Cumberland County Sheriff's Office     

The Inmate Video Visitation System features forty-five (45) Visitor Stations located adjacent to the main lobby in the new jail facility.  Each station includes a twenty (20) inch standard NTSC monitor, an off-hook switch for the handset, handset, CCD camera, and Visitation VPOUA from VUGate.  Each of the Visitation Stations is connected the VUGate SuperHub located in the equipment room located behind the receptionist's station in the main lobby of the jail facility.

There are also forty-five (45) Inmate Visitation stations installed at various locations throughout the new jail facility in each of the Inmate housing areas.  Each of these stations feature the same compliment of equipment as the Visitor stations and are connected back to the VUGate SuperHub for control and management of the visitation process.

MINXMate is VUGate’s Inmate Video Visitation Management System and features a simple to use and lightning fast touch-screen interface.  MinxMate automates and simplifies the inmate visitation call setup process.  MinxMate^TM allows for either computer mouse or touch screen operation to place calls between visitor and inmate video stations in a highly automated fashion requiring just two mouse clicks or screen touches.  The MinxMate system graphically identifies for the operator receptionist all free visitor and inmate stations. 

MINXMate is designed to operate with the maximum amount of efficiency in processing inmate visitations.  The system automatically notifies the operator/administrator when calls terminate, either early or normally, and identifies the stations that are free for more use to ensure fluid processing.  As shown at the left, the station on the operator screen will turn to red when a video visitation call is terminated.  If a visitor accidentally hits the receiver hook, or if they hang up earlier than the defined time limit, the MinxMate system allows a five second delay for the visitor to resume the visit by picking up the handset again.  The call timer resumes at the point of interruption with whatever time is left.

MinxMate ensures that the administrator has complete control over the process and can override the institution-established defaults; such as for call length.  In the case of an attorney client visit, it may be necessary to allow more, or less, time than the normal visitation time established by the institution.  By choosing either the inmate or visitor station, the operator can identify where the call is in terms of time left, and can override the time up or down as needed.

The System Administrator's station which runs the MINXMate application is also equipped with additional video communications capabilities in the form of WinMINX.  The standard way of making calls is to place them from the administrator's station using the built in Rolodex calling function in WinMinx^2TM.  WinMinx^2TM is the standard Windows-based dialing and video call control package that is included with the VUGate computer-based workstation interface modules.

Calls can also be setup at the NVS or VPOUA station utilizing a simple keypad interface or when the NVS or VPOUA are connected to a PC the WinMINX - an easy to use windows-based graphical user interface may be used, with no operator station requirements for ad hoc point-to-point or multipoint call setup. In most video visitation systems, WinMINX is used by the systems administrator to handle outside calls coming into the visitation system such as those from private attorneys, the public defender’s office, or the detective bureau and in support of applications such as video arraignment. 

The SuperHub system was originally designed for the Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Security Agency (NSA) where the demands for quality and reliability are critical to National Security and where system flexibility, expandability and maintainability are essential to the ongoing operations of such a demanding communications environment.  VUGate technology has been a core communications tool for NSA and the DOD for over 12 years and continues today in that role. The quality, reliability and maintainability of the SuperHub series are critical to the demanding environment found in successful video visitation systems.  Like the DOD and NSA, today’s Jails operate on a demanding schedule that requires maximum system uptime.

VUGate (formerly Datapoint) invented Video Visitation and installed the world’s first video visitation system in Brevard County, Florida in 1995.  In addition to Brevard, VUGate systems are installed all over the US and are used in a large number of other Florida Jails, including Pinellas County, St. Lucie County, Okeechobee County and Lee County, which is currently the largest video visitation system in the world.  The Lee County system was installed by TEC and has gone through three Phases of expansion.  The Lee County system features sophisticated fiber optic video communication systems that connect the Downtown facilities, the CORE building and the Sprung units to the Inmate Video Visitation Center at the Ortiz location.

The Cumberland County Video Visitation System is capable of meeting the current needs of the Jail and expanding over time to accommodate additional inmates and visitors, as well as new applications, such as, video arraignment, telemedicine, distance learning and others as they are needed.  Cumberland County officials are already reviewing these expansion applications to determine the proper time for implementation and the associated cost and efficiency benefits that will be derived for the County.