Visiting women in prison: Who visits and who cares?

Abstract

This article provides a descriptive analysis of visitation at a maximum security prison for women. Prisons throughout the country now hold over 87,000 women, a 100% increase over the past ten years. Women inmates, including those in this study, are young, single, unemployed, and undereducated. This study collected and examined visitation data on 222 women who averaged 22 months of incarceration. During their incarceration, 79% of the women received at least one visit from a friend or family member. Of the women who received visits, the most frequent visitors were friends (evenly divided among males and females), not family members. For all visitors, the major impediment to visitation was the distance that they, especially children, had to travel to reach the prison. Perhaps as a result, 61% of the women who were mothers did not receive any visits from their children. The study concluded that visitation and the separation that ensues when visits are terminated can be a harrowing experience for women inmates, especially those who are separated from their children. Nonetheless, visitation can help foster prison adjustment and lead to better societal adjustment after prison. Thus, if there is to be prison visitation, as is the trend throughout the nation, then prisons and states will have to expend resources to facilitate it, because families and friends of inmates do not have the means to visit. © 2002 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.