Who Gets Visited in Prison? Individual- and Community-Level Disparities in Inmate Visitation Experiences

Abstract

Scholarship has shown that visitation helps individuals maintain social ties during imprisonment, which, in turn, can improve inmate behavior and reduce recidivism. Not being visited can result in collateral consequences and inequality in punishment. Few studies, however, have explored the factors associated with visitation. This study uses data on Florida inmates to identify individual- and community-level factors that may affect visitation. Consistent with expectations derived from prior theory and research, the study finds that inmates who are older, Black, and who have been incarcerated more frequently experience less visitation. In addition, inmates who come from areas with higher incarceration rates and higher levels of social altruism experience more visits. Unexpectedly, however, sentence length and economic disadvantage are not associated with visitation. Implications of these findings are discussed.

The differential effects of prison contact on parent–child relationship quality and child behavioral changes

“…Further, those individuals who have never been visited by anyone may differ significantly from inmates who are seldom visited by their children but visited by other individuals. To support this statement, previous research has demonstrated significant differences in demographic factors for those who are never visited in prison (see Cochran, Mears, and Bales, 2014) but have yet to include family or child factors. In summary, the conclusions from this analysis are prove to be problematic considering that some research suggests that different individuals, whether it be parents, caregivers, or children, differ significantly in their perception of parent-child relationship quality (Aquilino, 1999;Mackintosh, Myers, and Kennon, 2006).…”

All in the Family: An Examination of the Predictors of Visitation Among Committed Juvenile Offenders

“…Underlying our approach is the premise that visitation must be understood as a social event that arises from the prior history and qualities of youth and their families. Thus, consistent with prior literature, the analysis first examines how individual qualities of youth—including their age, sex, race/ethnicity, and prior offending—are associated with visitation (Cochran et al, 2016; Cochran et al, 2017; Clark & Duwe, 2016; Connor & Tewksbury, 2015; Tewksbury & Connor, 2012). However, we also consider the effects of family structural and background characteristics, given that structural disadvantages at the family level may pose obstacles to visitation.…”

“…Between 25% and 75% of offenders (both juvenile and adult) will never receive a visit (Bales & Mears, 2008; Cochran, Barnes, Mears, & Bales, 2018; Young, Nadel, Bales, Pesta, & Greenwald, 2019), and among those receiving visits, some receive many while others receive few (Turanovic & Tasca, 2017). Also, scholarship on adult inmates reveals key offender characteristics and background variables that predict visitation—more visits are received by offenders who are younger, White, female, and who are housed closer to home (Cochran, Mears, & Bales, 2017; Cochran, Mears, Bales, & Stewart, 2016; Connor & Tewksbury, 2015; Tewksbury & Connor, 2012). In short, these studies suggest that visitation is not equally distributed and the factors that limit visitation are identifiable.…”

“…As part of this, we examine how visits are affected by such things as family income, single-parent family status, the presence of siblings, family history of incarceration, and the geographic distance between the family and the youth’s residential facility. And last, in a departure from most prior studies (Cochran et al, 2016; Cochran et al, 2017; Clark & Duwe, 2016; Connor & Tewksbury, 2015; Tewksbury & Connor, 2012), we examine the effect of key family social process variables—including family closeness, support, and conflict—on visitation with the expectation that youth from families marked by more troubled relationships will receive fewer visits.…”

“…Also, the data contain a wide variety of variables that can be used to predict visitation. Thus, using these data offers the chance to rigorously respond to calls from scholars to better understand visitation experiences (i.e., Cochran, 2012; Cochran & Mears, 2013; Visher & O’Connell, 2012), including the factors associated with visits (Cochran et al, 2017), and to do so for the understudied area of juvenile visitation in particular.…”