Mchenry County Jail Now Offering Free On-site Visitations

A rash of complaints about the cost of visitations at the McHenry County Jail has prompted the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office to reinstate free on-site video visits, jail officials said. The video service, provided through the prison technology company IC Solutions, previously had replaced in-person jail visitations. Advocates for the transition to video visitations claimed the service was safer and more convenient than ever. However, despite the software’s ability to place a jail inmate on a computer monitor even states away, it has been criticized by some as being inconsistent, unreliable and exclusive of people without the means to pay for the service’s mandatory fees. A sign of the times Services such as IC Solutions’ make it possible for more people to visit the jail at one time, and it gets around invasive pat-downs and security checks required for “contact visits” between glass, McHenry County Sheriff’s IT Sgt.