Visitation at County Jails: Potential Policy Implications

DOI10.1177/0887403402131003
Published date01 March 2002
Date01 March 2002
Subject MatterJournal Article
CRIMINALJUSTICEPOLICYREVIEW/March 2002Sturges/VISITATIONATCOUNTYJAILS
Visitation at County Jails:
Potential Policy Implications
Judith E. Sturges
Penn State Fayette
This study sought to better understand the concerns of correctional officersand visi-
tors about the process of visitation at five county jails in Pennsylvania. Two qualita-
tive methods, observations and interviews, wereused to gather data from correctional
officers, visitors, and wardens. Correctional officers were concerned about security
and working with unruly visitors. Concerns of visitors were that theywanted to have
contact visits with inmates, to have some improvements made with the visitation pro-
cess, and to be treated better by criminal justice personnel. These issues were dis-
cussed with the wardens, and suggestions for improvingthe visitation process were
discussed. Potential policy changes are presented in this article, such as identifying
visitors of inmates and schedulingvisits. It is also suggested that training correctional
personnel with interpersonal communication skills and a human service orientation
may enhance their jobs and alleviate some of the problemswith the visitation process
at jails.
Despite the lengthy history of correctional research, little has been written
about the dynamics of communication between the public that comes in
contact with the correctional system and its employees. In addition,
although there has been a great deal of research done about prison environ-
ments, relatively little research has focused on jail environments.
Roughly 10 million people are processed through the 3,500 jails in the
United States each year, and approximately 605,945 inmates were held in
jails by midyear 1999 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2000; Kerle, 1991). As
jail populations increase, there will be a greater number of families affected
(Jorgensen, Hernandez, & Warren, 1986).
When an individual is arrested and jailed, the offenderand his or her fam-
ily are placed abruptly in an unexpected and stressful situation. Visitation
between an inmate and family members is critical to adjustment after incar-
ceration because it provides them with a means to alleviate stress and helps
them maintain bonds with each other. However, restrictions placed on
32
Criminal Justice PolicyReview, Volume13, Number 1, March 2002 32-45
© 2002 Sage Publications
at SAGE Publications on December 5, 2012cjp.sagepub.comDownloaded from

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT