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Limiting
prison visits
The California Department of Corrections is considering a
new set of regulations that would tighten up the rules for
visiting prisoners. The ostensible reasons are to clarify
the rules and to reduce the smuggling of drugs into prisons.
But the early drafts of the proposals seem unnecessarily
harsh and calculated to break down family relationships.
Given that most prisoners will eventually return to society,
the proposals should be modified, or rejected entirely.
The department has several proposals under consideration.
One would forbid "contact" visits - including
hugging, kissing or embracing, even among family members -
for any prisoner convicted of possession for sale or
manufacture of drugs for the first year. After a year a
prisoner would be allowed to touch family members, but only
for a period not to exceed five seconds at the beginning and
the end of the visit. This would be especially tough on
female prisoners, 42 percent of whom are in on drug-related
crimes and 80 percent of whom are mothers, according to
psychiatrist and author Terry Kuppers.
Another rule would prohibit male prisoners, regardless of
their crime, from holding anybody over the age of 6 on their
laps. Any visiting child over the age of seven would have to
get a state-issued picture ID card. Finally, prisoners
confined 23 hours a day in security housing units, or SHUs,
for violating prison rules, would only be allowed to have
blood relatives as visitors. No friends, no domestic
partners, no foster parents, just blood relatives. Some
prisoners have none.
The department held a hearing in Sacramento March 8 at
which more than 100 prisoner family members showed up and 60
spoke. Virtually all complained that the proposed
regulations were unreasonable, designed more to dehumanize
prisoners and breed resentment. We agree. Most California
prisoners will eventually get out of prison. There's no
guarantee, of course, but it just makes sense that those
that have maintained relationships with families and loved
ones will have a better chance of avoiding future crimes.
Making contact with families and friends more difficult is
more likely to breed isolation and contribute to recidivism.
It also could contribute to discipline problems within
prisons. In addition, as Cayenne Bird, director of the
prison reform group UNION (www/ geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398.htm)
has pointed out, Christians are admonished to visit
prisoners and the sick, even those who are not family
members.
These new regulations could make the work of prison
ministries and individual believers more difficult. Prison
officials say the new proposals are a response to a 1997
law, SB 2601, that among other things declared prison visits
a privilege, not a right. According to Department of
Corrections spokesman Russ Heimerich, the comments received
at the hearing and by mail are now being reviewed.
The regulations, perhaps revised, could be submitted for
review by administrative law judges in a few weeks. The best
bet might be to scrap these proposals and start over - or
repeal that 1997 law.
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