Exploring the Impact of Distance from Home on Prison Visiting

• In Event: Poster Session II

Abstract

Using administrative data from Washington State Department of Corrections (WADOC), the Vera Institute of Justice (Vera) studied visit rates among incarcerated people. During this analysis, it became clear that people in WADOC – as is true for many people incarcerated in prisons across the country – received very few, if any, visits throughout their incarceration.

Vera sought to understand who was receiving visits during incarceration, and why visits for incarcerated people were so rare. To do this Vera used panel data and fixed effects modeling to determine how movements across facilities, distance from home over time, and time spent in disciplinary segregation impacted the number of in-person visits someone received. We controlled for gender, age, race, and mental health status. The analysis illustrates the strong relationship between distance from home and in-person visits, and how this relationship varies over time and demographics.

Author

• Jessi LaChance, Vera Institute of Justice