections (WADOC) and the private video visit vendor (JPay) to understand whether use of the service affected four outcomes: 1) the number of in-person visits people received, 2) the number of rule violations (of any severity) people committed in prison, 3) the number of general (ie. non-serious) rule violations they committed, and 4) the number of serious (as defined by WADOC) rule violations that were committed. The researchers used two analytic techniques: 1) a difference-in-difference test, using inverse probability of treatment weighting, and 2) Bayesian additive regression trees. An analysis of in-person visit rates: The study team analyzed administrative data relating to all people who were incarcerated for the 12 month period ending November 2015 (n=11,524). The study team produced descriptive statistics and conducted negative binomial regressions to understand the rates of in-person visits and how these related to the characteristics of the incarcerated people.
description: The purpose of this study is to assess the use of video visits by incarcerated people, the impact of video visits on in-person visit rates, and the impact of video visits on in-prison behavior in terms of number and severity of prison rules infractions.
description: The study utilizes a mixed-mode data collection. In November 2014, a random sample of incarcerated people in Washington state prisons completed self-administered, pen-and paper surveys about their experiences with video visits. Researchers also compiled administrative data from the Washington Department of Corrections (WADOC) and JPay on in-prison behavior and video and in-person visits. Individual-level visit data are dated January 1, 2012 to November 30, 2015. One year cohort data are dated November 30, 2014 to November 30, 2015.
description: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.; Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes..
description: Presence of Common Scales: None
description: Response Rates: Not available.
description: Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Survey Response Data DS2: Person Level Video and In-Person Visit Data DS3: One Year Cohort Data
description: mixed mode
description: Adults incarcerated in Washington State prisons during the study period. Smallest Geographic Unit: State
description: Survey participants were selected at random from a list of incarcerated people provided to researchers on the dates that they visited three different facilities. For the administrative data, data pertaining to the full cohort of people held in WADOC custody at some point during the study period (2012-2015) were collected. For the impact analysis of video visitation - researchers selected all people who had used the service with moderate frequency (averaging more than 1.5 video visits per year). Inverse-probability of treatment weighting was then used to select a control sample of non-service users. For the study of in-person visitation rates, all people who were held in custody for the full year ending November 30, 2015, were included.