Policy Panel: Perspectives on Jail and Prison Visitation

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Separation from family and friends is a particularly challenging aspect of imprisonment. Maintaining contact between the incarcerated and their loved ones is important for all parties and has been shown to yield benefits. For instance, visits can help facilitate prisoners’ re-entry and result in better post-release outcomes. They have also been found to reduce disciplinary infractions during incarceration. Less evidence exists about benefits for family members – especially children –but some research suggests positive effects for them also. Nevertheless, tensions about the frequency and type of visitation exist between advocates for prisoners and their families and correctional administrators concerned with safety, security and limited finances.

This panel includes three presentations that contribute to knowledge about visitation policies. The first presents evidence about the relationship between visitation and recidivism using statewide data from Arizona. The second focuses on results from a survey of visitors and inmates in Philadelphia that provides their views about visitation policies and procedures. The third paper highlights an innovative researcher-practitioner partnership at a Midwest jail designed to improve conditions and facilitate visitation for prisoners’ children. The panel will include Ann Adalist-Estrin, executive director of the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Rutgers-Camden and Susan Tucker, licensed clinical psychologist and assistant warden of a medium security Louisiana state facility who will share their perspectives on visitation and serve as discussants.

Sub Unit

• Policy Panels

Individual Presentations

• Understanding Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Differences in the Relationship between Prison Visitation and Recidivism - Melinda Tasca, Sam Houston State University; Jillian J. Turanovic, Florida State University; Kevin A. Wright, Arizona State University

• Visitor and Prisoner Views on Visitation Policies and Practice in an Urban Jail System - Jane A. Siegel, Rutgers University, Camden; Laura Napolitano, Rutgers University, Camden; Brianna Chrzanowski, Rutgers University, Camden

• Developing Family-friendly Visiting Experiences through a Jail-University Partnership - Rebecca Shlafer, University of Minnesota; Laurel Davis, University of Minnesota

Chair

• Jane A. Siegel, Rutgers University, Camden

Discussants

• Ann Adalist-Estrin, National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Rutgers - Camden

• Susan Tucker, Bossier Parish Medium Security Facility