Jail Visitation Bans: What to Know and Where to Go for More

A series of recently-filed lawsuits has brought a flurry of media attention to jail visitation bans that prevent incarcerated people from seeing their families in person. 

There are thousands of jails in this country, most of which are controlled by the local county sheriff – meaning there is huge variation in visitation policies. Some jails allow “contact visits,” in which incarcerated people can touch, hug, and sit with their loved ones, but this has grown less common. Many jails require incarcerated people to talk with their loved ones through a plexiglass barrier during visits. And a growing number of jails have banned in-person visits entirely and replaced them exclusively with video calls. Those calls often cost money, and some jails require that family members go to a specific place (either the jail or a separate off-site location) for the video call, rather than allowing people to make those calls from home. 

Recent lawsuits and the attendant media attention have focused on two jail systems in Michigan, but these bans have existed for years – well before the COVID-19 pandemic – in small towns and big cities across the country¹. The following issue brief offers resources for journalists interested in learning more about jail visitation policies in their own communities. 

There is no comprehensive data on the number of people who visit loved ones in jail each year or the ways in which those visits happen. To provide a sense of the scope of the impact of visitation bans, we have compiled the most recent available data on the number of children with incarcerated parents and, conversely, the number of incarcerated parents. Of course, people without children are also impacted by jail visitation bans, but the data and research on children with incarcerated parents is more readily available than information about other people with incarcerated loved ones. We have also gathered information about visitation policies and their costs below. 

Scope of parental incarceration

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center has information about the number of children with incarcerated parents or guardians. The most recent data broken down by race and ethnicity can be found here. The data can be further broken down by state using the menu on the left side of the screen. The most recent survey, conducted in 2021, found that roughly 4.5 million children under age 18 had a parent who had been incarcerated at some point. 

Other researchers have used surveys to investigate the scope of parental incarceration. 

• FWD.us found that one in five American adults (20%) has had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives. (This report also has a wealth of additional information about the scope of familial incarceration.) 
• A 2014 survey of women jailed in Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, and Washington, DC found that 75% had children under the age of 18. 
• Researchers found that 9% of American children born between 1999 and 2005 had a caregiver spend time in prison before they turned 18. Close to 40% of children had a caregiver impacted by the criminal legal system in some way, including a criminal charge, conviction, or prison sentence. Those rates were significantly higher for Black and American Indian children. (See here for a summary of the research.) 
• A Prison Policy Initiative analysis estimated the extent of maternal incarceration in the United States, finding that 80% of the roughly 2 million women jailed each year are mothers. 

Scope of prison/jail telecom industry

• A 2015 Prison Policy Initiative analysis found that:
• More than 500 jails and prisons in 43 states and the District of Columbia used video calls.
• 74% of jails that had implemented video calls banned in-person visits. 
• Typical costs for video calls ranged from $0.33 to $1.00 per minute. The commissions charged by jails and fees collected from families are also discussed. 
• A database from the Prison Policy Initiative collects contracts between jails/prisons and the private companies they hire, including telecom companies that provide the hard- and software for video calls. You can use it to search for contracts in your own community. 

Impact of visitation for incarcerated people and their families

The Prison Policy Initiative has both conducted and compiled extensive research on the subject of visitation.

• Their research roundup summarizes the evidence demonstrating the connection between in-person visitation and a range of positive outcomes for incarcerated people and their families, including better mental health outcomes, less violence in jails and prisons, and reduced recidivism. 
• The roundup includes a section dedicated to research on video calls. The studies in this section show that incarcerated people and their families prefer that video calls be a supplement to, not replacement for, in-person visits. The research also shows that violence and contraband become more common, not less, in jails where in-person visits are banned. 
• This blog post summarizes research on the psychological differences between video and in-person communication. 

Below are a handful of other relevant studies on visitation.

• An evaluation of a visitation program for incarcerated mothers includes a review of the literature on visitation and an explanation of the importance of “high-quality” visits that include physical touch. The outcomes of this study affirm the broader research findings summarized by its authors. Source: Journal of Offender Rehabilitation
• In a review of research on visitation, the authors noted that the positive impacts of visitation were more commonly found in settings that focused on increasing the quality of interactions, like allowing physical contact and creating a child-friendly environment. Source: American Psychologist
• There is a large body of evidence on the importance of physical touch for human beings. Source: Science Daily

Impact of incarceration on children and families

There is a vast body of research documenting myriad harmful effects of parental incarceration on children. The following reports compile and synthesize that research. 

• A Developmental Perspective on Children with Incarcerated Parents, Child Development Perspectives
• The Invisible Toll of Mass Incarceration on Childhood Development, The Hechinger Report
• Every Second: The Impact of the Incarceration Crisis on America's Families, FWD.us
• A Shared Sentence: The Devastating Toll of Parental Incarceration on Kids, Families and Communities, The Annie E. Casey Foundation
• Mass Incarceration and Children’s Outcomes, Economic Policy Institute 
• Who Pays? The Trust Cost of Incarceration on Families, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Forward Together, and Research Action Design

Recent reporting and scholarship has shined a light on the direct connections between the criminal legal system and the agencies that investigate claims of child abuse and manage foster care (often called the child welfare system, child protective services, or children’s and family services). 

• Force multipliers: How the criminal legal and child welfare systems cooperate to punish families, Prison Policy Initiative
• How Incarcerated Parents Are Losing Their Children Forever, The Marshall Project

The steps below offer several paths to investigate your local jail’s visitation practices¹. 

Find out the visitation policy at your local jail, including whether or not it allows contact visits, through-the-glass visits, and/or video calls. 

• Start with the jail website in your area (likely run by the local sheriff). Find any relevant information on how you can visit someone held there. 
• Call the jail and ask how to visit. Even if you find visitation information online, you may want to confirm it’s up-to-date and accurate.

Find the contract that defines the relationship between your county jail and its telecom provider. 

• Start here to see if the Prison Policy Initiative has already found the contract for your county.
• If the contract is missing, you can submit an information request. Here’s an example. 

Determine which government officials were responsible for executing the contract.

• Use an internet search to find the meeting where the contract was approved and any news stories from the time. 
• And/or submit an information request for emails, meeting notes, and communications about the contract. Here’s an example. 

Figure out how much money the county makes off their jail telecom contracts. 

• Look at the county budget. The Sheriff’s department may have a line item for phone, video, tablet, and messaging revenue.
• And/or submit an information request for the revenue from this telecom contract. Here’s an example.