COMPARISON

Where other sheriffs started when they brought family visits back

A mental health unit in Savannah. People on low-level charges in Denver. One visit a week in Charlotte. Before Monday's budget vote, here is how four jails reopened their visiting rooms.

By Kate Vale · October 16, 2026

The City-County Council votes on the 2027 budget on Monday, October 19 (WISH-TV). A new sheriff takes office January 1. At the Adult Detention Center, families have been allowed to visit only by video since the jail opened in 2022, and the Sheriff's Office lists in-person visits for attorneys and professionals only.

When I ask for in-person visits to come back, a fair question is where to begin. Other jails have answered it. Here are four, each described in its own local reporting or on its own sheriff's website.

Savannah: the mental health unit first

In Chatham County, Georgia, families went 14 years without in-person visits (WTOC). Under the former sheriff, each person held got one free video call a week, and each call after that cost $8 for 20 minutes (The Current).

Richard Coleman was elected sheriff in the fall of 2024 after pledging to bring visits back. "This is a campaign promise that when I ran that I would bring back in-person visitation," he told WTOC. On April 25, 2025, visits began in Unit 1, which holds women, and men in mental health housing. The unit has eight stations, each with a glass partition and a phone on each side. Visits are once a week for 20 minutes, and each person may list two visitors. The plan is to add visiting space in all nine units. "This is not a prison," Coleman said. "It's a humane thing to me."

Charlotte: one visit a week, as promised

In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, the jail had been video only for more than two years when a newly elected sheriff restored "one weekly in-person, face-to-face visit" in January 2019, along with a free weekly video visit. WFAE reported that he was keeping a promise from his campaign, and that he said in-person visits "improve public safety" (WFAE, 2019). Visits paused for about two years during the pandemic and returned in March 2022, through a plexiglass partition (WFAE, 2022).

Denver: start small, screen carefully

Denver's county jail offered in-person visits from 1954 until 2005. They returned at the end of May 2024, after what the sheriff described as a seven-year process to bring them back (Front Porch). The program started small: only people held on low-level charges, on Fridays and Saturdays, for 30 minutes. After each visit, the person in custody goes through a body scanner. The jail also renovated its lobby, a $1.4 million project that included murals by local artists. Video visits are still offered, free from the lobby or $8.99 plus tax for 30 minutes from home.

Durham: both, side by side

The Durham County, North Carolina, Sheriff's Office lists in-person visits on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with different housing units on each night. Visits are booked two to seven days ahead, with up to two in-person visits a month and up to three visitors at a time. Its visitation page says: "Video visitation does not replace in-person visitation, and it is free" (Durham County Sheriff's Office).

What they have in common

Savannah began with one unit. Denver began with one group of people and added a screening step. Savannah used glass, as Charlotte does now. All four kept video as an addition. Indiana's own Department of Correction works the same way, offering contact and non-contact visits, with video as an extra (IDOC). In two of the four places, the change came from a sheriff who promised it while running.

Why I keep asking

My son lives with serious mental illness and spent nine months in the Adult Detention Center. In those nine months our family never had a single visit with him, in person or by video. I saw him only in brief glimpses across a courtroom at his few hearings. When he moved to state prison, we could visit him in person again.

What the Council and the candidates can do

At the September 30 meeting of the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee, members heard that answers to councilors' follow-up questions are sent by email, and that the budget can still be amended before the final vote. One email would put Marion County's own answer on paper.

Neither Tom Vaughn nor Kelvis Williams has said in public whether he would restore in-person family visits (candidate tracker). Both have been asked in writing, in the same words. In Savannah and Charlotte, the answer started as one sentence from a candidate.

What should change

Before October 19, a councilor should ask the Sheriff's Office in writing what it would take to restore in-person family visits, starting with the mental health units as Chatham County did, and what it would cost.
Before November 3, both candidates should say whether they will restore in-person family visits, by when, and where they would start.
The next sheriff should keep video as an addition, as Durham County and Indiana's prisons do, and not as the only way to visit.
The Sheriff's Office should publish a monthly count of in-person and video visits, so the public can see whether the change takes hold.

Sources

Kate Vale, a mother in the gallery