conjugal visits with inmates

How Do Conjugal Visits Work?

Maintaining close ties with loved ones while doing time can increase the chances of a successful reentry program. Although several studies back this conclusion, it’s widely logical.

While the conjugal visits concept sounds commendable, there’s an increasing call to scrap the scheme, particularly across US states. This campaign has frustrated many states out of the program, leaving only a handful. Back in 1993, 17 US states recognized conjugal visits. Today, in 2020, only four do.

The conjugal visit was first practiced in Mississippi. The state, then, brought in prostitutes for inmates. The program continued until 2014. The scrap provoked massive protests from different right groups and prisoners’ families. The protesters sought a continuance of the program, which they said had so far helped sustain family bonds and inmate’s general attitude to life-after-jail.

New Mexico, the last to scrap the concept, did so after a convicted murderer impregnated four different women in prison. If these visits look as cool as many theories postulate, why the anti-conjugal-visit campaigns in countries like the US?

This article provides an in-depth guide on how conjugal visits work, states that allow conjugal visits, its historical background, arguments for and against the scheme, and what a conjugal visit entails in reality.

What Is a Conjugal Visit?

A conjugal visit is a popular practice that allows inmates to spend time alone with their loved one(s), particularly a significant other, while incarcerated. By implication, and candidly, conjugal visits afford prisoners an opportunity to, among other things, engage their significant other sexually.

However, in actual content, such visits go beyond just sex. Most eligible prisoners do not even consider intimacy during such visits. In many cases, it’s all about ‘hosting’ family members and sustaining family bonds while they serve time. In fact, in some jurisdictions, New York, for example, spouses are not involved in more than half of such visits. But how did it all start?

History of Conjugal Visits

Conjugal visits origin dates back to the early 20 th century, in the then Parchman Farm – presently, Mississippi State Penitentiary. Back then, ‘qualified’ male prisoners were allowed to enjoy intimacy with prostitutes, primarily as a reward for hard work.

While underperforming prisoners were beaten, the well-behaved were rewarded in different forms, including a sex worker’s company. On their off-days, Sunday, a vehicle-load of women were brought into the facility and offered to the best behaved. The policy was soon reviewed, substituting prostitutes for inmates’ wives or girlfriends, as they wished.

The handwork-for-sex concept recorded tremendous success, and over time, about a quarter of the entire US states had introduced the practice. In no time, many other countries copied the initiative for their prisons.

Although the United States is gradually phasing out conjugal visits, the practice still holds in many countries. In Canada, for instance, “extended family visits” – a newly branded phrase for conjugal visits – permits prisoners up to 72 hours alone with their loved ones, once in few months. Close family ties and, in a few cases, friends are allowed to time alone with a prisoner. Items, like foods, used during the visit are provided by the visitors or the host – the inmate.

Over to Asia, Saudi Arabia is, arguably, one of the most generous countries when it comes to conjugal visits. Over there, inmates are allowed intimacy once monthly. Convicts with multiple wives get access to all their wives – one wife, monthly. Even more, the government foots traveling experiences for the visitors.

Conjugal visits do not exist in Great Britain. However, in some instances, prisoners incarcerated for a long period may qualify to embark on a ‘family leave’ for a short duration. This is applicable mainly for inmates whose records suggest a low risk of committing crimes outside the facility.

This practice is designed to reconnect the inmates to the real world outside the prison walls before their release . Inmates leverage on this privilege not just to reconnect with friends and family, but to also search for jobs , accommodation, and more, setting the pace for their reintegration.

Back to US history, the family visit initiative soon began to decline from around the ’80s. Now, conjugal visits only exist in California, New York, Connecticut, and Washington.

Is the Increasing Cancellation Justifiable?

The conjugal visit initiative cancellation, despite promising results, was reportedly tied around public opinion. Around the ’90s, increasing pressure mounted against the practice.

One of the arguments was that convicts are sent to jail as a punishment, not for pleasure. They fail to understand that certain convictions – such as convictions for violent crimes – do not qualify for conjugal visit programs.

The anti-conjugal visit campaigners claim the practice encouraged an increase in babies fathered by inmates. There are, however, no data to substantiate such claims. Besides, inmates are usually given free contraceptives during the family visits.

Another widely touted justification, which seems the strongest, is the high running cost. Until New Mexico recently scraped the conjugal visit scheme, they had spent an average of approximately $120,000 annually. While this may sound like a lot, what then can we say of the approximately $35,540 spent annually on each inmate in federal facilities?

If the total cost of running the state’s conjugal visit program was but equivalent to the cost of keeping three inmates behind bars, then, perhaps, the scrap had some political undertones, not entirely running cost, as purported.

Besides, an old study on the population of New York’s inmates postulates that prisoners who kept ties with loved ones were about 70 percent less likely – compared to their counterparts who had no such privilege – to become repeat offenders within three years after release.

Conjugal Visit State-by-State Rules

The activities surrounding conjugal visits are widely similar across jurisdictions. That said, the different states have individual requirements for family visitation:

California: If you’re visiting a loved one in a correctional facility in California, among other rules , be ready for a once-in-four-hours search.

Connecticut : To qualify, prisoners must not be below level 4 in close custody. Close custody levels – usually on a 1-to-5 scale – measures the extent to which correctional officers monitor inmates’ day-to-day activities.

Also, inmates should not be on restriction, must not be a gang member, and must have no records of disciplinary offenses in Classes A or B in the past year. Besides, spouse-only visits are prohibited; an eligible member of the family must be involved.

New York : Unlike Connecticut and Washington, New York’s conjugal visit rules –  as with California’s – allow same-sex partners, however, not without marriage proof.

Washington : Washington is comparatively strict about her conjugal visit requirements . It enlists several crimes as basis for disqualifying inmates from enjoying such privileges. Besides, inmates must proof active involvement in a reintegration/rehabilitation scheme and must have served a minimum time, among others, to qualify. 

However, the rule allows joint visits, where two relatives are in the same facility. Visit duration varies widely – between six hours to three days. The prison supervisor calls the shots on a case-to-case basis.

As with inmates, their visitors also have their share of eligibility requirements to satisfy for an extended family visit. For instance, visitors with pending criminal records may not qualify.

As complicated as the requirements seem, it can even get a bit more complex. For instance, there is usually a great deal of paperwork, background checks, and close supervision. Understandably, these are but to guide against anything implicating. Touchingly, the prisoners’ quests are simple. They only want to reconnect with those who give them happiness, love, and, importantly, hope for a good life outside the bars.

Conjugal Visits: A Typical Experience

Perhaps you’ve watched pretty similar practices in movies. But it’s entirely a different ball game in the real world. Besides that movies make the romantic visits seem like a trend presently, those in-prison sex scenes are not exactly what it is in reality.

How, then, does it work there? As mentioned, jurisdictions that still allow “extended family visits” may not grant the same to the following:

• Persons with questionable “prison behavior”
• Sex crime-related convicts
• Domestic violence convicts
• Convicts with a life sentence

Depending on the state, the visit duration lasts from one hour to up to 72 hours. Such visits can happen as frequently as once monthly, once a couple of months, or once in a year. The ‘meetings’ happen in small apartments, trailers, and related facilities designed specifically for the program.

In Connecticut, for example, the MacDougall-Walker correctional facility features structures designed to mimic typical home designs. For instance, the apartments each feature a living room with games, television, and DVD player. Over at Washington, only G-rated videos, that’s one considered suitable for general viewers, are allowed for family view in the conjugal facilities.

The kitchens are usually in good shape, and they permit both fresh and pre-cooked items. During an extended family visit in California, prisoners and their visitors are inspected at four-hour intervals, both night and day, till the visit ends.

Before the program was scrapped in New Mexico, correctional institutions filed-in inmates, and their visitors went through a thorough search. Following a stripped search, inmates were compelled to take a urine drug/alcohol test.

Better Understanding Conjugal Visits

Conjugal visits are designed to keep family ties.

New York’s term for the scheme – Family Reunion Program (FRP) – seems to explain its purpose better. For emphasis, the “R” means reunion, not reproduction, as the movies make it seem.

While sexual activities may be partly allowed, it’s primarily meant to bring a semblance of a typical family setting to inmates. Besides reunion, such schemes are designed to act as incentives to encourage inmates to be on their best behavior and comply with prison regulations.

Don’t Expect So Much Comf ort

As mentioned, an extended family visit happens in specially constructed cabins, trailers, or apartments. Too often, these spaces are half-occupied with supplies like soap, linens, condoms, etc. Such accommodations usually feature two bedrooms and a living room with basic games. While these provisions try to mimic a typical home, you shouldn’t expect so much comfort, and of course, remember your cell room is just across your entrance door.

Inmates Are Strip-Searched

Typically, prisoners are stripped in and out and often tested for drugs . In New York, for example, inmates who come out dirty on alcohol and drug tests get banned from the conjugal visit scheme for a year. While visitors are not stripped, they go through a metal detector.

Inmates Do Not Have All-time Privacy

The prison personnel carries out routine checks, during which everyone in the room comes out for count and search. Again, the officer may obstruct the visit when they need to administer medications as necessary.

Conjugal Visits FAQ

Are conjugal visits allowed in the federal prison system?

No, currently, extended family visits are recognized in only four states across the United States –  Washington, New York, Connecticut, and California.

What are the eligibility criteria?

First, conjugal visits are only allowed in a medium or lesser-security correctional facility. While each state has unique rules, commonly, inmates apply for such visits. Prisoners with recent records of reoccurring infractions like swearing and fighting may be ineligible.

To qualify, inmates must undergo and pass screenings, as deemed appropriate by the prison authority. Again, for instance, California rules say only legally married prisoners’ requests are granted.

Are gay partners allowed for conjugal visits?

Yes, but it varies across states. California and New York allow same-sex partners on conjugal visits. However, couples must have proof of legal marriage.

Are conjugal visits only done in the US?

No, although the practice began in the US, Mississippi precisely, other countries have adopted similar practices. Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Canada, for example, are more lenient about extended family visits.

Brazil and Venezuela’s prison facilities, for example, allow weekly ‘rendezvous.’ In Columbia, such ‘visits’ are a routine, where as many as 3,500 women troop in weekly for intimacy with their spouses. However, Northern Ireland and Britain are entirely against any form of conjugal programs. Although Germany allows extended family visits, the protocols became unbearably tight after an inmate killed his supposed spouse during one of such visits in 2010.

Benefits of Conjugal Visits

Once a normal aspect of the prison system, conjugal visits and the moments that prisoners have with their families are now an indulgence to only a few prisoners in the system. Many prison officials cite huge costs and no indications of reduced recidivism rates among reasons for its prohibition.

Documentations , on the other hand, say conjugal visits dramatically curb recidivism and sexual assaults in prisons. As mentioned earlier, only four states allow conjugal visits. However, research shows that these social calls could prove beneficial to correctional services.

A review by social scientists at the Florida International University in 2012 concludes that conjugal visits have several advantages. One of such reveals that prisons that allowed conjugal visits had lower rape cases and sexual assaults than those where conjugal visits were proscribed. They deduced that sex crime in the prison system is a means of sexual gratification and not a crime of power. To reduce these offenses, they advocated for conjugal visitation across state systems.

Secondly, they determined that these visits serve as a means of continuity for couples with a spouse is in prison. Conjugal visits can strengthen family ties and improve marriage functionality since it helps to maintain the intimacy between husband and wife.

Also, it helps to induce positive attitudes in the inmates, aid the rehabilitation process, and enable the prisoner to function appropriately when reintroduced back to society. Similarly, they add that since it encourages the one-person-one partner practice, it’ll help decrease the spread of HIV. These FIU researchers recommend that more states should allow conjugal visits.

Another study by Yale students in 2012 corroborated the findings of the FIU researchers, and the research suggests that conjugal visits decrease sexual violence in prisons and induces ethical conduct in inmates who desire to spend time with their families.

Expectedly, those allowed to enjoy extended family visits are a lot happier. Besides, they tend to maintain the best behaviors within the facility so that they don’t ruin their chances of the next meeting.

Also, according to experts, visitations can drop the rate of repeat prisoners, thus making the prison system cost-effective for state administrators. An academic with the UCLA explained that if prisoners continue to keep in touch with their families, they live daily with the knowledge that life exists outside the prison walls, and they can look forward to it. Therefore, these family ties keep them in line with society’s laws. It can be viewed as a law-breaking deterrence initiative.

For emphasis, conjugal visits, better termed extended family visits, are more than for sex, as it seems. It’s about maintaining family ties, primarily. The fact is, away from the movies, spouse-alone visits are surprisingly low, if at all allowed by most states’ regulations. Extended family visits create healthy relationships between prisoners and the world outside the bars. It builds a healthy start-point for an effective reentry process, helping inmates feel hope for a good life outside jail .

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Conjugal Visits

Why they’re disappearing, which states still use them, and what really happens during those overnight visits..

Although conjugal, or “extended,” visits play a huge role in prison lore, in reality, very few inmates have access to them. Twenty years ago, 17 states offered these programs. Today, just four do: California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington. No federal prison offers extended, private visitation.

Last April, New Mexico became the latest state to cancel conjugal visits for prisoners after a local television station revealed that a convicted killer, Michael Guzman, had fathered four children with several different wives while in prison. Mississippi had made a similar decision in January 2014.

A Stay at the “Boneyard”

In every state that offers extended visits, good prison behavior is a prerequisite, and inmates convicted of sex crimes or domestic violence, or who have life sentences, are typically excluded.

The visits range from one hour to three days, and happen as often as once per month. They take place in trailers, small apartments, or “family cottages” built just for this purpose, and are sometimes referred to as “ boneyards .” At the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Connecticut, units are set up to imitate homes. Each apartment has two bedrooms, a dining room, and a living room with a TV, DVD player, playing cards, a Jenga game, and dominoes. In Washington, any DVD a family watches must be G-rated. Kitchens are typically fully functional, and visitors can bring in fresh ingredients or cooked food from the outside.

In California, inmates and their visitors must line up for inspection every four hours throughout the weekend visit, even in the middle of the night. Many prisons provide condoms for free. In New Mexico, before the extended visitation program was canceled, the prisoner’s spouse could be informed if the inmate had tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection. After the visit, both inmates and visitors are searched, and inmates typically have their urine tested to check for drugs or alcohol, which are strictly prohibited.

What Everyone Gets Wrong

Conjugal visits are not just about sex. In fact, they are officially called “family visits,” and kids are allowed to stay overnight, too. In Connecticut, a spouse or partner can’t come alone: the child of the inmate must be present. In Washington, two related inmates at the same facility, such as siblings or a father and son, are allowed to arrange a joint visit with family members from the outside. Only about a third of extended visits in the state take place between spouses alone.

The Insider’s Perspective

Serena L. was an inmate at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York from 1999 to 2002. During that time, she qualified for just one overnight trailer visit. Her 15-year-old sister, who lived on Long Island, persuaded a friend to drive her to the prison. “I remember her coming through the gate, carrying two big bags of food, and she said, ‘I got your favorite: Oreos!’ ” Serena says. “It was like a little slumber party for us. When I was first incarcerated, we had tried to write to each other and talk to each other by phone, but there was lots we weren’t really emotionally able to come to terms with until we had that private space, without a CO watching, to do it.”

The (Checkered) History

Conjugal visits began around 1918 at Parchman Farm, a labor camp in Mississippi. At first, the visits were for black prisoners only, and the visitors were local prostitutes, who arrived on Sundays and were paid to service both married and single inmates. According to historian David Oshinsky, Jim Crow-era prison officials believed African-American men had stronger sex drives than whites, and would not work as hard in the cotton fields if they were not sexually sated. The program expanded in the 1940s to include white, male inmates and their wives, and in the 1970s to include female inmates.

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Reckoning with the South

This couple wants you to know that conjugal visits are only legal in 4 states

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Editor's note: This story was co-written by inside-outside couple Steve Higginbotham and Jordana Rosenfeld, weaving together Jordana's personal experience and reporting with letters from Steve. Together, they examine popular myths around conjugal visits, their decreasing availability, and the punitive logic behind the state's policing of sex and intimacy that stifles relationships like theirs.   Jordana's words appear below in the orange boxes on the right; Steve's are in the purple on the left.

The other day, when I told my grandmother I was researching the history of conjugal visits for an essay, she said, "Oh, like in my stories?" 

You can't talk about conjugal visits without talking about television, because television is pretty much the only place where conjugal visits still exist. A wide variety of TV shows either joke about or dramatize conjugal visits, from popular sitcoms that have little to nothing to do with prison life, like The Simpsons , Family Guy , and Seinfeld, to prestige dramas like Prison Break and Oz that purport to offer "gritty" and "realistic" prison tales. Conjugals loom large in public imagination about life in prison, which leaves people under the unfortunate impression that they are in any kind of way widespread or accessible.

Their availability has been in steady decline for more than 25 years. The mid-to-late 1990s are the often-cited high point of conjugal visits , with 17 states offering some kind of program. (Federal and maximum security prisons do not allow conjugals.) This means that at their most widespread, conjugal visits were only ever permitted in one-third of all states. 

There are only four U.S. states that currently allow conjugal visits, often called "extended" or "family" visits: California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington. Some people say Connecticut's program doesn't count though, when it comes to conjugals—and the Connecticut Department of Corrections agrees. Their family visit program is explicitly intended for the benefit of children and requires that the incarcerated person receiving visitors be a parent. Their child must attend . 

My boyfriend has been in prison for 28 years. He was 18 during the high point of conjugal visit programs. That's when the state of Missouri decided to lock him up for the rest of his natural life, effectively sentencing him to a lifetime of deep loneliness and sexual repression, not just because Missouri doesn't offer conjugal visits, but because when you are incarcerated, your body belongs to the state in every possible way—from your labor to your sex life. 

Every prison riot ever could have been prevented with some properly organized fucking.

That's my boyfriend, Steve.

Not being able to physically express love—or even lust—builds frustration that boils over in unintended ways. 

Intimacy is policed rigidly in prison, and it has certainly worsened over the years. For most people with incarcerated lovers, intimacy happens not on a conjugal visit, but in the visiting room. Visits now may start and end with a brief embrace and chaste kiss. Open mouth kissing has been outlawed. These rules are enforced with terminated visits and even removing a person from the visiting list for a year or more.

Steve and I have kissed a total of six times.

We have also hugged six times, if you don't count us posing with his arm over my shoulder three times for pictures. The kisses were so brief that I'm not sure I remember what they felt like. He told me later on the phone that he knew he had to be the one to pull away from the kiss before we gave the COs in the bubble reason to intervene because I wouldn't. He knew this, somehow, before he ever kissed me. He was right. 

When I last visited him in Jefferson City Correctional Center, Steve told me about a real conjugal visit from '90s Missouri.

Years ago, people used to mess around in the visiting room at Potosi [Correctional Center]. Everyone knew to keep their sensitive visitors away from a certain area, because there was frequent sex behind a vending machine. I can neither confirm nor deny that cops were paid to turn a blind eye to it. I met a guy recently in my wing at JCCC who said he had heard of me, and that maybe I knew his father. I did know his father. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I probably saw his conception behind a Coke machine back in 1995.

The increasing restriction of physical touch—the expanded video surveillance of visiting spaces, the use of solitary confinement for the smallest infractions, and the withering of both in-person and conjugal visit programs—reflects the punitive logic that consensual human touch is a privilege that incarcerated people do not deserve.

This is an evil proposition, and it's one that is at the core of the ongoing dehumanization of millions of people in U.S. prisons, and the millions of people like me who love them. 

One woman with an incarcerated partner put it to researchers this way: "The prison system appears to be set up to break families up." And she's right. For the duration of his incarceration, I will never be closer to Steve than the state of Missouri is. I'm reminded during each of our timed kisses: His primary partner is the state. 

The most difficult part for me about a romantic relationship with a free woman is that I feel selfish. A lot of self-loathing thoughts creep in. I want the best for her and often question if I am that "best." However, an added benefit is that we can truly take things slowly and explore each other in ways that two free people don't often experience nowadays. We write emails daily. And these are important. We vent. And listen. We continue to build, whereas many free people stop building at consummation. 

But these are the realities rarely captured in media portrayals of romantic relationships between free world and incarcerated partners. Conjugals on TV are so disconnected from what it's actually like to be in a romantic relationship with an incarcerated person: Trying to schedule my life around precious 15 minute phone calls, paying 25 cents to send emails monitored by correctional officers, finding ways to symbolically include Steve in my life, like leaving open the seat next to me at the movies. Instead, television shows depict implausible scenarios of nefarious rendezvous that often parrot law enforcement lies. When they do so, they undermine the public's ability to conceptualize that love and commitment fuel relationships like ours. 

Although contraband typically enters prisons through staff , not visitors , television shows often present conjugal visits as a cover for smuggling, like in the earliest TV plot I could find involving a conjugal visit, from a 1986 Miami Vice episode. After his girlfriend is killed, Tubbs gets depressed enough to agree to go undercover at a state prison to bust some guards selling cocaine. In his briefing on the issue, Tubbs asks how the drugs are getting into the prison. Conjugal visits and family visits are the first two methods named by the prison commissioner, never mind that I have yet to find any evidence that Florida ever allowed those kinds of visits. 

Often, the excuse for policing visits so strictly is that drugs can be exchanged. But I know that lie is used for every type of control in prison. For over a year we had NO CONTACT visits because of the pandemic. During that time, dozens of inmates [at my facility] still overdosed and had drug-related episodes that caused them to need medical attention. Those drugs certainly didn't arrive through visits. They strip search and X-ray me going to and from visits anyway.

Everything in prison now is on camera. When a drug overdose occurs, the investigators track back over footage from visiting room cameras. One officer told me that while they were investigating drugs allegedly passing through the visiting room, they saw a guy covertly fingering his wife. This has happened on more than one occasion, but most guards will have enough of a heart not to bother with violations for some covert touching that wasn't caught until the camera review. Most. Sometimes, a rare asshole will just have to assert his power and write a CDV (conduct violation).

Write-ups or CDVs are given by staff at their discretion. The threat of solitary confinement is always looming in prison. It's another clever way of withholding physical interactions with other human beings as a form of torture. Solitary confinement for anywhere from 10 days to three months is a favorite punishment for "[nonviolent] sexual misconduct. " 

There's also a persistent media narrative that prison systems offer conjugal visit programs out of genuine concern for human welfare. A brief glance at the origins of conjugal visits in the U.S. prison system quickly disproves that theory, showing that conjugal visit programs were conceived as a tool of exploitation and social control. 

Conjugal visits originated in Mississippi at the infamous prison plantation, Mississippi State Penitentiary, or Parchman Farm. Mississippi state officials opened Parchman in the early 1900s, writes historian David Oshinsky in his book Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, in order to ensnare free Black people into forced labor. Mississippi, like other Southern states during Reconstruction, passed "Black Codes" that assigned harsh criminal penalties to minor "offenses" such as vagrancy, loitering, living with white people, and not carrying proof of employment—behaviors that were not considered criminal when done by white people. Using the crime loophole in the relatively new 13th Amendment, Mississippi charged thousands of Black people with crimes and forced them to work on the state's plantation. 

Parchman officials started offering sex to Black prisoners as a productivity incentive, "because prison officials wanted as much work as possible from their Negro convicts, whom they believed to have greater sexual needs than whites," Oshinsky writes.

"I never saw it, but I heard tell of truckloads of whores bein' sent up from Cleveland at dusk," said a Parchman prison official quoted by Oshinsky. "The cons who had a good day got to get 'em right there between the rows. In my day, we got civilized—put 'em up in little houses and told everybody that them whores was wives. That kept the Baptists off our backs." 

A certain kind of sexual morality has been instilled in the minds of many people with conservative religious upbringings. They naturally force this morality on people they consider children. That is how many guards see prisoners: as children.

Many states did not begin to join Mississippi in offering conjugal visits until much later in the century, when conservative governors like California's Ronald Reagan would determine in 1968 that allowing some married men to have sex with their wives was the best way to reduce " instances of homosexuality " in prisons. 

Abolitionists who wrote the book Queer (In)Justice , consider how concerned prison administrations have historically been and continue to be about queer sex in prisons. The book exposes both the deep fear of the liberatory potential of queer sexuality, and a broader reality that prisons are inherently queer places since prisons' "denial of sexual intimacy and agency is a quintessential queer experience." 

Beyond behavioral control, the rules that determine conjugal visit eligibility are always also about enforcing criminality, since the state decides what kind of charges render someone ineligible to wed or to have an extended visit. Even in the four states that allow these visits, most people with "violent" charges are only allowed to hold their lover's hand and briefly embrace at the beginning and end of visits.

We don't even have enough privacy to masturbate. 

I can be written up if anyone sees my dick, especially in the act of masturbation. I could face solitary confinement, loss of job, visits, religious programs, treatment classes, recreation, canteen spend, and school for getting written up. Conversely, I can be strip-searched at any given time and be forced to show everything.  

Living in this fishbowl has taught me there is no hiding. Too many bored eyes in the same small area to miss anything. Guards may come knocking on the door at any moment. My cellmate is often inches away from me, and it takes coordination to manage time away from each other because we eat, sleep, go to yard, and do just about everything on the same schedule. 

I choose to skip a meal occasionally and embrace the hunger, because it is much less painful than persistent relentless desire. After years of self-release in showers, in a room with snoring cellmates, or as quickly as possible when a brief moment of privacy occurs, my sex drive is all shook up. Current turn-ons could be said to include faucets running and/or snoring men.

Ultimately, this article is not about the right to conjugal visits. It's about the ways that punitive isolation and deprivation of loving physical contact have always been tactics of the U.S. prison system. 

Regardless of the quality of the representations, the prevalence of conjugal visits in movies and TV allows people to avoid thinking too hard about what it's like to be deprived of your sexual autonomy, maybe the rest of your life.

I have been locked up since I was 18, and I am 47 now. To be horny in prison for decades is painful. To the body and soul. 

There is justice as well as pleasure at stake here, and the difference between the two is slight. 

People who love someone in prison live shorter and harder lives. That we do it anyway shows the significance, centrality, and life-affirming nature of intimate relationships to those on both sides of the wall. Maybe it even points to the abolitionist power of romantic and sexual love between incarcerated and "free" people.

So, I guess we start with that thought and work from there to find a way to tear down the system.

As part of Scalawag's 3rd annual Abolition Week,  pop justice  is exclusively featuring perspectives from currently and formerly incarcerated folks and systems-impacted folks.

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Related stories:, steve higginbotham & jordana rosenfeld.

Steve Higginbotham is a writer who spent many years narrating and transcribing materials into braille for the Missouri Center for Braille & Narration Production . He is serving a death by incarceration sentence in Jefferson City, Missouri. Jordana Rosenfeld is a journalist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More of her work can be found at jordanarosenfeld.com .

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The Ethicist

Does Everyone Have the Right to Conjugal Visits?

By Chuck Klosterman

• April 18, 2014

Earlier this year, the Mississippi Department of Corrections decided to stop offering hourlong conjugal visits, depriving about 155 inmates (out of more than 22,000 statewide) the opportunity to cozy up with their husbands or wives. Officials cited budgetary constraints and prison pregnancies as the reasons for ending conjugal visits. Is it ethical to suddenly deny prisoners conjugal visits when they’ve been offered them before? Relatedly, is it ethical for taxpayers to carry the costs associated with the incarcerated mother’s pregnancy and delivery? Would it be ethical to allow only conjugal visits for those who agreed to use birth control? R.J.W. , WYNNEWOOD, PA.

The rationale behind conjugal visits is that they help keep separated families from disintegrating and also decrease tension inside the prison itself. I concede that such programs probably do have that impact (and, on balance, are probably more positive than negative), but the ability to have sex with your spouse is not a fundamental human right for someone in prison. It’s a privilege dependent on a variety of factors, and it’s a reasonable freedom for a prisoner to lose. As such, it’s not unethical to deny this right to inmates, assuming a reasonable explanation is provided. It might be a bad decision on behalf of the penal institution, but mostly for practical reasons (as opposed to moral ones).

In response to your second query: It is absolutely necessary that a pregnant inmate and her unborn child receive proper medical care. It would be unethical to ignore the needs of a child based on bad decisions made by its parents. We live in a society in which certain problems are shared.

In response to your third question: If the main reason behind the ban on conjugal visits is fear of jailhouse pregnancy, it might seem logical to argue that a prisoner’s willingness to use birth control should be enough to reinstitute this right. But that would generate many other problems. How would the use of birth control be regulated and enforced? What about prisoners who refuse to use birth control on religious grounds? What about male prisoners who could (quite easily) argue they were never at risk of becoming pregnant to begin with? A unilateral ban generates fewer ethical contradictions than a partial ban.

DOUBLING DOWN

I’m a salaried employee, but my company asks employees to bill all our time in the office to specific projects, so it may properly bill its clients. We often have large phone-conference meetings where only a few people are actively presenting something. I can easily listen to the meeting on my headset and simultaneously work on another project at my desk. I am expected to account for the hour I spend listening to the meeting. Is it ethical to bill for the two tasks concurrently, one for the meeting and the other for the hour of project work, if both the meeting organizer and project manager are satisfied with my work during that hour? CHRISTOPHER RYAN , BLOOMINGTON, IND.

Unless your company has outlined concrete rules about how billing is supposed to be conducted, it sounds as if you’re working on a self-constructed honor system. That being the case, the framework is up to you to define (with the assumption that you will do so reasonably).

My question is this: When you do both tasks simultaneously, are you still doing both tasks completely ? You’re obviously able to complete the work well enough to avoid criticism — but is the expectation of the conference call that you will be intellectually engaged with the conversation and that the call will receive your undivided attention? If so, you’re not really giving your client that full hour of work (I would assume none of your co-workers are, either — but you’re doing so willfully). The same equation applies to whatever else you’re doing while listening to the call: Is that hour of work less focused and effective than an hour applied with no distractions? These are questions that can really only be answered by you. If your gut tells you that you’re inadvertently ripping people off, you are probably doing just that.

That said, it’s entirely possible that the practical expectation of the phone conference is simply that a) you remain on the line, and b) you retain a rudimentary awareness of whatever is being discussed. If this is the case — and if your project work is straightforward and uncreative, unaffected by the fact that you’re listening to other people chatter through a pair of headphones — then you’re doing everything that’s required of you. You’re doing two hours of work in 60 minutes, and you and your employer should be allowed to account for that efficiency.

EMAIL queries to [email protected], or send them to the Ethicist, The New York Times Magazine, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018, and include a daytime phone number.

Pregnancy, Childbirth and Postpartum Experiences

Aspirin’s Benefits: Not enough pregnant women at risk of developing pre-eclampsia, life-threatening high blood pressure, know that low-dose aspirin can help lower that risk. Leading experts are hoping  to change that.

‘A Chance to Live’: Cases of trisomy 18 may rise as many states restrict abortion. Some women have chosen to have these babies , love them tenderly and care for them devotedly.

Teen Pregnancies: A large study in Canada found that women who were pregnant as teenagers were more likely to die before turning 31 .

Weight-Loss Drugs: Doctors say they are seeing more women try weight-loss medications in the hopes of having a healthy pregnancy. But little is known about the impact of those drugs  on a fetus.

Premature Births: After years of steady decline, premature births rose sharply in the United States  between 2014 and 2022. Experts said the shift might be partly the result of a growing prevalence of health complications among mothers .

Depression and Suicide: Women who experience depression during pregnancy or in the year after giving birth have a greater risk of suicide and attempted suicide .

Controversy and Conjugal Visits

Conjugal visits were first allowed as incentives for the forced labor of incarcerated Black men, the practice expanding from there. Is human touch a right?

“The words ‘conjugal visit’ seem to have a dirty ring to them for a lot of people,” a man named John Stefanisko wrote for The Bridge, a quarterly at the Connecticut Correctional Institution at Somers, in December 1963 . This observation marked the beginning of a long campaign—far longer, perhaps, than the men at Somers could have anticipated—for conjugal visits in the state of Connecticut, a policy that would grant many incarcerated men the privilege of having sex with their wives. Conjugal visits, the editors of The Bridge wrote, are “a controversial issue, now quite in the spotlight,” thanks to their implementation at Parchman Farm in Mississippi in 1965. But the urgency of the mens’ plea, as chronicled in The Bridge and the Somers Weekly Scene , gives voice to the depth of their deprivation. “Perhaps we’re whistling in the wind,” they wrote, “but if the truth hits home to only a few, we’ll be satisfied.”

The men at Somers wrote of conjugal visits as something new, but in fact, Parchman had adopted some version of the practice as early as 1918. Parchman, then a lucrative penal plantation , sought to incentivize Black prisoners, who picked and hoed cotton under the surveillance of armed white guards, by allowing them to bring women into their camp. The visits were unofficial, and stories from the decades that followed are varied, ranging from trysts between married couples to tales of sex workers, bussed in on weekends. The men built structures for these visits out of scrap lumber painted red, and the term “ red houses ” remained in use long after the original structures were gone. The policy was mostly limited to Black prisoners because white administrators believed that Black men had stronger sexual urges then white men, and could be made more pliable when those urges were satisfied.

This history set a precedent for conjugal visits as a policy of social control, shaped by prevailing ideas about race, sexual orientation, and gender. Prisoners embraced conjugal visits, and sometimes, the political reasonings behind them, but the writings of the men at Somers suggest a greater longing. Their desire for intimacy, privacy and, most basic of all, touch, reveals the profound lack of human contact in prison, including but also greater than sex itself.

Scholar Elizabeth Harvey paraphrases Aristotle, who described the flesh as the “medium of the tangible,” establishing one’s “sentient border with the world.” Touch is unique among the senses in that it is “dispersed throughout the body” and allows us to experience many sensations at once. Through touch we understand that we are alive. To touch an object is to know that we are separate from that object, but in touching another person, we are able to “form and express bonds” with one another. In this context, Harvey cites the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who described all touch as an exchange. “To touch is also always to be touched,” she writes.

When Parchman officially sanctioned conjugal visits in 1965 after the policy was unofficially in place for years, administrators saw it as an incentive for obedience, but also a solution to what was sometimes called the “ Sex Problem ,” a euphemism for prison rape . Criminologists of the era viewed rape in prison as a symptom of the larger “ problem of homosexuality ,” arguing that the physical deprivations of prison turned men into sexual deviants—i.e., men who wanted to have sex with other men. In this context, conjugal visits were meant to remind men of their natural roles, not merely as practitioners of “ normal sexuality ,” but as husbands. (Framing prison rape as a problem of ‘homosexuals’ was commonplace until Wilbert Rideau’s Angolite exposé Prison: The Sexual Jungle revealed the predation for what it was in 1979.)

Officials at Parchman, the sociologist Columbus B. Hopper wrote in 1962 , “consistently praise the conjugal visit as a highly important factor in reducing homosexuality, boosting inmate morale, and… comprising an important factor in preserving marriages.” Thus making the visits, by definition, conjugal, a word so widely associated with sex and prison that one can forget it simply refers to marriage. Men—and at the time, conjugal visits were only available to men—had to be legally married to be eligible for the program.

But for the men at Somers, the best argument for conjugal visitation was obvious—with one telling detail. The privacy afforded by the red houses at Parchman, Richard Brisson wrote “preserve some dignity to the affair,” creating “a feeling of being a part of a regular community rather than … participating in something that could be made to appear unclean.” For lovers secluded in bedrooms, “[t]here is no one about to mock them or to embarrass them,” he wrote. This observation suggests the ubiquity of surveillance in prison, as well as its character.

Carceral institutions are intended to operate at a bureaucratic remove; prisoners are referred to by number and were counted as “ bodies .” Guards must act as ambivalent custodians of these bodies, even when the nature of their job can be quite intimate. Prisoners are routinely strip-searched and frisked; they must ask permission to exercise any movement, to perform any bodily function. This is as true today as it was in Somers, where men frequently complained that they were treated like children. “You are constantly supervised, just as if you were a one-year-old child,” Ray Bosworth wrote in 1970 .

But guards are not parents, and the tension between dutiful ambivalence and intimate supervision often manifests as disgust. On a recent visit to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum-security women’s prison in upstate New York, prisoners complained of being ridiculed during strip searches, and hearing guards discussing their bodies in the corridors.

This attitude extends to rules regulating touch between prisoners and visitors. Writing about San Quentin State Prison in California in the early 2000s, the ethnographer Megan L. Comfort described a common hierarchy of visits , each with its own allowable “degree of bodily contact.” Death Row cage visits allowed for hugs in greeting and parting, while a contact visit allowed for a hug and a kiss. The nature of the kiss, however, was subject to the discretion of individual guards. “We are allowed to kiss members of our families, hello and goodbye, but the amount of affection we may show is limited by the guard,” James Abney wrote for the Somers Weekly Scene in 1971.  “If he feels, for instance that a man is kissing his wife too much or too passionately, then he may be reprimanded for it or the visit may be ended on the spot.”

When Somers held its first “ Operation Dialogue ,” a “mediated discussion” among prisoners and staff in May 1971, conjugal visits were a primary concern. By then, California (under Governor Ronald Reagan) had embraced the policy—why hadn’t Connecticut? Administrators argued that furloughs, the practice of allowing prisoners to go home for up to several days, were a preferable alternative. This certainly would seem to be the case. In August 1971, the Scene quoted Connecticut Correction Commissioner John R. Manson, who criticized the skeezy, “tar-paper shacks” at Parchman, concluding that furloughs were “ a less artificial way for inmates to maintain ties with their families .” But to be eligible for furloughs, men were required to be within three or four months of completing their sentence. In the wake of George H.W. Bush’s infamous “ Willie Horton ” campaign ad in 1988, a racially-charged ad meant to stoke fear and anti-Black prejudice in which a violent attack was blamed on Liberal soft-on-crime policies (specifically scapegoating Michael Dukakis for a crime committed on a prison furlough that predated his tenure as governor), prison furloughs were mostly abolished. They remain rare today, still looming in the shadow of the Horton ad.

Conjugal visits are considered a rehabilitative program because, as Abney wrote, it is in “society’s best interest to make sure that [a prisoner’s] family remains intact for him to return to.” Unspoken is the disregard for people serving long sentences, or life, making conjugal visits unavailable to those who might need them the most.

The campaign for conjugal visits continued throughout the 1970s. Then, in 1980, in a sudden and “major policy reversal ,” the state of Connecticut announced that it would instate a “conjugal and family visit” program at several prisons, including Somers. Subsequent issues of the Scene outline the myriad rules for application, noting that applicants could be denied for a variety of reasons at the discretion of prison administrators.

The earliest conjugal visits at Somers lasted overnight but were less than 24 hours in total. Men could have multiple visitors, as long as they were members of his immediate family. This change signaled a new emphasis on domesticity over sex. Visits took place in trailers equipped with kitchens, where families cooked their own meals. Describing a similar set-up at San Quentin more than two decades later, Comfort wrote that the trailers were meant to encourage “people to simulate an ordinary living situation rather than fixate on a hurried physical congress.”

By the early 1990s, conjugal visitation, in some form, was official policy in 17 states. But a massive ideological shift in the way society viewed incarcerated people was already underway. In a seminal 1974 study called “What Works?”, sociologist Robert Martinson concluded that rehabilitation programs in prison “ had no appreciable effect on recidivism .” Thinkers on the left saw this as an argument for decarceration—perhaps these programs were ineffective because of the nature of prison itself. Thinkers on the right, and society more broadly, took a different view. As (ironically) the Washington Post observed, the findings were presented in “lengthy stories appearing in major newspapers, news magazines and journals, often under the headline, ‘ Nothing Works! ’”

Martinson’s work gave an air of scientific legitimacy to the growing “tough-on-crime” movement, but the former Freedom Rider, who once spent 40 days at Parchman, spawned punitive policies he couldn’t have predicted. In 1979, Martinson officially recanted his position. He died by suicide the following year.

In Mistretta v. United States (1989), the court ruled that a person’s demonstrated capacity for rehabilitation should not be a factor in federal sentencing guidelines because, they wrote, studies had proved that rehabilitation was “an unattainable goal for most cases.” It effectively enshrined “nothing works” into law.

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“Nothing works” gave rise to harsher sentencing, and more punitive policies in prisons themselves. In 1996, the state of California drastically reduced its conjugal visitation program . At San Quentin, this meant conjugal visits would no longer be available for people serving life sentences. To have benefitted from the program, and then have it taken away, was a particular blow to prisoners and partners alike. One woman told Comfort that she was in “mourning,” saying: “To me, I felt that it was like a death. ”

We don’t know how the men at Somers might have felt about this new era, or the heyday of conjugal visits that came before it. There are no issues of the Weekly Scene available after 1981 in the American Prison Newspapers collection, which is just after the visits began. But their writing, particularly their poetry, offers some insight into the deprivation that spurred their request. In 1968, James N. Teel writes, “Tell me please, do you ever cry, / have you ever tried to live while your insides die? ” While Frank Guiso , in 1970, said his existence was only an “illusion.” “I love and I don’t, / I hate and I don’t / I sing and I don’t / I live and I don’t,” he writes. But for others, disillusionment and loneliness take a specific shape.

“I wish you could always be close to me,” Luis A. Perez wrote in a poem called “ The Wait ” 1974:

I will hold your strong hand in my hand, As I stare in your eyes across the table. Trying to think of the best things to say, I then notice how I will not be able. I will long for your tender embraces, For your long and most desirable kiss. As I sleep cold for warmth of your body, You my love, are the one I will miss…

Today, only four states—California, Connecticut, Washington and New York—allow conjugal visits. (Mississippi, where Parchman is located, ended conjugal visitation in 2014 .) Some argue that Connecticut’s Extended Family Visit (EFV) program, as it is now called, doesn’t actually count , because it requires a prisoner’s child to be there along with another adult . There is also some suggestion that Connecticut’s program, while still officially on the books, has not been operational for some time.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave further cause to limit contact between prisoners and visitors, engendering changes that don’t appear to be going away anytime soon.

Somers was reorganized as a medium-security facility and renamed the Osborn Correctional Institution in 1994. A recent notice on the facility’s visitation website reads: “​​Masks must be worn at all times. A brief embrace will be permitted at the end of the visit .”

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Conjugal Visit Laws by State 2024

California refers to these visits as contact visits. Conjugal visits have had a notorious past recently in the United States , as they were often not allowed to see their family unless it was for brief contact or to speak with them on the phone. Conjugal visits began as a way for an incarcerated partner to spend private time with their domestic partner, spouse, or life partner. Historically, these were granted as a result of mental health as well as some rights that have since been argued in court. For example, cases have gone to the Supreme Court which have been filed as visits being considered privileges instead of rights.

The right to procreate, religious freedom, marital privacy and to abstain from cruel and unusual punishment has been brought up and observed by the court. Of course, married spouses can't procreate if one is incarcerated, and this has been a topic of hot debate in the legal community for years. Although the rules have since been relaxed to allow more private time with one's family, especially to incentivize good behavior and rehabilitation, it is still a controversy within social parameters.

In 1993, only 17 states had conjugal visit programs, which went down to 6 in 2000. By 2015, almost all states had eliminated the need for these programs in favor of more progressive values. California was one of the first to create a program based around contact visits, which allows the inmate time with their family instead of "private time" with their spouses as a means of forced love or procreation.

Washington and Connecticut

Connecticut and Washington have similar programs within their prison systems, referring to conjugal visits as extended family visits. Of course, the focus has been to take the stigma away from conjugal visits as a means of procreation, a short time, and a privilege as a result of good behavior. Extended family visits are much more wholesome and inclusive, giving relatively ample time to connect with one's family, regardless if they have a partner or not. Inmates can see their children, parents, cousins, or anyone who is deemed to have been, and still is, close to the prisoner.

Of course, there are proponents of this system that say this aids rehabilitation in favor of being good role models for their children or younger siblings. Others feel if someone has committed a heinous crime, their rights should be fully stripped away to severely punish their behavior.

On a cheerier note, New York has named its program the "family reunion program", which is an apt name for the state that holds the largest city in America by volume, New York City. NYC's finest have always had their handful of many different issues, including organized crime. The authorities are seeking a larger change in the incarceration system and want to adopt a stance that focuses more on the rehabilitation of the inmate that shows signs of regret, instead of severe punishment for punishment's sake.

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Sex, Love, & Marriage Behind Bars

What are conjugal visits really like? Incarcerated journalist John J. Lennon takes Esquire inside one of the last bastions of prisoner intimacy in America: trailers of New York.

I first heard about the trailers, prison vernacular for conjugal visits, on Rikers Island. It was 2002, I was twenty-four, and I was awaiting trial on murder charges. The guy the next bunk over in the communal dorm knew I was facing a lot of time, even if I didn’t know that. I was delusional in the beginning. We all are.

The bunkmate had just finished a dime—a ten-year sentence—for assault and was now in on a parole violation for breaking curfew, caught on a tip called in by his wife. Still, he loved her, and he loved telling me about going on conjugals with her up in Auburn, a maximum-security prison. It wasn’t just about the sex, he said. It was forty-eight hours of freedom, or close to it. Most of New York’s maximum-security prisons had them. They weren’t trailers, not anymore, but modular homes. He described the units: two, sometimes three bedrooms—the prison supplied pillows, bed linens, towels, and washcloths—a living room, a bathroom, and a full kitchen stocked with pots and pans, a coffee maker, a blender, and utensils. A wire bolted to the counter next to the sink was connected to the handle of the kitchen knife. His wife would bring clothes, cosmetics, and groceries: milk, eggs, pork chops, shelled shrimp. Glass containers weren’t allowed; neither was alcohol, not even as a makeup ingredient. Outside there was a picnic table, a barbecue pit, and a children’s play area.

It was, the fella in the next bunk told me, an opportunity for good times, good eating, and good sex. An incentive to stay out of trouble in the hope of experiencing a touch of love.

There was a hitch: Your partner had to be your legal spouse. Close family members were also eligible, of course, and this was really the objective of these visits: to build and maintain better family ties. But that was beside my bunkmate’s point. If I was convicted, he said, he recommended I put an ad on one of those prisoner dating websites (Prison Pen Pals, Write a Prisoner), find a woman, fall in love, make it official, then head for the trailers.

In 2004, I was sentenced to twenty-eight years to life. The minimum was longer than I’d been alive. Early on, I didn’t think much about the implications for my love life. At twenty-four, I’d had plenty of sex but never a real relationship, or even healthy intimacy. Besides, there were more pressing concerns: appealing my conviction, learning how to survive in this place.

I first saw the trailers at Clinton Correctional, a maximum-security prison a few miles south of the Canadian border, in Dannemora. By then I’d learned that New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision didn’t actually call them conjugal visits. Only Mississippi did. While the word conjugal simply means “related to marriage,” these visits began to carry lewd implications, and other states opted to rebrand: In California, it was known as “family visiting.” In Connecticut and Washington, they were referred to as “extended family visits.” In New York, it was, and still is, called the Family Reunion Program, or FRP.

In 2005, I had my first FRP visit—with my mother and my aunt. My aunt cooked bacon and eggs in the morning, grilled porterhouse steaks and tossed salads for dinner. We sank into the soft couches, ate, and watched Law & Order reruns, oddly Mom’s favorite show. We talked until interrupted by the muffled screams of a couple through the wall of the attached unit. We laughed awkwardly, avoiding eye contact, and I felt kind of jealous. Three times a day, a phone in the unit rang. I picked up, spat my last name and identification number into the receiver, then stepped outside and waved to the watchtower guard. That count was one of the only reminders of prison.

When I returned to my block, guys asked how the conjugal had gone. Great, I said. When I mentioned it was with my mother and my aunt, they sort of nodded, like, Oh, that’s cool, too. I loved visiting with my family. But I did start to think about what it would be like to be with a woman again.

.css-f6drgc:before{margin:-0.99rem auto 0 -1.33rem;left:50%;width:2.1875rem;border:0.3125rem solid #FF3A30;height:2.1875rem;content:'';display:block;position:absolute;border-radius:100%;} .css-1aglugu{font-family:Lausanne,Lausanne-fallback,Lausanne-roboto,Lausanne-local,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-1aglugu{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1aglugu{font-size:2.375rem;line-height:1.2;}}.css-1aglugu b,.css-1aglugu strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-1aglugu em,.css-1aglugu i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;}.css-1aglugu:before{content:'＂';display:block;padding:0.3125rem 0.875rem 0 0;font-size:3.5rem;line-height:0.8;font-style:italic;font-family:Lausanne,Lausanne-fallback,Lausanne-styleitalic-roboto,Lausanne-styleitalic-local,Arial,sans-serif;} Trailer visits were never perfect. Sometimes they were hard. But in many ways, they felt like rehearsals for life on the outside.

I got by with my hand and my memories, with the occasional assist from Buttman or High Society. Many of us who’ve been locked up all these years try idiosyncratic methods to pleasure ourselves. Some use a Fifi—a rolled towel with a plastic bag stuffed in the crevice; inside the bag is a rubber glove lubed with Vaseline that can be warmed in a hot pot of water, if one prefers. The crevice can be tightened or loosened by a strap wrapped around the rolled towel, creating different sensations. Fucking Fifis was an intimate ritual for one of my neighbors. At night he hung a curtain across his cell bars, prepped his Fifi, rolled the whole thing up in his mattress—he said it was more like a big-booty girl that way—laid out a few porno mags, and started thrusting.

But I wasn’t looking to hump a Fifi for the next twenty-five years.

Married men in the joint who went on conjugals seemed to have the most meaningful lives: They worked out, they went on visits, they sported crispy new sneakers and polo shirts with the horse, as if to say to the rest of us, I got a lady who loves me, and I got more status than you. At least, that’s how I took it. Every few months, they disappeared—most men kept their conjugal dates to themselves to avoid attracting envy—but we all knew where they’d gone. They came back to the cellblock with hickey-covered necks, looking pleasantly tired. I decided that was how I wanted to serve my sentence.

Mississippi State Penitentiary, of all places, was the first facility in the U. S. to offer conjugal visits, in the early 1900s. Also known as Parchman Farm, the segregated prison functioned as a revenue-generating plantation that produced cotton, cattle, pork, and more; its prisoners performed all the hard labor. To incentivize their work, administrators began arranging for prostitutes to visit on Sundays, and prisoners slept with them wherever they could—tool sheds, storage areas, the barracks. At first, only Black prisoners were allowed to participate, and for deeply racist notions “about Black men’s allegedly voracious sexual natures and appetites,” says Heather Ann Thompson, author of the Pulitzer-prize-winning history of the Attica uprising, Blood in the Water, “that Black prisoners could be forced to work even harder not just under threat of the lash but also, due to their savage nature, the promise of sex.”

Starting around 1940, all of Parchman’s prisoners were able to participate, regardless of race. By the late fifties, prostitutes were banned, replaced by prisoners’ spouses, common-law wives, and female friends. In 1972, the program opened to the facility’s female prisoners. Still, the system was marked by prejudice. “The most important question concerning a program of conjugal visiting,” wrote Columbus Hopper in his 1969 study of Parchman, Sex in Prison, “is whether it helps to reduce the problem of homosexuality in prison.” Hopper was the leading conjugals researcher of his time, and the “problem of homosexuality” seems to have been one of the main forces behind his advocacy. Truth is, in my twenty-one years of incarceration, I’ve never been sexually assaulted or witnessed that kind of assault.

New York’s first FRP began in 1976, with five 12-foot-by-70-foot trailers in a former cow pasture at Wallkill Correctional. Attica got its trailers in 1977, six years after the prisoner uprising for more humane treatment that, when law enforcement took back the prison, left thirty-nine dead. In the first eighteen months of Attica’s FRP, 1,179 prisoners participated.

By 1993, seventeen states allowed some version of extended family visits. That year in New York, 12,401 family members attended FRPs across the state. “The effectiveness of the program is beyond dispute,” the prison commissioner wrote in an op-ed around that time.

Data supports the former commissioner’s claims. According to a recent literature review, prisons that allow conjugal visits have better disciplinary records than those that do not. What’s more, studies have determined that released prisoners with an established relationship have a much better chance of not returning to prison. (In 1980, New York’s corrections department published findings suggesting that participation in the program decreased recidivism rates by as much as 67 percent.)

Yet since the start of such programs, fierce resistance has followed. By the early nineties, the era of mass incarceration was fully under way, and across the country, prison programs that incentivized good behavior—furloughs, work release, college, conjugals—were on the chopping block. Why, the thinking went, should we coddle criminals with taxpayer money? (It’s worth noting that FRP upkeep is paid for in part by prisoner fundraisers.) And don’t conjugals present one more way to introduce contraband?

As early as 1969, when Hopper published his findings on Parchman, conjugal visits were available in Chile, Ecuador, Japan, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Philippines. Today, that list includes Qatar, Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, France, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

The United States has shifted in the opposite direction. In the eyes of the law, conjugal visits are a privilege, not a right. The Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld prison administrators’ latitude to limit prisoners’ rights, including visitation, writing in 2003 that “freedom of association is among the rights least compatible with incarceration.” In 2014, Mississippi did away with its program. “There are costs associated with the staff’s time,” the state’s prison commissioner said at the time. “Then, even though we provide contraception, we have no idea how many women are getting pregnant only for the child to be raised by one parent”—as if such family planning were his call to make.

Today, only four states allow conjugal visits—New York, California, Washington, and Connecticut—though when Covid came, Connecticut’s program was suspended, and it has yet to return. Federal prisons don’t offer the privilege. New York’s program has been a success: FRP is offered at twelve of its fifteen maximum-security prisons and eleven of its twenty-six medium-security prisons. Since 2011, same-sex couples have been able to participate. Yet each year over the past decade or so, Republican state senators have introduced a bill to eliminate FRP. Conservatives preach the importance of a solid family structure. Why would they want to sabotage prisoners who are trying to build and maintain theirs?

By 2009, I was in Attica; my appeals had been denied. I was thirty-two and lonely. I’d spend hours each day watching the tiny TV in my cell. The Bachelor was my favorite show—a glimpse of intimacy, however stage-managed, and a break from my bleak reality. I felt like I was squandering an opportunity by not putting myself out there. I told Mom what the guy on Rikers Island had suggested, and she put an ad on the prison dating website Friends Beyond the Wall.

Danielly was a year younger than me and lived with her teenage son in a housing project on the Lower East Side. “I’m Dominican, and brown. Do you like that?” she wrote. Yes, yes, I loved it! In an early letter, I brought up the trailers, told her to imagine an uninterrupted weekend together in a sort of cabin, no cell phones, no distractions—just us. She didn’t need to be sold. Her mom had married a guy who’d done time, she told me, and she remembered visiting those little homes in the prison as a young girl.

Danielly started visiting me at Attica. She was my type—curvy, full of attitude and affection. We had the kind of chemistry that made my stomach flutter. But I soon learned that my type was much harder to handle on the inside than it had been when I was on the outside. The guy she’d described as her ex-boyfriend was more like her current boyfriend. When I called her, she sometimes wouldn’t answer. I was left lovesick, and that’s no way to live in prison. So I let her go.

In January 2011, I started corresponding with Raina, a California blonde, thirty-nine, who’d never been married and had no kids, and it wasn’t a dealbreaker that I’d killed a man. She had a great sense of humor, and while she’d known darkness in her own life, she’d needle anyone who took theirs too seriously. I was hooked. She was emotionally intelligent, we spoke the language of recovery, and our relationship felt safe. She moved across the country for me. One day in 2012, in Attica’s visiting room, I proposed to her, and she said yes. Six months later, we joined a few other couples in a small room with a Goofy mural painted on the wall and Attica’s town clerk seated at a table, and we got married.

By 2014—after a series of applications, denials, appeals, and interviews, including one in which Raina was told I didn’t carry any sexually transmitted diseases—we had our first FRP date.

Two days beforehand, I had to piss in a cup under a guard’s gaze for my drug screen. Then again the day of, and again after I came off the trailer. Most of the work was on Raina: shopping, traveling, then getting processed, food pushed through an X-ray machine, gloved fingers sifting through her panties and K-Y jelly.

The corrections officer escorted a handful of us through the Attica lobby, a part of the prison I had never seen before. Gates opened and closed, and we walked to the FRP compound. A fence enclosed the five red-sided homes, situated so that the rest of the prison couldn’t see in. Though the watchtower guard kept a close eye.

Sitting on the couch, looking around, I felt . . . joy. In the system, you’re always waiting, and never for anything good: trial, sentencing, transfers, getting cuffed and shackled, always in a cell or a bullpen or on a bus eating bologna sandwiches. Now I didn’t know what to do with myself, and I loved it. I got up from the couch, turned on the stereo, then walked outside on the grass, sat on the children’s swing, went back inside. I grabbed the remote, turned on the flat-screen television, flipped through the stations. To do whatever I wanted, and to be waiting for my wife so we could do whatever we wanted—I felt giddy. Through the window I watched my neighbor in his kitchen as he boiled the silverware—forks, (butter) knives, a spatula, a ladle, all metal and engraved with tracking numbers—in one pot of water, and added a few drops of scented oil to another, to perfume the place. Finally, I heard one of the guys yell, “They’re here!”

A corrections van with blue-tinted windows pulled up, and the family members got out. A little boy ran to his father and jumped in his arms. And there was Raina. The CO let me help her with her luggage, which was in a container marked with our unit number.

As soon as the door of our unit closed, we threw the groceries—including cuts of filet mignon and A.1. sauce—on the table and started awkwardly kissing. As we began to undress, there was a knock on the door. Raina put on a shirt and I cracked the door. It was the CO, who just needed our container. It was like that, the conjugals; they were such a departure from regular prison life. Even the staff interactions were all good.

Raina and I got back to it. It was my first time in eleven years, so I figured I’d finish fast. But it was the opposite. We went at it for a while—soft, hard, slow, fast, this way, that way—and nothing seemed to bring either of us closer to climax. It was like I’d never touched a woman before. It felt weird that nobody else was watching us. I eventually pulled out and brought myself to ejaculation.

On some level, we hadn’t expected the first time to be amazing. Though it’s hard to make bad sex better, we had to try. We loved each other. We went on six more FRP visits, but the situation didn’t improve. Our issues were less about friction and more about fantasy, or the lack thereof.

Danielly had sent me letters over the years since we’d first met, none of which I’d replied to. But in 2015, as my relationship with Raina was coming to an end, I finally wrote back, explaining my marital woes. Danielly replied that I never should have gotten married in the first place, that she was my soulmate. She said she was still on and off with her boyfriend, but he didn’t matter. If I got divorced and married her instead, she’d come to Attica and fulfill all my fantasies.

I divorced Raina and proposed to Danielly.

In October, we got married by the same Attica town clerk who’d officiated the last time. The Goofy mural was gone. We posed for our wedding picture in front of a seascape of sea lions and colorful fish. Danielly looks sad in the photo, barely smiling. She’d wanted this day to be so much more special than it was.

Afterward, I bribed a CO with a few packs of Newports to let the cellblock’s tattoo artist come into my cell, and with a needle made from an uncoiled lighter spring powered by a repurposed beard-trimmer motor, he inked danielly on the inside of my upper arm in looping script. Once she ditched the boyfriend for good, she had my name inked on her forearm. We craved each other. Our kisses, deep and long and wet, always felt like good sex.

I wanted to transfer to Sing Sing, forty miles north of New York City—among other reasons, it would take Danielly an hour by train, as opposed to the eleven-hour bus trip she took both ways to visit me at Attica. But Attica was a disciplinary prison, rife with violence; the number of prisoners on good behavior was low, the FRP waitlist short. You could book a spot every forty or fifty days. At Sing Sing, the wait was closer to ninety days. I weighed the pros and cons. Con: waiting twice as long to be together. Pro: saving Danielly the hassle of a big trip to the middle of nowhere, which would probably mean I’d see her more often.

I submitted my paperwork, got approved, and transferred in November 2016.

In February, we had our first FRP date. The compound was pretty much the same as the one at Attica, but at Sing Sing we got a Polaroid camera and twelve blank photos. Some couples went into the units and did not come out for the allotted forty-eight hours. Others were more social. Me and my friend Andy Gargiulo—convicted in 2006 of killing his reputed mobster brother-in-law; we’d had the same lawyer—would sometimes coordinate our FRP visits. He was a lot older than me, around eighty, but we got along. So did our better halves. His wife brought the best Italian food in Brooklyn—cannolis, fresh mozzarella, and tender veal—and when the weather was nice, the four of us would sit outside and barbecue.

Danielly was provocative, and that turned me on. We argued; we canceled visits on each other. We often had angry, shit-talking sex. Sometimes we played nice, but she’d never let it get to my head. “Boy,” she’d say, “you have so much to learn about women.” We couldn’t have sex for the entire forty-eight hours, but it sometimes felt like we were trying.

Intimacy came in other forms. She introduced me to ASMR; I brewed Bustelo for her and microwaved the half-and-half so it wouldn’t cool off the coffee too much. “Coffee,” by Miguel, became our song. We watched The Notebook, and she recited her favorite lines. We watched Warrior, and when Tom Hardy’s character hugs his drunk father, played by Nick Nolte, Danielly comforted me as I cried.

I know now that our relationship wasn’t healthy. My moments of joy were outweighed by my jealousy and anxiety. I’d get annoyed if she didn’t read my latest article. “You’re all into yourself and your career,” she’d say. “Women don’t like that, bro!” Or “I fell in love with the guy at Attica, before he became the writer.” That one hurt. But it’s not like I’d ask about her job as a nurse at a Bronx clinic. She’d want to talk about our future, and I’d urge her to stay in the present. She’d storm off into the bedroom, slam the door, and curse me out in rapid-fire Spanish. Well, I’d think, this is life.

By March 2020, our relationship was rocky. But for the first twenty-four hours of our first FRP in more than a year, we were getting along. As we prepped lunch, a knock came at the door. It was the security captain. Because of Covid, our visit was over, along with our last shot at rekindling.

By the time FRP visits were restored, a year and a half later, I’d been transferred to Sullivan Correctional, in the southern Catskills. Danielly came up twice. But too much time had passed, and other relationships had formed: hers with somebody else, mine with my career. Becoming a journalist in the joint brought its own stress, and my anxiety worsened; things like pissing in a cup with a guard peeking seemed impossible. Recently, we divorced.

Would I have been better off not having experienced intimacy for the past twenty-one years? Would Raina and Danielly have been better off never having met me? I’ve since realized that in both relationships, I focused more on the affection I was getting than the affection I was giving. All this time spent living in my head, confined to a six-foot-by-nine-foot cell, has rendered me less expressive and more emotionally stuck. My thoughts would bounce around my brain but never make it out of my mouth, which left Raina, then Danielly, feeling neglected. The time I used to spend writing love letters I now spend writing articles. Sometimes I feel like I took the two of them for granted. There’s an immense effort, this leap toward love in which the only physical manifestation comes in the form of conjugal visits. And it’s exerted not by the prisoners but by our partners. They wait, they shop, they lug, they travel, they get gossiped about by friends and family and insulted by COs.

Trailer visits were never perfect. Sometimes they were hard, especially at the end—me returning to prison, my woman going home alone. But in many ways, they felt like rehearsals for life on the outside. I believe that because of my experiences with conjugals, when I do get out, I’ll be more sensitive to the feelings of those closest to me. “It remains utterly and inescapably true that to be a human being is to need to be connected to, to bond with, and to be nurtured by other human beings,” Heather Ann Thompson told me. “Serving one’s sentence does not change that.”

So I’m single now. Middle-aged, too. Sometimes I imagine the kind of woman I’ll attract when I’m on the outside, and I wonder if I’ll resent her because she didn’t fall for me when I was on the inside. Which is absurd, and I know I need to work that shit out. But it also feels like a nod to the women who’ve loved me, a thank-you to all the partners who’ve sacrificed so much to share their love with those of us who are locked up.

I think about a moment Danielly and I shared with Andy and his wife, who was wearing Prada glasses and a perfume called La Vie Est Belle. The sun was bright; we sat at the picnic table, eating the best of both kitchens. Andy was talking about a TV show he watched in his cell—maybe it was America’s Got Talent —and Danielly told him how she also loved that show. While recalling the final performance of a child singer who’d recently won, Andy choked up. Right there at the wooden table, surrounded by the thirty-foot concrete wall and the guard with the AR-15 perched in the tower. Danielly teared up, too. “He gets emotional on these visits,” Andy’s wife said in a tough Brooklyn accent, smiling. More than the sex, it’s moments like these—simple, safe, and endearing—that have provided me with what prison has stripped away: a taste of intimacy.

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Types of Visits

All incarcerated people are eligible to receive visits unless they have temporarily lost that privilege due to disciplinary action. See below for information on in-person and family visiting. Please note that all visiting is dependent on the Department’s Roadmap to Reopening and health and safety factors.

In-Person Visits

Most incarcerated people in the general population may participate in an in-person visit. These visits allow the incarcerated person to sit together with their visitor(s) in a designated shared space, usually furnished with tables and chairs. In-person visits are limited to five visitors at a time and are not limited in duration except for normal visiting hours or terminations caused by overcrowding.

In-Person Non-Contact Visits

Incarcerated people who are still in reception (recently admitted to CDCR or transferred between prisons) or who are segregated (i.e., Administrative Segregation, Security Housing Units, Adjustment Centers, pending specific rules violation report charges, or assigned to Behavior Management Units) are restricted to non-contact visits. Non-contact visits occur with a glass partition between the incarcerated person and his/her visitors. The incarcerated person is escorted in handcuffs by staff to the visit. The handcuffs are removed only after the incarcerated person is secured in his/her side of the visiting booth; thus, parents who do not wish to have children see the incarcerated person in restraints should wait away from the booth or glass partition until the prisoner is settled. Non-contact visits are restricted to three visitors and are limited in time (usually one to two hours, depending on the prison and the reason for the non-contact status of visits).

Incarcerated people on Death Row, often referred to as “condemned”, are housed either at San Quentin State Prison in Marin County (men) or at Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla (women). “Condemned Grade A” incarcerated people on Death Row may receive contact visits (meaning no partition between incarcerated person and his/her visitor) unless their visiting privileges have been restricted for disciplinary or security reasons. “Condemned Grade B” incarcerated people on Death Row may only receive non-contact visits. All Condemned visits are in a secured booth and involve the incarcerated person being escorted to visiting in handcuffs. Visits for all incarcerated people on Death Row are limited in time (usually one to two hours).

Family Visits

Some incarcerated people are eligible for “family visits.” Family visits occur in private, apartment-like facilities on prison grounds and last approximately 30 to 40 hours. The following individuals are excluded from family visits: Incarcerated persons on Death Row, any incarcerated person with convictions for sex offenses, anyone in the Reception Centers process, or anyone under disciplinary restrictions. Family visits are restricted to immediate family members (parents, children, siblings, legal spouses, registered domestic partners, or who have a bona fide and verified foster relationship) of the incarcerated person. There are no age restrictions for prospective visitors.  Family visits are further restricted by availability. An eligible incarcerated person must put in an application for a family visit with their assigned correctional counselor at the prison. Further inquiries about family visiting should be directed by the incarcerated person to their counselor or by the family to the respective institution visiting staff.

Scheduling Family Visits

To schedule a family visit, an incarcerated person must request to schedule a Family Visit with the Family Visiting Coordinator.  The Family Visiting Coordinator at the institution will provide the necessary paperwork for the incarcerated person to complete, as well as a packet for them to send to their approved visitors to complete. Once all paperwork is complete and a visit is scheduled, the Family Visiting Coordinator will assist in arranging meals and other details. Depending upon the institution, family visits may be offered on the weekend, during the week, or both. Incarcerated persons and their families must pay for meals; all other accommodations are provided at no cost.

Waitlist for Family Visits

Each institution compiles a waitlist for family visit requests, prior waitlists are no longer in effect. Availability of visits, and turnaround time between approval and visit, varies with each institution.

In‑Person Marriage Ceremonies

Effective immediately, in-person marriage ceremonies may be scheduled and facilitated at adult institutions in the OPEN Phase of the  Roadmap to Reopening . Each institution has its own protocols for marriages; please contact your institution for details.

The process for requesting and completing a marriage packet has not changed. The incarcerated person must request the marriage packet from their counselor. Prior wedding waitlists will be honored. For more information,  contact the institution  in which your loved one is housed.

If an institution is not in OPEN Phase, adult applicants may continue to appear before a county clerk to obtain a marriage license via videoconference, rather than in person per  Governor’s Executive Order #N-58-20  . While CDCR is in compliance with this order, the authority to issue marriage licenses and to validate marriage ceremonies continues to rest entirely with the individual counties.

An in-person ceremony may be cancelled at any time due to health and safety reasons. When this status changes, a request may be submitted to the Marriage Coordinator to reschedule.

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Federal Bureau of Prisons

General visiting information.

Make sure your visit will be a success by carefully following these four steps.

Discover or confirm the whereabouts of the inmate you would like to visit.

Before you can visit you must be placed on the inmate's approved visiting list.

Review all visiting rules, regulations, and procedures before your visit.

Find out when you can visit and get directions to the facility.

Locate the inmate

Sometimes an inmate may be moved to a different facility so that they can benefit from unique programs offered at that location. They might also be moved to receive treatment for a medical condition or for security concerns. Therefore, the first step in planning your visit should be to determine where the inmate is currently housed.

Please verify you are a human by entering the words you see in the textbox below.

To visit, you must be pre-approved.

You can only visit an inmate if they have placed you on their visiting list and you have been cleared by the BOP.

• An inmate is given a Visitor Information Form when he/she arrives at a new facility.
• Inmate completes their portion of the form and mails a copy to each potential visitor.
• Potential visitor completes all remaining form fields.
• Potential visitor sends the completed form back to the inmate's address (listed on the form).
• We may request more background information and possibly contact other law enforcement agencies or the NCIC
• The inmate is told when a person is not approved to visit and it is the inmate's responsibility to notify that person.

Who can an inmate add to their visiting list?

• Step-parent(s)
• Foster parent(s)
• Grandparents
• No more than 10 friends/associates
• Foreign officials
• Members of religious groups including clergy
• Members of civic groups
• Employers (former or prospective)
• Parole advisors

In certain circumstances such as when an inmate first enters prison or is transferred to a new prison, a visiting list might not exist yet. In this case, immediate family members who can be verified by the information contained in the inmate's Pre-Sentence Report, may be allowed to visit. However, if there is little or no information available about a person, visiting may be denied. You should always call the prison ahead of time to ensure your visit will be permitted.

Be Prepared

You should be familiar with all visiting rules, regulations, and procedures before your visit.

The following clothing items are generally not permitted but please consult the visiting policy for the specific facility as to what attire and items are permitted in the visiting room:

• revealing shorts
• halter tops
• bathing suits
• see-through garments of any type
• low-cut blouses or dresses
• backless tops
• hats or caps
• sleeveless garments
• skirts two inches or more above the knee
• dresses or skirts with a high-cut split in the back, front, or side
• clothing that looks like inmate clothing (khaki or green military-type clothing)

Plan your trip

• the prison location
• the prison type
• inmate visiting needs
• availability of visiting space

The inmate you plan to visit should tell you what the visiting schedule is for that prison; however, if you have any questions please contact that particular facility .

General Visiting Hours

Camp general visiting hours, fsl general visiting hours.

Inmate Search & General Jail Guide

Inmate Search | Inmate Mail | Inmate Phones | Orca Lookup & More

How To Visit An Inmate In Prison | All Your Questions Answered

Table of Contents

Visiting an inmate for the first time is one that is filled with mixed feelings of what to wear, what form of identification to present to the guards, what to bring along as a gift, if kids are allowed in, and other random thoughts like that.

With all these thoughts popping up in your head at the same time, you may end up more confused and frustrated. Not to worry!

This guide contains what you need to know when visiting an inmate for the first time, and perhaps will provide answers to all your confusions.

Types Of Prison Visitations

There are several types of visitation for inmates. Visitation ranges from video visitation, non-contact/telephone visitation, and contact visitation.

Prison Video Visitation

Video visitation is the one that’s mostly being used today. Just like the way you’d use Skye, video visitation can be done even from the comfort of your home.

No Contact Jail Visitation

Non-contact/ telephone visitation is one that involves sitting behind a glass barricade while talking with your inmate on the telephone.

Full Contact Prison Inmate Visitation

Contact visitation is the most common and often preferred by visitors. Here, you are able to sit with the inmate and talk for a short period of time. It even gives you the opportunity to even make contact with your ok inmate, however there’s a limitation to that.

Forms of contact usually allowed include a brief hug, hello, and goodbye. Holding of hands is often frowned at by prison officials.

What To Do Before You Visit A Prison

It is important that before you are granted access to visit your inmate, you must have previously been in contact with him/her. The prison has a visitors list that contains the friends and family members that are allowed to visit.

Some facilities provide inmates a list containing slots for 10 visitors that they wish to include. As such, the inmates must have all the details of the visitors he intends to include In the list, which include: the visitor’s full name, the visitor’s address, the phone number, and at times more other information about the visitor.

So if your inmate does not know all this information, you can send him a mail containing a letter that stipulates your information. 

Other facilities may request all prospective visitors of the inmate to fill out a visiting application (some only give out this form based on the wish of the inmate).

How To Apply For A Visitation At The Prison

The visiting application is given to visitors who intend to pay a visit to inmates, however not all facilities will request that you fill a visitors application (most facilities do anyway).

The visiting application is more like a questionnaire that contains a portion in which you are required to fill out your name, address, and questions that seeks to find out if you are a convicted felon, or if you’ve been incarcerated or worked in the department of corrections.

Proceed to answer, fill in your names and answer the questions as truthful as you can because the information provided will be used to perform a background check up on you.

The findings will determine if your visit will be approved or denied.

What Can Make You Denied From Visiting A Friend In Jail?

• If the information provided in the visiting application is false.
• If you’re a convicted felon.
• If you’ve previously served time in a correctional facility, or have worked in the department of corrections.
• If you have outstanding warrants.
• If there’s a protective order against you or the inmate.
• If you are seen as a threat to security at the facility.
• If you are on PTI, probation, or parole (although some exceptions can be made to this).
• If you’ve already filled a visiting application to another inmate at the facility.

You will only know if your visiting application is approved or denied when your inmate tells you, most institutions will not inform you. Therefore, you must ensure a constant communication with your inmate to ascertain the status of your application.

However, if you’re denied visiting privileges, you have a choice to appeal the decision. Only make sure you file for appeal within the stated time frame.

How To Prepare For A Prison Visitation

If your visiting application is approved by the facility, check the schedule of the visitation hours specified by the institution.

You check visiting hours for some facilities on their website, and be sure to double check if possible, as visiting hours may be changed at any time or even cancelled without notifying you.

A correctional facility may cancel visiting if the facility goes on a lockdown, if an inmate has escaped, or due to reasons known to the facility. An inmate may also be denied visiting privileges if they’re confined in solitary.

Once you are sure of the visiting hours, ensure to take along every needed form of identification on the day you intend visiting your inmate.

Although in most cases you only need your valid state issued identification card or drivers license, some facilities however vary in the type of identification they accept.

Visiting A Jail As A Minor Or With A Minor

If you’re visiting with a child or minor, the facility will require you to first fill out a special visiting with minors authorization form.

When such a minor is above 14, he/she would have to come along with a school issued photo ID or birth certificate before they’re allowed to visit.

Also, minors are not allowed to visit inmates alone, as it is required that they must be always accompanied by a parent or guardian. Inmates who were incarcerated for crimes against a child cannot have access to visits by minors.

Small children or babies may also need to come along with their birth certificate to be allowed to visit, but it is not a must in all cases. When visiting with children, try as much to control them because they’re found causing a nuisance, you can get kicked out from the visiting area.

How To Dress For A Prison Visitation

Every correctional facility has a dress code for visitors thus, if you’re visiting any, ensure to put on the specified dress code else you’ll be refused from visiting. 

Here are some things to keep in mind when selecting a dress for visiting inmates:

• Do not put on a dress that resembles the inmate’s clothes in design or color, and that of the staff.
• Do not visit in medical scrubs or any sort of uniform, as this may pose a threat to the facility’s security.
• You must dress in shirts and put on shoes.
• Clothes that expose sensitive parts of the body are prohibited.
• See through fabrics are not allowed.
• Sleeveless shirts are prohibited.
• Shorts and skirts that are above the knee or those with slits are prohibited.
• Offensive imprints or languages on clothing is prohibited.
• Tight clothing which include spandex, leggings, tights are prohibited.
• Jewelries are also prohibited, so keep that in mind when dressing.

Sometimes, it is up to the prison guard to scrutinize which kind of dressing is allowed into the prison. To avoid being sent back because of a violation in dress code, you can come with a change of clothing just in case.

Getting Searched At A Prison During Visitation

It is advisable to arrive a few minutes early to the facility when visiting, as you may be required to fill out more paperwork (you may get into trouble if you arrive too early though).

Keep in mind that you’ll be searched from your arrival at the parking lot, your car will also be searched by the prison guards or even security dogs for any incriminating item or one that violates the rules of the facility.

Even when you enter the facility, expect to be searched again usually by pat down or with a metal detector. And If you refuse to be searched, you’ll be banned from visiting.

There are even cases where visitors must consent to strip search before they’re allowed in, but if you’re not comfortable with this, it doesn’t mean you’ll be refused visitation. 

Strip searching was mainly done to detect drugs hidden in the body that scanners couldn’t pick. However, it is now a thing of the past as security dogs are used by facilities instead.

What To Take With You On A Prison Visitation

This varies from one facility to another. Some facilities may provide lockers that can be rented for about a quarter to store your belongings in, others do not.

You’re only allowed to bring in your ID, single car key, eyeglasses (if any), some change for use at the vending machine, as you may need it to buy snacks for your inmate while you talk.

If you’re visiting with a baby, you may be allowed to come with a feeding bottle and a change of diaper. Items such as medications, cigarettes are considered illegal, as you can be banned if found in possession of any of these, and possibly charged.

Questions About Visiting A Friend In Jail

If you have about visiting an inmate that was not answered in this article, you can post in the comment section below and we’ll do our best to provide answers to such questions.

Can you kiss on prison visits?

You can kiss during prison visitation at a low risk community prison, however, in many other centres, the case is different. Kissing on a prison visit depends on the type of prison facility where your loved one is incarcerated.

These days, most facilities do their best to prevent direct contact in order to avoid smuggling of drugs and other prohibited substances. If you intend to kiss your loved one, then make sure the rules in the facility permit you to do so.

How long does it take to get approved for prison visitation?

Most prison visitations are approved on a first-come first-served basis. Your request for a prison visit can be approved in less than a week, however the visitation date may vary.

You need to put in every prison visitation request on time so as to factor in the time it may take to process other requests submitted before you, and to give the prison operations director enough time to make adequate preparations for the security and safety of you and other visitors.

What is the process of visiting someone in prison?

For most prisons, you will need to fill out a visitation request online, and submit it for them to get started on processing your visitation request. FOr many others, you will need to schedule a visit through the visitation centre.

How do I visit someone in jail in Canada?

Most prisons in Canada accommodate visits through a visitation centre. You will need to schedule an appointment through the visitation centre for your request to be processed.

Can you wear jeans to visit an inmate?

Members of the public are allowed to wear jeans or any form of clothing to a prison visitation. Notwithstanding the type of clothe you put on, highly sophisticated infra-red sensors will always be at major entry points to scan you for prohibited items.

How many visits do prisoners get a week?

Prisoners are allowed to get as much visits as the prison can accommodate. Most prisons tailor their activities to only accept a number of visitors per day and once this number is reached, other visitation requests are pushed on to the next available day.

Are conjugal visits monitored?

Conjugal visits are usually monitored for the safety of both the inmate and the visitor. A highly trained staff will monitor the activities that happen during the visit to make sure that the visitation conforms with acceptable practices.

Conjugal visits were designed as a means to preserve families and give incarcerated people the opportunity to procreate even while in prison. These days, there are not many prison facilities around the world that still allow conjugal visits from an inmate’s registered spouse.

Can you swear in a letter to an inmate?

If a letter to an inmate contains a swear word, it will be given a second review to determine what to do with it. The level and context of the swearing in a letter will determine if it will be handed over to the inmate, or confiscated for vulgarity.

What happens to your clothes when you go to jail?

When you go to jail, your clothes are locked up in your property. This is a little lock box assigned to all inmates where clothes, keys, wallets, shoes and received books/letters are kept.

How should I dress for a prison visit?

While preparing for a prison visitation, wear something that you feel very comfortable in. Do not put on very oversized clothes that may put you on the spotlight and have the guards second-guessing if you;re hiding something underneath.

Do Death row inmates get visitors?

Yes. Death row inmates are allowed to receive visitors just like any other inmate. Friends and family, loved ones, lawyers, human rights organisations and other religious societies are allowed to visit inmates on death row.

Can you wear a bra in jail?

Inmates are given adequately sized bras in jail to put on. While these bras are issued, it is however the responsibility of the inmate to put them on.

Can you hug an inmate during visitation?

Hugging an inmate can be allowed in certain incarceration facilities, but in some others, a no contact law is usually enforced and must be adhered to.

Your ability to hug a loved one during a prison visitation will depend on the laws guiding that particular institution. Make sure you check in with the regulations before you attempt to hug an inmate.

Can you wear your wedding ring in jail?

A wedding ring is usually considered a sentimental item and thus, inmates are allowed to wear their wedding rings after they are vetted by the security department.

If an inmate poses some degree of threat, or is seen capable of inflicting bodily harm or injury through a ring, then they are denied the ability to wear their wedding ring while in prison.

Can you FaceTime inmates?

It is not possible to facetime with inmates. Electronic gadgets are prohibited in prisons and any inmate found with a mobile phone will face very serious charges which could increase their sentence.

What can you bring to a conjugal visit?

If you’re approved for a conjugal visit, you will be given a list of items that are permitted, and a list of items that are prohibited.

Breaking the law during a conjugal visit may lead to very serious consequences for both the visitor and the inmate.

What is a conjugal visit in jail?

A conjugal visit is a visitation that allows an inmate have some private time for intercourse with a listed spouse. This type of visitation is allowed to help families cope with their intimate desires.

Why are conjugal visits not allowed?

For most facilities, conjugal visits are denied because they pose a great risk to the operations of the prison facility. Most times, prisoners use conjugal visits as an opportunity to smuggle prohibited items like drugs and weapons into the prison facility.

Can you get sperm from an inmate for artificial insemination?

It is impossible to get a sperm from an inmate for artificial insemination. This is a practice that has not been approved in any prison facility. If you intend to conceive, you can request for a conjugal visit if it is allowed, or have intercourse with your partner if they are ever released to attend a funeral or family event.

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Contact Visits For Texas Inmates

What are contact visits in texas prisons.

Contact visits for Texas inmates are face-to-face meetings between inmates and their loved ones without physical barriers, allowing for limited physical contact. In Texas, both jails and prisons have specific rules and regulations governing contact visits, including eligibility criteria, scheduling, and procedures.

Eligibility for Contact Visits for Texas Prison Inmates

Inmate classification and behavior.

Inmates must be classified as minimum or medium custody and maintain a good disciplinary record. Inmates with disciplinary infractions or a history of violence may be denied contact visits.

Visitor Approval Process

Visitors must be approved by the  Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)  before being allowed to make visitation information and participate in contact visits. This involves submitting a visitation application and undergoing a background check. Only approved visitors, such as immediate family members and close friends, will be allowed to participate in contact visits for Texas inmates.

Are Conjugal Visits Allowed in Texas?

Conjugal visits, also known as extended family visits or private family visits, are visits that allow inmates in prison to spend time with their spouses or significant others in a private, home-like setting. These visits are typically unsupervised and can last for several hours or even days, depending on the jurisdiction and the specific rules governing the visits.

Current Status Of Conjugal Visits In Texas Prisons

As of now, Texas does not allow conjugal visits for inmates in its  state prisons . The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has consistently maintained a policy against allowing these visits, citing concerns over safety, security, and costs associated with implementing such a program.

Procedures for Contact Visits in Texas Prisons

Scheduling contact visits.

Once a visitor has been approved, they must schedule their contact visit. Contact visits for Texas inmates in prison are typically held on weekends and holidays, with a limited number of slots available. It is essential to schedule your visit in advance to ensure a spot.

Rules And Regulations For Contact Visits For Texas Inmates

During contact visits, both the visitor and the inmate must follow strict rules to ensure the safety and security of everyone involved. These rules may include:

• Dress code requirements for visitors
• Restrictions on items brought into the visitation area
• Limited physical contact, such as brief hugs and handshakes

Violating these rules may result in the termination of the visit or loss of contact visitation privileges.

Are conjugal visits allowed for Texas inmates?

No, conjugal visits are not allowed for Texas inmates. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) does not permit conjugal visits, which are private visits between an inmate and their spouse, typically for the purpose of maintaining intimate relationships. In Texas, only contact visits are allowed, and these visits have strict rules and limitations, including restrictions on physical contact and  online video visitation .

Do Texas inmates ever get privacy with visitors?

In Texas, inmates do not get privacy with visitors during regular visits, including contact visits. Visits are closely monitored by correctional staff to ensure the safety and security of everyone involved. In contact visits, there may be limited physical contact allowed, such as brief hugs and handshakes, but there is no privacy provided for inmates and their visitors. This restriction is in place to prevent contraband exchange and other security risks associated with private visits.

Were conjugal visits ever allowed for Texas inmates?

Conjugal visits were never allowed for Texas inmates. TDCJ has not permitted conjugal visits in its history. Texas only allows contact visits, which are face-to-face meetings between inmates and their loved ones without physical barriers, but with strict rules and limitations for special visits, including restrictions on physical contact. The rationale behind not allowing conjugal visits in Texas, as in many other states, includes concerns about security risks, potential contraband exchange, and the cost of maintaining facilities and staff for such visits.

What states allow conjugal visits?

Only a few states in the United States allow conjugal visits, also known as extended family visits or private family visits. These states are:

• Connecticut

It is essential to note that policies regarding conjugal visits may change over time, and each state may have its specific eligibility requirements and regulations. Before planning a conjugal visit, check the most recent policies and guidelines provided by the respective state’s department of corrections.

What type of items can visitors bring for Texas inmates?

Visitors are generally not allowed to bring items directly to inmates during visits at Texas correctional facilities. However, there are specific items that may be allowed in the visitation area for the visitors’ use during the visit. These prohibited items may include:

• A small wallet or clear plastic bag containing identification, car keys, and a small amount of cash or coins for vending machines, if available.
• Necessary medications, such as asthma inhalers, nitroglycerin tablets, or EpiPens, in their original containers, with prior approval from the facility.
• Baby care items for visitors with infants, such as diapers, wipes, and a baby bottle, in a clear plastic bag. The items should be the minimum necessary for the visit’s duration.

It is crucial to check the specific rules and regulations for the jail or prison you plan to visit, as each facility may have its guidelines regarding items allowed during visitation.

Most Texas correctional facilities have a  commissary system , where friends and family members can deposit money into an inmate’s account, allowing the inmate to purchase approved items such as food, personal hygiene products, and stationery.

FAQs: Texas Inmate Visitation

A contact visit is a face-to-face meeting between an inmate and an approved visitor without physical barriers, allowing for limited physical contact.

You must submit a visitation application and undergo a background check by the TDCJ. Only immediate family members and close friends may be approved for contact visits.

Contact visits are typically held on weekends and holidays, with a limited number of slots available.

No, only inmates classified as minimum or medium custody and with a good disciplinary record are eligible for contact visits.

Rules for contact visits may include dress code requirements, restrictions on items brought into the visitation area, and limits on physical contact between inmates and visitors.

Violating contact visit rules may result in the termination of the visit or loss of contact visitation privileges.

Once you are an approved visitor, you must schedule your contact visit in advance, typically through the prison’s visitation office.

Yes, contact visits can be denied for various reasons, such as the inmate’s disciplinary record, visitor background check results, or if visitation rules are violated.

If you believe your visitation rights have been violated, reach out to an experienced criminal defense attorney to help you understand and assert your rights.

Call Varghese Summersett today at 817-203-2220 or contact us online for expert legal assistance regarding visitation rights and procedures.

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Conjugal Visits | Criminal Defense |

Are Conjugal Visits Really Allowed in MN?

In movies and on television, the idea of conjugal visits in prison seems universal, but it’s actually not a reality in a good number of states, including Minnesota.

A petition made the rounds recently online to try to change this fact. A woman requested the state’s Senator, Amy Klobuchar, to help make conjugal visits a right for inmates in Minnesota.

The petition closed and the laws have not been changed, but it does highlight the importance of knowing what types of activities are allowed and not allowed when visiting an inmate in a Minnesota correctional institution.

Here’s what you need to know about Minnesota’s prison visitation policies and procedures and what can happen if they are violated.

Rules of Visitation for MN Corrections Facilities

Visitation is an important part of an inmate’s life. Not only does it serve to help them get through serving their time by seeing people they care about, but it also helps them to maintain and build their support networks outside of prison.

This is an incredibly important endeavor for ensuring a successful transition once they are released. In fact, positive interactions with family and friends during incarceration is believed to lead to lower rates of recidivism as well.

However, there are rules when you visit an inmate in Minnesota . The most important is the fact that you must apply to visit an inmate. You can obtain an application to become a visitor in one of three ways:

• Download it through the prison’s website
• Pick one up at a Department of Corrections Facility
• Have the inmate send you an application

Once you’ve submitted your application and have been approved, then the inmate will be notified and they will communicate the information to you.

How Long Do Visitations Last?

In general, if you travel less than 100 miles for the visit, then you will be allowed to register for a visit that lasts one to two hours. If you travel more than 100 miles one way, then you may be granted an extended visit – but this is up to the discretion of the prison.

The inmate must petition the prison for a longer visit at least 7 to 10 days before the visit is to take place. On weekends, due to crowding, visits may be restricted to one hour.

Are There Different Rules for Minors?

If you wish for a minor to visit the inmate, then an adult applicant must complete the application and list the minor in the space provided on it. You will need to submit a copy of the certified birth certificate of each minor along with the application.

What Items Can You Bring as a Visitor?

You must empty your pockets before visiting with an inmate. A locker will be provided. You can carry the locker key along with your identification with you, but all personal items must be secured. Every visitor is required to pass through a metal detector prior to visiting time.

No one may bring gum, candy, food, or drinks into the visitation rooms under any circumstances.

What If the Rules Are Broken?

If a visitor breaks the rules of visitation while visiting an inmate, then the incident is recorded by prison staff and the visitor will be advised they have violated the rules and sanctions of visitation.

Rule violations can lead to a visitor being barred from future visits as well. Depending on the infraction, a visitor may even face criminal charges.

To be reinstated, they would have to appeal in writing to the administrator of the prison to regain their visitation privileges.

If you have questions about visiting your loved one or about accusations of visitation violations in a Minnesota prison or if are seeking special permission for any activity (besides conjugal visits, of course) during visitation, reach out to an experienced criminal defense attorney for help.

About the Author:

Andrew T. Poole is a Minnesota native who has served in the Army for more than 18 years and is currently a JAG lawyer in the Army Reserves in addition to serving as a partner at LaCourse, Poole & Envall . He has handled thousands of criminal and family law cases over the course of his career and has a firm belief that all hardworking Minnesotans should be entitled to the best possible legal counsel. Mr. Poole boasts a 10/10 Superb rating on Avvo , is Lead Counsel rated, and has been recognized multiple times by SuperLawyers , National Trial Lawyers , and others for his work.

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Common Myths About Child Support

Child support: There’s plenty of information out there from many different sources – and not all of them are exactly trustworthy. You’ve likely heard the term “child support” or even seen it as a factor in your own separation and [...]

The Importance of Having the Right Car Seat in a MN Crash

Something harmful happening to your child is a parent’s worst nightmare. There are some things parents can’t control when it comes to security, but some parental decisions have a huge impact on their child’s safety. One of those choices is [...]

MN Domestic Violence Protective Orders: Common Conditions

Just as in other states, Minnesota takes threats and violence between members of the same household very seriously – and they take action to protect those who are vulnerable.

Minnesota provides victims of domestic violence with a form of legal [...]

Mediators: What To Look for in your MN Divorce

Many people fear that divorce will be a long, contentious, drawn-out process in the courts. Fortunately, that is simply not true in many cases. Why? Because many of those going through a divorce choose a mediator to help them settle [...]

Bitten By Someone Else’s Dog? Here Are Your Options

Dogs are known as man’s best friend. While it is true they can bring happiness to the lives of many people, being bitten by a dog can cause a lot of pain and distress.

Dog bites impact the lives of [...]

Get Swept Up in the Moment? You Could Still Face Arson Charges

There are many reasons fires can occur. In fact, many fires are caused by accidents or circumstances out of the control of people. In those cases, it’s often dismissed as an unfortunate accident. However, when a fire is purposefully set, [...]

Does Stalking Count as Domestic Violence in MN?

When people think about stalking, they imagine dark alleys and scared young women being followed by strangers, eventually leading to something terrible occurring. While that Hollywood version of stalking has probably happened somewhere at some time, most stalking crimes are [...]

Can You Share a Divorce Attorney With Your Spouse in MN?

Going through a divorce can be a long, expensive, and arduous process, but it’s not always that way. In some situations, there may be agreement on all aspects of the divorce between the parties involved. That can make things a [...]

MN Parents: Don’t Let Your Kids Fall Victim to These Holiday Dangers

The holidays are a wonderful time of the year that many people, especially kids, look forward to all year long. Unfortunately, there are some serious hazards that come along with all that joy and excitement – hazards that many parents [...]

Assets Easily Overlooked in a MN Divorce

Often, one of the most tedious and difficult things about Minnesota divorce is dividing up assets from the marriage. Many people don’t want to fully undertake this time-consuming process, but it’s to their detriment if they don’t.

Why? Because there [...]

Minnesota Dog Bites: Who Is Responsible?

There are few things scarier than being attacked by a dog, and dog bites can be far more severe than many expect. Dog bites can cause lasting physical injuries and mental distress for victims, which is why Minnesota has specific [...]

Is Stalking Domestic Violence in MN?

You might imagine stalking as an act that requires someone to skulk in the shadows, obsessively watching unsuspecting victims go about their daily lives – so people have been led to believe. The truth is that stalking doesn’t always happen [...]

How to Fight a Minnesota Drug Charge

Drugs are considered by the law to be a threat to society, which is why drug crimes are punished so harshly in this country. In Minnesota, someone caught with even a small amount of drugs can face serious charges that [...]

MN Custody Laws Every Parent Should Know

Child custody is rarely a straightforward issue in family court. Often, parents don’t agree on what is best for the child – and when you throw in the legal complexities, cases can easily become confusing and complicated.

Anyone who is [...]

Want to Make a Liability Claim for Your MN Car Crash? Prove These 4 Elements

Accidents happen. And when you’re driving a car on Minnesota roads, the chances of an accident happening are fair – so it’s important to be prepared for incidents on the road.

Most people prepare for car accidents by buying vehicles [...]

The Best Defenses Against MN Drug Crimes

The possession of drugs in Minnesota is a serious crime, but your sentence if found guilty can range quite a bit.

Drug crimes can be misdemeanors or felonies, depending on how much of a controlled substance you are found with [...]

Steps to Take After a MN DWI Arrest

No matter how you got there, when you get pulled over and arrested for a DUI, you’re probably going to be worried. Most people don’t have a lot of experience interacting with police, much less being arrested by them.

However, [...]

How Well Do You Know the Retail Theft Laws in Minnesota?

You probably know that taking an item from a store without paying for is shoplifting – or retail theft. What if you put something into your purse, bag, or pocket, but haven’t left the store yet? Is that theft? Or [...]

When Does a Case Become Medical Malpractice in MN?

Medical malpractice is something that occurs everywhere, and each state has its own laws surrounding medical malpractice claims, including Minnesota.

Many people struggle with understanding whether or not their case falls under the umbrella of medical malpractice. What is important [...]

Involved in a MN Crash over the Holidays? Get Compensation

In Minnesota, car accidents are unfortunately one of the most common types of personal injury claims. So, if you were involved in a car accident over the holidays, rest assured you’re not alone.

In fact, there have been many accidents [...]

What If Your Ex Doesn’t Follow the Divorce Decree?

When you get a divorce, you expect your ex-spouse to follow the obligations outlined in your divorce decree. But sometimes, the person to whom you were married falls short.

If your ex doesn’t follow the specifics in your divorce decree, [...]

The Worst Habits of Minnesota Distracted Drivers

In Minnesota, there are tens of thousands of car accidents each year. While the reasons behind these accidents vary, one of the most preventable reasons these accidents occur is distracted driving.

That is why one of the most important things [...]

When Do You Need a MN Child Support Modification?

When it comes to raising kids there are two certainties: It’s expensive, and it’s going to continually change.

Between the cost of food, childcare, education, extracurriculars, and housing, a lot of parents struggle to meet their children’s needs. Most parents [...]

MN Divorce Discovery: Do You Have to Say It All?

A divorce may mean the end of your marriage, but it also means an end to your joint venture as a married couple. All your assets are to be split, meaning you’ll have to identify all the assets you have [...]

Tips Before Seeking a Divorce

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, getting a divorce from your spouse is the only option you have. But it’s a big decision – not something you should just jump into feet first.

The truth is, there is a lot to [...]

Be Careful Your Holiday Partying Doesn’t Result in a MN Drug Charge

The holidays are celebrated in a variety of ways. For some, it’s about getting together with friends and family. For others, it’s about exchanging gifts. And then some also enjoy celebrating through wild parties with others, which can lead to [...]

How Strong are MN Prenups?

Prenuptial agreements are becoming more and more commonplace. People sign them as a way to protect their assets when they enter a marriage, in case of divorce or death. However, these prenuptial agreements aren’t always as ironclad as many would [...]

Wrongful Death in MN: What You Need to Know

There are few things in life as painful as losing someone you love – especially unexpectedly and prematurely. When that death occurs due to the negligence of another party, the grief and stress can feel overwhelming.

Even when the negligent [...]

Did Your Memorial Day Weekend Lead to a BWI?

Being out on a boat the first weekend of summer is a time to cherish. You can have fun with friends and family as the whole of summer stretches out before you. One complication you may not have counted on: [...]

Surprising Charges That Can Make You a MN Sex Offender

In general, those who are convicted as sex offenders face many obstacles in society. They are seen as the worst of the worst, and people assume a lot about a person simply because their name is on a sex offender [...]

MN Spousal Maintenance: What You Need to Know

Divorce can be a process that is difficult for many. Not only are emotions often running high as a marriage comes to an end, but ironing out the details regarding finances can add a layer of stress that neither party [...]

Understanding Your Miranda Rights in Minnesota: What You Need to Know

Miranda rights are an essential component of the criminal justice system, ensuring that individuals in custody are aware of their constitutional rights during police interrogations. Understanding your Miranda rights is crucial if you face criminal charges in Minnesota. 

Ride Share Accidents in Minnesota: Protecting Your Legal Rights

With the rise of ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, getting around town has become more convenient than ever. However, the risk of being involved in a ride-share accident comes with convenience. If you or a loved one have been [...]

Is There a Statute of Limitations on MN Sex Crimes?

In Minnesota, prosecutors aggressively pursue sex crime cases to bring those who commit them to justice. Their work was aided last year by the lifting of the statute of limitations on sex crimes in the state.

As of September 2021, [...]

Does Your Spouse Have to Agree to a MN Divorce?

Divorce is a process that is rooted in conflict. It’s rare for two parties to agree on everything during the divorce process.

In some situations, one spouse may not even want a divorce at all while the other spouse very [...]

When Do Legal Drugs Become Illegal in MN?

Every state has its own specific laws and penalties when it comes to controlled substances. In Minnesota, substances such as marijuana that are legal in other states become illegal once you cross the Minnesota state line.

It’s valuable for citizens [...]

MN Bad Samaritan Law: You Have a Duty to Report

Most people are familiar with the idea of a Good Samaritan. You know, a person who helps another when they’re in trouble, like someone who stops to help after a car wreck or helps a stranded mother to change her [...]

MN Black Friday Crimes: Did You Get Swept Up?

Black Friday is an interesting day. On the one hand, there’s a lot of excitement generated about sales that can save you a lot of money on high-priced items. Black Friday sales are incredibly tantalizing. On the other hand, there’s [...]

Why Do So Many MN Car Crashes Result in Back Injuries?

Back injuries can shift the trajectory of a person’s life forever. It’s a shame that these types of life-altering injuries are so common in car accidents, but there are some very logical reasons why they are.

Cars travel at high [...]

MN Non-Physical Acts That Can Lead to DV Charges

The term domestic violence conjures images in the minds of one person physically abusing another, but that’s not always the case. While physical harm can be done in domestic violence situations, there are other non-physical acts that can lead to [...]

How to Modify Your MN Child Custody or Support Agreement

A divorce or separation can be a difficult and emotionally challenging experience, especially when children are involved. One of the most critical aspects of divorce proceedings involving children is establishing child custody and support agreements. These agreements determine how parents [...]

MN Car Accidents: Steps of a Personal Injury Claim

When you’re in a car accident and become injured, it can cast a lot of uncertainty on your future. The accident itself can be emotionally traumatic, and if you’ve been seriously hurt then you’re likely experiencing physical pain on top [...]

Tips To Help You Find the Right MN Divorce Attorney

Going through a divorce is not a fun process. For many people, it’s not only a personal and emotional process but also a process that can have big implications on their financial future. That’s why it’s vital to choose the [...]

The Importance of a Prenuptial Agreement in Minnesota

A prenuptial agreement is a legal document that partners sign before getting married, outlining how their assets will be divided in the event of a divorce. While some people may view prenuptial agreements as unromantic or unnecessary, they can provide [...]

St. Paddy’s PSA: Drunkeness Isn’t a MN Crime, But Disorderly Conduct Is

Saint Patrick’s Day, also known as St. Paddy’s Day, is a festive day that many people look forward to celebrating. It’s a day when people of all ages gather together to enjoy parades, drink green beer, and eat corned beef [...]

Should You Sell Your MN Property Before Your Divorce?

The law surrounding divorce in Minnesota can be complex, particularly when property is involved. Many wonder if a house purchased during marriage should be sold before divorce. It’s a good question, but the answer isn’t that simple.

In a divorce, [...]

The 48-Hour Rule and MN Domestic Violence

Domestic violence happens in Minnesota as it does in other parts of the country. To help deal with domestic violence issues, Minnesota has created laws on how to intervene in these situations in order to help keep people safe.

Understanding [...]

Staying Safe on a Snowmobile in MN: What You Should Know

Minnesotans love to snowmobile, as do many people in surrounding states. Each winter, they go thousands of miles on trails across the state, proving that Minnesota is a great place to indulge in this exhilarating pastime.

However, snowmobiling isn’t all [...]

Is It Possible To Expunge A Juvenile Record In Minnesota?

As an attorney in Minnesota, you may receive inquiries from clients seeking to expunge their juvenile records. Expungement is the process of sealing or erasing a criminal record from the public view. Juvenile records are typically sealed to protect the [...]

Who’s Responsible for an Injury That Occurs in a MN School?

A school is supposed to be a place where your child is safe. But just as with everywhere else you can go, accidents happen – especially when children are around.

When kids get hurt at school, whether in the classroom, [...]

MN Drug Possession: Are Car Passengers At Risk of Arrest?

Everyone has been a passenger in another person’s car. When you get a ride from someone or accompany a friend or family member somewhere, the last thing you expect is that it could end in criminal charges for you – [...]

MN Record Sealing: What You Need to Know

A criminal record is something that can add a lot of complications to your life. It can impact your reputation, your ability to find work, or even your capacity to find a place to live.

However, Minnesota offers something to [...]

Personal Injury Attorney: Red Flags to Look For

Most people don’t have a lot of experience with attorneys. So, when something terrible happens to you, such as a personal injury, and you want to bring a lawsuit against the at-fault party, you may not be sure what to [...]

The Hidden Costs of a Minnesota DUI

It’s not hard to imagine that when you get a DUI in Minnesota, you pay your fines, serve your time, and then move on from the incident. However, driving under the influence in Minnesota is a crime that isn’t that [...]

MN Sex Crimes: How To Beat the Charges

The charge for sex crimes are some of the most serious you can have in Minnesota. Not only do you face time in prison, but also the requirement to register as a sex offender in some cases. This factor can [...]

Avoid These Common Mistakes After a MN Car Crash

Car accidents can be unsettling experiences. It’s hard to think at that moment, let alone process everything happening around you and what you should and should not do. That’s why people tend to make mistakes after a car accident.

The Role of Expert Witnesses in Brain Injury Cases

Brain injury cases can be complex and challenging, requiring a deep understanding of the medical and legal aspects. The consequences of brain injuries can be profound, affecting individuals physically, cognitively, emotionally, and financially. In such cases, expert witnesses play a [...]

What Defense Strategies Can Help with MN Domestic Violence Charges?

Domestic violence is a crime that the state of Minnesota treats with the utmost seriousness. In fact, our state has a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of violence within the household. 

Domestic violence can take many forms, including physical, emotional, [...]

The Importance of Pre-Trial Investigations in Minnesota Criminal Defense

Pre-trial investigations are crucial in building a strong defense strategy for individuals facing criminal charges in Minnesota. Pre-trial investigations provide an essential foundation for achieving favorable outcomes in Minnesota’s criminal justice system by uncovering key evidence, identifying potential defenses, and [...]

Your Kid Got Hurt at a Minnesota Daycare — What Now?

Child injury at daycare is a frightening and stressful experience for any parent. The well-being of your child is of the utmost importance, and it is unacceptable for a daycare to neglect the safety and care of the children in [...]

The Legal Implications of Minnesota’s Increasing Opioid Crisis for Criminal Defense

Like many other states in the United States, Minnesota has been grappling with a surge in opioid use and overdose deaths in recent years. This crisis has been fueled by overprescribing opioid painkillers, the rise of synthetic opioids like fentanyl, [...]

How Are Illegal Prescriptions Handled in MN?

Regarding drug crimes in Minnesota, even prescribed drugs can lead to severe penalties.

When the police are examining drug trafficking or possession crimes, they look at the type of drug involved in the case and the amount in possession at [...]

Building a Strong Defense for Juveniles Accused of Serious Crimes in Minnesota

Facing criminal charges is a daunting experience for anyone, but it is particularly challenging when the accused is a juvenile. In Minnesota, when minors are charged with serious crimes, it is crucial to understand the unique legal considerations that apply [...]

The Legal and Financial Consequences of Minnesota Paternity Claims

In Minnesota, paternity claims are legal actions brought by individuals seeking to establish the biological father of a child. These claims can have significant legal and financial consequences for all parties involved. Minnesota paternity claims’ legal and financial consequences.

The Impact of Minnesota’s Alimony Laws on Your Divorce

When a couple decides to divorce, one of the most complex and often contentious issues that arise is alimony or spousal support. Alimony refers to court-ordered payments made by one spouse to the other to provide financial support after the [...]

Brain Injuries in Minnesota: The Legal Rights of Victims and Pursuing Compensation

Brain injuries can have a profound and lasting impact on individuals and their families. Whether caused by a car accident, medical malpractice, a workplace incident, or other forms of negligence, these injuries often result in physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges [...]

The Pros and Cons of Mediation in Minnesota Family Law Cases

Family law cases like divorce, child custody, and support can be complex and emotionally challenging. There are often multiple issues to be resolved, and the parties involved may have strong feelings and opinions on how those issues should be addressed. [...]

What to Do If You Get Hurt While on Vacation in the Northland

Getting injured while on vacation in the Northland can be a stressful and overwhelming experience. Knowing what steps to take to protect your health and legal rights is important. Whether the accident is a slip and fall, a car accident, [...]

Burn Injury Victims in MN: Legal Options and Rehabilitation Support

Suffering from a burn injury can be a life-altering experience, leaving victims with physical pain, emotional trauma, and substantial medical expenses. In Minnesota, burn injury victims face unique challenges in their journey to recovery. However, they are not alone in [...]

Defending Against Kidnapping and Stalking Charges in Minnesota

Kidnapping and stalking are serious criminal offenses that can have severe legal consequences in Minnesota. Being accused of these charges can turn your life upside down, affecting your personal relationships, reputation, and future opportunities. However, it is important to remember [...]

MN Rideshare Accident: What You Should Do

Maybe you were out drinking with friends and wanted to be responsible. Or your car broke down and you needed quick transportation. Perhaps you don’t even have a vehicle.

Whatever the situation, you called a rideshare service like you’ve done [...]

What To Do If You Are Injured During a Holiday Vacation

This time of the year a lot of people choose to travel. Whether it’s to warmer places to soak up some sun or colder areas to hit the slopes, the one thing that every place you can choose to go [...]

Recognizing the Signs of Nursing Home Abuse in Minnesota

Ensuring the safety and well-being of our elderly loved ones residing in nursing homes is paramount. Unfortunately, nursing home abuse is a distressing reality that can affect vulnerable individuals. Recognizing the signs of nursing home abuse is crucial to protect [...]

Title IX Defense: Advocating for Fair Treatment in Minnesota Schools

Being charged with Title IX crimes in Minnesota can be an overwhelming and unsettling experience. Under Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions, certain offenses such as sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating [...]

Defending Students Accused of Crimes in Minnesota

Being accused of a crime can be a frightening and overwhelming experience, particularly for students who are also focused on their education and prospects. If you or a student you know is facing criminal charges in Minnesota, it’s essential to [...]

Protecting Your Interests in an Uncontested Divorce in Minnesota

Divorce can be challenging and emotionally charged, but an uncontested divorce offers a more amicable and efficient resolution for couples seeking to end their marriage. In Minnesota, an uncontested divorce occurs when spouses agree on key issues, including child custody, [...]

Seeking Justice for Eye Injuries in Minnesota

Eye injuries can have devastating and life-altering consequences for victims, impacting their vision, daily activities, and overall quality of life. If you or a loved one has suffered an eye injury in Minnesota due to the negligence or wrongdoing of [...]

Who’s Responsible If You Slip and Fall on Ice in MN?

Winter weather in Minnesota can be beautiful, but it can also be treacherous. Slippery sidewalks and icy parking lots can make it difficult to get around safely, and they can also increase the risk of slip and fall accidents.

Gaining Full Custody as a MN Father Is Tough but Not Impossible

When a child is born, a special bond forms between a baby and their parents. Children rely on both of them for care, to meet their basic needs, and to teach them about the world.

The state of Minnesota recognizes [...]

It’s Not the MN Business Owner Paying That Slip and Fall Claim

Minnesota is known for many things – and one of them is long snowy winters. For many Minnesotans, pulling out their parks, donning their boots, and shoveling some snow is simply par for the winter course.

Unfortunately, it’s also the [...]

I’m Being Ordered to Pay Restitution in MN — What Does That Mean?

When people say that “crime doesn’t pay,” they’re not exactly being truthful. While it is true that crime won’t end well for anyone involved, it can end in expenses for both the perpetrator and the victim.

Courts in Minnesota often [...]

MN Government Employees Have Rights Under ADA Laws

The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) was groundbreaking legislation that sought to help those with disabilities reduce instances of discrimination in the workplace.

Just as with most legislation, though, it’s a law that not every employer observes at all times [...]

MN Orders for Protection Can Get Sticky Around the Holidays

Most people are familiar, thanks to television and movies, with the idea of a restraining order. Still, orders for protection can be difficult to understand for those involved in personal situations of domestic violence.

In Minnesota, there are three different [...]

MN Legislators Still Side with Feds on Recreational Marijuana

Even though many Minnesota voters want to see the blanket legalization of marijuana in the state, the recreational use of marijuana is still illegal. Minnesota statutes still very much align with federal laws on marijuana being used recreationally.

That doesn’t [...]

Heading into MN Winter, Get the Right Snowmobile Coverage

Minnesota has already seen snow this fall – and it’s only going to keep on coming. In fact, according to the National Weather Service, Duluth averages below freezing temperatures in November and 9 days of snow.

The weather is only [...]

MN Courts Want to Help Parents Battling Opioid Addiction

While opioid addiction continues to ravage families across the United States, Minnesota is working hard to help keep drug offenders from prison.

They do so by helping them into treatment programs through specialized Drug Courts. They’ve even created a sub-court [...]

Duluth Police More Focused on Property Crimes Than Violence

When you turn on the news today, you hear a lot of talk about law and order. In Duluth, there’s a focus on law and order but not in the way you may think.

According to the Duluth Police Chief, [...]

What MN Parents Can Do If Their Child Is in Their Car Wreck, Too

Car accidents happen, but when there are children involved it can turn something terrible into something even more tragic. Case in point, a freight truck struck a car in Minneapolis, killing two of the three occupants in the car and [...]

Pros and Cons of MN’s Newly Proposed Parental Custody Split

Recently, the Minnesota Legislature has proposed a new set of legislation for child custody agreements. This new legislation, known as HF 887 and HF1666/SF 1295, is significantly more strict in how it views parental custody.

Specifically, it holds that both [...]

Your Guide to Minnesota Record Expungements

In Minnesota, there are certain criminal records that can be expunged. However, it’s a complicated and somewhat slow process – or at least it can be if you don’t have an attorney who can help.

There are a lot of [...]

Injured in a Minnesota Semi Accident? Here’s How Liability Works

Semi-trucks are vital to our nation’s infrastructure and are [...]

Did Your Loved One Suffer a Wrongful Death in MN? What to Do

The sudden and untimely loss of a loved one is emotionally devastating, and even more so if the death could have been prevented. Even if the responsible party did not act intentionally, your loved one paid with their life and [...]

MN Law on Child Supervision is Vague — Your Ex’s Attorney Won’t Be

Minnesota law does not provide a specific age or circumstances under which a child can be left home alone or under the care of another child. However, there are general laws that require adequate and appropriate supervision of minor children.[...]

Believe It Or Not, the Drunk Driver Isn’t Always at Fault in MN

Drunk driving, despite the best efforts of those in law enforcement and the community, continues to happen. In Minnesota specifically, the number of deaths related to drunk driving accidents continues to increase.

In 2018, there were 371 traffic fatalities reported, [...]

Two Rules to Know About MN Car Accident Claims

With its icy winters and busy city roads, Minnesota sees its fair share of car accidents. Recent data from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS) reveals the extent of our state’s traffic crash problem.

According to the report, there [...]

What Minnesotans Should Know About the Risks of Ventilators

When it comes to COVID-19, it seems as if frightening information is constantly surfacing in the media. Take, for instance, the Journal of the American Medical Association study from April 2020.

In this study, it reported that 88 percent of [...]

Injured By A Dog Bite In Minnesota? Take These Steps Next

If you’re injured by a dog bite in Minnesota, pain and fear can creep into your life long after the physical wounds have healed. Victims of dog bites have protections under the law in Minnesota, so it’s important to understand [...]

MN Family vs. Criminal Court, Advantages of a Lawyer Who Knows Both

Family court and criminal court are two distinct systems of law, and it’s common for lawyers to practice either family or criminal law. In some cases, attorneys do practice both.

Family and criminal courts are separate branches of law, and [...]

Minneapolis Police Under Fire for Recklessness Among Peaceful Protestors

Protests over the death of George Floyd have been intense over the past few weeks. Tens of thousands of protestors hit the street to have their voices heard over what was perceived to be police brutality.

In response to these [...]

Minnesota’s No-Fault Benefits Don’t Eliminate Fault Completely

Anyone with a vehicle in Minnesota knows about the “no-fault” car insurance policy required in our state. But what does that mean if you’re in a car accident? Is there any recourse if you’re injured? How do you go about [...]

Skip the Child Support in MN, Risk Federal Criminal Prosecution

Child support is an important part of family law in Minnesota.

It’s one of the most important types of support offered to children, helping kids receive the care they need to grow into functional adults. Because of this, the legal [...]

As More MN Businesses Reopen, An Overview of Slip and Fall Laws

Although hundreds of new COVID-19 cases are still being reported in Minnesota each day, restrictions are easing up around the state. More businesses are able to reopen, pay their employees, and return to a sense of normalcy. If you’ve been [...]

Violating a Minnesota Protective Order Can Impact Your Child Custody

Domestic violence is rampant in Minnesota and the US as a whole, and the number of cases has seen a dramatic uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic. A likely contributing factor? Victims and abusers in closer proximity more often and/or for [...]

Injured in MN? How the Law Works to Protect You (and How It Doesn’t)

Minnesota personal injury law can be complicated. There are many rules and regulations and then exceptions to these rules and regulations.

If you’ve sustained a personal injury and you believe that it was due to the negligence of another, the [...]

What Are the Three Types of Social Security Disability Benefits?

Social Security was created in 1935 to help promote economic security for Americans. Most people associate it with the benefits retired people receive, but that’s not the only type of social security benefits out there.

In fact, there are three [...]

Are COVID Infections a Sign of MN Nursing Home Abuse?

One of the most troubling aspects of the COVID-19 crisis has been the stories coming out about nursing home abuse happening in cities throughout the United States.

Everything from physical abuse of patients to residents diagnosed with the virus being [...]

Duluth Personal Injury Lawyers

If you’ve lived in Northern Minnesota for a long time, you understand that accidents in Duluth can happen in the blink of an eye. Whether you were in an auto accident, or slipped and fell on the ice, it is [...]

Northern Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Lawyers

Getting injured on the job in Minnesota can be overwhelming and complicated. It’s important that if you’ve been injured at work, you get the care and treatment you need. At LaCourse, Poole & Envall, P.A., our experienced worker’s compensation lawyers [...]

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CONNECT WITH US

Olson, Poole & Envall, P.A.

130 West Superior Street

US Bank Building

Duluth, MN 55802

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