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Q&A
Council Member Sandy Nurse inquires about virtual visitation and discovery sharing platforms in DOC facilities
1:12:29
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159 sec
Council Member Sandy Nurse questions DOC officials about the implementation of the Cisco virtual visitation platform and the Lightning Law discovery sharing platform in correctional facilities. DOC representatives explain the current status of these technologies and how they will be utilized to improve communication between incarcerated individuals, their families, and their attorneys.
- The Cisco virtual visitation platform is currently in the procurement process and will streamline virtual visits for families and attorneys.
- The Lightning Law discovery sharing platform will allow attorneys to share various types of discovery directly with their clients via tablets and kiosks in the law library.
- These technological advancements aim to facilitate better communication and preparation for court appearances.
Sandy Nurse
1:12:29
Okay.
1:12:31
Thank you, council member.
1:12:32
I wanted to touch on the Cisco virtual visitation platform.
1:12:38
Wanted to know, will this platform be available on the personal tablets?
James Boyd
1:12:47
Something we can certainly explore.
1:12:48
We're still working with the vendor and we're currently in the procurement process, but we do know that Cisco application would help kind of streamline the current virtual visit platform and kind of reduce our reliance on Microsoft Teams for both family visits, virtual visits, as well as attorney virtual visits.
Sandy Nurse
1:13:04
If not on personal tablets, how are you all envisioning this setup to be?
James Boyd
1:13:10
First tapping into our existing kind of apparatuses and platforms throughout the facilities and then kind of exploring if we need to either expand it in other places so people can have access.
1:13:20
We'll obviously have a conversation about tablets as well as scheduling a scheduling platform for scheduling in person visits, which I think recently passed.
Faisal Zuber
1:13:27
Okay.
Sandy Nurse
1:13:30
And the Lightning Law discovery sharing platform, can you just for the record, I don't think we've talked about it here at this hearing or in this committee for before, maybe we did, I'm sorry.
1:13:43
But can you just for the record explain how the platform will work?
Francis Torres
1:13:49
We're going to have our deputy general
Althea V. Stevens
1:13:53
attorney.
1:13:53
General counsel.
1:13:54
Yeah.
James Conroy
1:13:54
I so I'm I'm not incredibly versed on the technical aspects of essentially what it does, it allows an attorney to share all types of discovery directly with the client.
1:14:06
So it would encompass records.
1:14:09
I believe video is part of that as well.
1:14:10
So anybody want camera type things.
1:14:12
It's something that is direct from the attorney to the client.
1:14:16
They could review the discovery.
1:14:18
I I think there's an element of a communication, a kind of a messaging back and forth.
1:14:24
But we had we envision it and and as do the defense bar to be something that really helps to facilitate an advanced review of the discovery before they meet with them.
1:14:34
Because what ends up happening is if you have to do it all at one time, it becomes protracted visits.
1:14:39
And I think they want to accelerate this so that when they have the appearances, it's kind of taken care of before the court appearances.
Sandy Nurse
1:14:46
And so this will be kind of set up similar to the the visitation area?
James Conroy
1:14:51
No.
1:14:52
Actually, I think this is gonna be on the tablets.
Sandy Nurse
1:14:53
On the oh,
Althea V. Stevens
1:14:54
this is on the Yes.
James Saunders
1:14:55
Liting law will
James Conroy
1:14:55
be on the tablets and kiosks in the law library.
1:14:59
The the virtual visits is going to be for now in kiosks.
Carmen de Leon
1:15:04
Got it.
Sandy Nurse
1:15:07
Okay.