new jersey conjugal visits

Map Options

Conjugal Visit Laws by State 2024

California refers to these visits as contact visits. Conjugal visits have had a notorious past recently in the United States , as they were often not allowed to see their family unless it was for brief contact or to speak with them on the phone. Conjugal visits began as a way for an incarcerated partner to spend private time with their domestic partner, spouse, or life partner. Historically, these were granted as a result of mental health as well as some rights that have since been argued in court. For example, cases have gone to the Supreme Court which have been filed as visits being considered privileges instead of rights.

The right to procreate, religious freedom, marital privacy and to abstain from cruel and unusual punishment has been brought up and observed by the court. Of course, married spouses can't procreate if one is incarcerated, and this has been a topic of hot debate in the legal community for years. Although the rules have since been relaxed to allow more private time with one's family, especially to incentivize good behavior and rehabilitation, it is still a controversy within social parameters.

In 1993, only 17 states had conjugal visit programs, which went down to 6 in 2000. By 2015, almost all states had eliminated the need for these programs in favor of more progressive values. California was one of the first to create a program based around contact visits, which allows the inmate time with their family instead of "private time" with their spouses as a means of forced love or procreation.

Washington and Connecticut

Connecticut and Washington have similar programs within their prison systems, referring to conjugal visits as extended family visits. Of course, the focus has been to take the stigma away from conjugal visits as a means of procreation, a short time, and a privilege as a result of good behavior. Extended family visits are much more wholesome and inclusive, giving relatively ample time to connect with one's family, regardless if they have a partner or not. Inmates can see their children, parents, cousins, or anyone who is deemed to have been, and still is, close to the prisoner.

Of course, there are proponents of this system that say this aids rehabilitation in favor of being good role models for their children or younger siblings. Others feel if someone has committed a heinous crime, their rights should be fully stripped away to severely punish their behavior.

On a cheerier note, New York has named its program the "family reunion program", which is an apt name for the state that holds the largest city in America by volume, New York City. NYC's finest have always had their handful of many different issues, including organized crime. The authorities are seeking a larger change in the incarceration system and want to adopt a stance that focuses more on the rehabilitation of the inmate that shows signs of regret, instead of severe punishment for punishment's sake.

Download Table Data

Enter your email below, and you'll receive this table's data in your inbox momentarily.

• JSTOR Daily
• KLAQ El Paso - KLAQFM

• Prisons/Jails
• Inmate Search
• Visiting Applications

Visiting an inmate in New Jersey

Visiting applications and rules for visiting new jersey inmates.

The New Jersey Department of Corrections has acknowledged the importance of visitation.  Visitation offers inmates something to look forward to, and maintaining close ties with friends and family members who are a positive influence can also aid in the eventual reintegration of the inmate with society.  

One of the problems faced by the department of corrections is the stigma attached with visiting a prison.  People often feel discouraged and overwhelmed at the process of visiting an inmate, and don't know where to start.  To make it easier for everyone, we have assembled the most important things to know before you visit your inmate in New Jersey:

• During the orientation process, when inmate is first incarcerated, they are required to complete visit cards for all potential visitors (including minors).  This list can be updated several times a year.
• In order for the inmate to include you on the visiting list, they will need to know your full name, complete address as it appears on your photo ID, and your date of birth.  If you are not on the inmate's visiting list already, or if you are unsure the inmate knows all the pertinent information, you may want to send them a letter stating the necessary information.
• The facility will do a criminal history/background check on all prospective visitors.  You will need to stay in contact with the inmate about your visiting status, as they are responsible for informing you of your approval or denial.
• All visitors are required to present a valid photo ID, including a driver's license, state issued ID, passport, photo welfare or Medicaid card, or military ID.
• All visitors, their belongings and their vehicles are subject to a search and must pass through a metal detector.  Canines and electronic scanning devices can also be utilized to help prevent contraband from entering the facility.
• Cell phones, cameras, music devices, recording devices, and electronics of any kind are not allowed to enter into the facility, leave these items in your car.
• Tobacco and related products including matches and lighters are not allowed to enter into the facility.
• Contact visits allow the inmate to be with the visitor with no barrier present.  Contact visits allow for handshaking, a brief hug and kiss at the start and at the end of a visit and hand holding during the visit.
• Non-contact visits are conducted behind a glass or walled barrier.

Some additional information you should know about visiting an inmate in New Jersey:

• Special visits may be granted for persons who visit infrequently who are traveling a long distance to visit, or to visit a hospitalized inmate, or if you are visiting in an official capacity, or are a member of the clergy.  Special visits may only be approved by the facility administrator.
• If you are visiting with an infant or small child you may be allowed to bring several additional items into the visitation area including a plastic bottle, diaper, or wipes.  Contact the facility for more information.

Dress Code/Contact Rules for Visitors of New Jersey Inmates

All correctional facilities institute a dress code for visitors.  Compliance with the dress code ensures a safe and secure visit for everyone.  If you fail to adhere to the dress code you will not be permitted to enter into visitation.  To ensure you get to visit, you should always leave a change of clothes in your car so that if an item of clothing you are wearing is deemed inappropriate you will be able to quickly change.

• Clothing that is sheer, transparent, see through or fishnet is not allowed.
• Clothing that exposes undergarments or private parts of the body is prohibited.
• Clothing may not be skin-tight or expose the shoulders, midriff, torso or back.  Tube tops, tank tops, halter tops, sleeveless shirts, low cut shirts, low rise pants, spandex, leggings etc. are prohibited from being worn.
• Skits, dresses and shorts must cover the waist and come down to the knees.  They must not have an inseam length or slit more than three inches above the knee.
• Hats, bandanas, or headgear of any kind is prohibited with the exception of religious or medical gear, which will be subject to search.
• Any clothing that closely resembles the inmates clothes or the staffs clothes is prohibited.
• Uniforms such as military or doctors/nurse scrubs are restricted from being worn.
• If your clothing contains offensive language or images you will not be allowed to visit.
• If you appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol your visiting privileges will be suspended.
• Failure to maintain control if your children will result in a visit terminating.
• Loud/disruptive behavior, or failure to comply with the directions of staff will result in the visit terminating.

If you have a question about visiting an inmate in New Jersey, or have already visited your inmate and would like to share your experience, or know of some other useful information related to visiting an inmate in New Jersey, please leave a comment below.

• Federal Prisons
• Connecticut
• District of Columbia
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• West Virginia
• Visiting Hours
• Visiting FAQs
• Setting up a phone account
• Save money on inmate calls
• Mail Books, Letters, Photos
• Holiday/Quarterly Packages
• Inmate Funds
• Create Account/Login

Conjugal Visits

Why they’re disappearing, which states still use them, and what really happens during those overnight visits..

Although conjugal, or “extended,” visits play a huge role in prison lore, in reality, very few inmates have access to them. Twenty years ago, 17 states offered these programs. Today, just four do: California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington. No federal prison offers extended, private visitation.

Last April, New Mexico became the latest state to cancel conjugal visits for prisoners after a local television station revealed that a convicted killer, Michael Guzman, had fathered four children with several different wives while in prison. Mississippi had made a similar decision in January 2014.

A Stay at the “Boneyard”

In every state that offers extended visits, good prison behavior is a prerequisite, and inmates convicted of sex crimes or domestic violence, or who have life sentences, are typically excluded.

The visits range from one hour to three days, and happen as often as once per month. They take place in trailers, small apartments, or “family cottages” built just for this purpose, and are sometimes referred to as “ boneyards .” At the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Connecticut, units are set up to imitate homes. Each apartment has two bedrooms, a dining room, and a living room with a TV, DVD player, playing cards, a Jenga game, and dominoes. In Washington, any DVD a family watches must be G-rated. Kitchens are typically fully functional, and visitors can bring in fresh ingredients or cooked food from the outside.

In California, inmates and their visitors must line up for inspection every four hours throughout the weekend visit, even in the middle of the night. Many prisons provide condoms for free. In New Mexico, before the extended visitation program was canceled, the prisoner’s spouse could be informed if the inmate had tested positive for a sexually transmitted infection. After the visit, both inmates and visitors are searched, and inmates typically have their urine tested to check for drugs or alcohol, which are strictly prohibited.

What Everyone Gets Wrong

Conjugal visits are not just about sex. In fact, they are officially called “family visits,” and kids are allowed to stay overnight, too. In Connecticut, a spouse or partner can’t come alone: the child of the inmate must be present. In Washington, two related inmates at the same facility, such as siblings or a father and son, are allowed to arrange a joint visit with family members from the outside. Only about a third of extended visits in the state take place between spouses alone.

The Insider’s Perspective

Serena L. was an inmate at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York from 1999 to 2002. During that time, she qualified for just one overnight trailer visit. Her 15-year-old sister, who lived on Long Island, persuaded a friend to drive her to the prison. “I remember her coming through the gate, carrying two big bags of food, and she said, ‘I got your favorite: Oreos!’ ” Serena says. “It was like a little slumber party for us. When I was first incarcerated, we had tried to write to each other and talk to each other by phone, but there was lots we weren’t really emotionally able to come to terms with until we had that private space, without a CO watching, to do it.”

The (Checkered) History

Conjugal visits began around 1918 at Parchman Farm, a labor camp in Mississippi. At first, the visits were for black prisoners only, and the visitors were local prostitutes, who arrived on Sundays and were paid to service both married and single inmates. According to historian David Oshinsky, Jim Crow-era prison officials believed African-American men had stronger sex drives than whites, and would not work as hard in the cotton fields if they were not sexually sated. The program expanded in the 1940s to include white, male inmates and their wives, and in the 1970s to include female inmates.

Has your partner been in prison? Help others understand what the experience is like by filling out our questionnaire.

Our reporting has real impact on the criminal justice system

Our journalism establishes facts, exposes failures and examines solutions for a criminal justice system in crisis. If you believe in what we do, become a member today.

Stay up to date on our reporting and analysis.

How Do Conjugal Visits Work?

Maintaining close ties with loved ones while doing time can increase the chances of a successful reentry program. Although several studies back this conclusion, it’s widely logical.

While the conjugal visits concept sounds commendable, there’s an increasing call to scrap the scheme, particularly across US states. This campaign has frustrated many states out of the program, leaving only a handful. Back in 1993, 17 US states recognized conjugal visits. Today, in 2020, only four do.

The conjugal visit was first practiced in Mississippi. The state, then, brought in prostitutes for inmates. The program continued until 2014. The scrap provoked massive protests from different right groups and prisoners’ families. The protesters sought a continuance of the program, which they said had so far helped sustain family bonds and inmate’s general attitude to life-after-jail.

New Mexico, the last to scrap the concept, did so after a convicted murderer impregnated four different women in prison. If these visits look as cool as many theories postulate, why the anti-conjugal-visit campaigns in countries like the US?

This article provides an in-depth guide on how conjugal visits work, states that allow conjugal visits, its historical background, arguments for and against the scheme, and what a conjugal visit entails in reality.

What Is a Conjugal Visit?

A conjugal visit is a popular practice that allows inmates to spend time alone with their loved one(s), particularly a significant other, while incarcerated. By implication, and candidly, conjugal visits afford prisoners an opportunity to, among other things, engage their significant other sexually.

However, in actual content, such visits go beyond just sex. Most eligible prisoners do not even consider intimacy during such visits. In many cases, it’s all about ‘hosting’ family members and sustaining family bonds while they serve time. In fact, in some jurisdictions, New York, for example, spouses are not involved in more than half of such visits. But how did it all start?

History of Conjugal Visits

Conjugal visits origin dates back to the early 20 th century, in the then Parchman Farm – presently, Mississippi State Penitentiary. Back then, ‘qualified’ male prisoners were allowed to enjoy intimacy with prostitutes, primarily as a reward for hard work.

While underperforming prisoners were beaten, the well-behaved were rewarded in different forms, including a sex worker’s company. On their off-days, Sunday, a vehicle-load of women were brought into the facility and offered to the best behaved. The policy was soon reviewed, substituting prostitutes for inmates’ wives or girlfriends, as they wished.

The handwork-for-sex concept recorded tremendous success, and over time, about a quarter of the entire US states had introduced the practice. In no time, many other countries copied the initiative for their prisons.

Although the United States is gradually phasing out conjugal visits, the practice still holds in many countries. In Canada, for instance, “extended family visits” – a newly branded phrase for conjugal visits – permits prisoners up to 72 hours alone with their loved ones, once in few months. Close family ties and, in a few cases, friends are allowed to time alone with a prisoner. Items, like foods, used during the visit are provided by the visitors or the host – the inmate.

Over to Asia, Saudi Arabia is, arguably, one of the most generous countries when it comes to conjugal visits. Over there, inmates are allowed intimacy once monthly. Convicts with multiple wives get access to all their wives – one wife, monthly. Even more, the government foots traveling experiences for the visitors.

Conjugal visits do not exist in Great Britain. However, in some instances, prisoners incarcerated for a long period may qualify to embark on a ‘family leave’ for a short duration. This is applicable mainly for inmates whose records suggest a low risk of committing crimes outside the facility.

This practice is designed to reconnect the inmates to the real world outside the prison walls before their release . Inmates leverage on this privilege not just to reconnect with friends and family, but to also search for jobs , accommodation, and more, setting the pace for their reintegration.

Back to US history, the family visit initiative soon began to decline from around the ’80s. Now, conjugal visits only exist in California, New York, Connecticut, and Washington.

Is the Increasing Cancellation Justifiable?

The conjugal visit initiative cancellation, despite promising results, was reportedly tied around public opinion. Around the ’90s, increasing pressure mounted against the practice.

One of the arguments was that convicts are sent to jail as a punishment, not for pleasure. They fail to understand that certain convictions – such as convictions for violent crimes – do not qualify for conjugal visit programs.

The anti-conjugal visit campaigners claim the practice encouraged an increase in babies fathered by inmates. There are, however, no data to substantiate such claims. Besides, inmates are usually given free contraceptives during the family visits.

Another widely touted justification, which seems the strongest, is the high running cost. Until New Mexico recently scraped the conjugal visit scheme, they had spent an average of approximately $120,000 annually. While this may sound like a lot, what then can we say of the approximately $35,540 spent annually on each inmate in federal facilities?

If the total cost of running the state’s conjugal visit program was but equivalent to the cost of keeping three inmates behind bars, then, perhaps, the scrap had some political undertones, not entirely running cost, as purported.

Besides, an old study on the population of New York’s inmates postulates that prisoners who kept ties with loved ones were about 70 percent less likely – compared to their counterparts who had no such privilege – to become repeat offenders within three years after release.

Conjugal Visit State-by-State Rules

The activities surrounding conjugal visits are widely similar across jurisdictions. That said, the different states have individual requirements for family visitation:

California: If you’re visiting a loved one in a correctional facility in California, among other rules , be ready for a once-in-four-hours search.

Connecticut : To qualify, prisoners must not be below level 4 in close custody. Close custody levels – usually on a 1-to-5 scale – measures the extent to which correctional officers monitor inmates’ day-to-day activities.

Also, inmates should not be on restriction, must not be a gang member, and must have no records of disciplinary offenses in Classes A or B in the past year. Besides, spouse-only visits are prohibited; an eligible member of the family must be involved.

New York : Unlike Connecticut and Washington, New York’s conjugal visit rules –  as with California’s – allow same-sex partners, however, not without marriage proof.

Washington : Washington is comparatively strict about her conjugal visit requirements . It enlists several crimes as basis for disqualifying inmates from enjoying such privileges. Besides, inmates must proof active involvement in a reintegration/rehabilitation scheme and must have served a minimum time, among others, to qualify. 

However, the rule allows joint visits, where two relatives are in the same facility. Visit duration varies widely – between six hours to three days. The prison supervisor calls the shots on a case-to-case basis.

As with inmates, their visitors also have their share of eligibility requirements to satisfy for an extended family visit. For instance, visitors with pending criminal records may not qualify.

As complicated as the requirements seem, it can even get a bit more complex. For instance, there is usually a great deal of paperwork, background checks, and close supervision. Understandably, these are but to guide against anything implicating. Touchingly, the prisoners’ quests are simple. They only want to reconnect with those who give them happiness, love, and, importantly, hope for a good life outside the bars.

Conjugal Visits: A Typical Experience

Perhaps you’ve watched pretty similar practices in movies. But it’s entirely a different ball game in the real world. Besides that movies make the romantic visits seem like a trend presently, those in-prison sex scenes are not exactly what it is in reality.

How, then, does it work there? As mentioned, jurisdictions that still allow “extended family visits” may not grant the same to the following:

• Persons with questionable “prison behavior”
• Sex crime-related convicts
• Domestic violence convicts
• Convicts with a life sentence

Depending on the state, the visit duration lasts from one hour to up to 72 hours. Such visits can happen as frequently as once monthly, once a couple of months, or once in a year. The ‘meetings’ happen in small apartments, trailers, and related facilities designed specifically for the program.

In Connecticut, for example, the MacDougall-Walker correctional facility features structures designed to mimic typical home designs. For instance, the apartments each feature a living room with games, television, and DVD player. Over at Washington, only G-rated videos, that’s one considered suitable for general viewers, are allowed for family view in the conjugal facilities.

The kitchens are usually in good shape, and they permit both fresh and pre-cooked items. During an extended family visit in California, prisoners and their visitors are inspected at four-hour intervals, both night and day, till the visit ends.

Before the program was scrapped in New Mexico, correctional institutions filed-in inmates, and their visitors went through a thorough search. Following a stripped search, inmates were compelled to take a urine drug/alcohol test.

Better Understanding Conjugal Visits

Conjugal visits are designed to keep family ties.

New York’s term for the scheme – Family Reunion Program (FRP) – seems to explain its purpose better. For emphasis, the “R” means reunion, not reproduction, as the movies make it seem.

While sexual activities may be partly allowed, it’s primarily meant to bring a semblance of a typical family setting to inmates. Besides reunion, such schemes are designed to act as incentives to encourage inmates to be on their best behavior and comply with prison regulations.

Don’t Expect So Much Comf ort

As mentioned, an extended family visit happens in specially constructed cabins, trailers, or apartments. Too often, these spaces are half-occupied with supplies like soap, linens, condoms, etc. Such accommodations usually feature two bedrooms and a living room with basic games. While these provisions try to mimic a typical home, you shouldn’t expect so much comfort, and of course, remember your cell room is just across your entrance door.

Inmates Are Strip-Searched

Typically, prisoners are stripped in and out and often tested for drugs . In New York, for example, inmates who come out dirty on alcohol and drug tests get banned from the conjugal visit scheme for a year. While visitors are not stripped, they go through a metal detector.

Inmates Do Not Have All-time Privacy

The prison personnel carries out routine checks, during which everyone in the room comes out for count and search. Again, the officer may obstruct the visit when they need to administer medications as necessary.

Conjugal Visits FAQ

Are conjugal visits allowed in the federal prison system?

No, currently, extended family visits are recognized in only four states across the United States –  Washington, New York, Connecticut, and California.

What are the eligibility criteria?

First, conjugal visits are only allowed in a medium or lesser-security correctional facility. While each state has unique rules, commonly, inmates apply for such visits. Prisoners with recent records of reoccurring infractions like swearing and fighting may be ineligible.

To qualify, inmates must undergo and pass screenings, as deemed appropriate by the prison authority. Again, for instance, California rules say only legally married prisoners’ requests are granted.

Are gay partners allowed for conjugal visits?

Yes, but it varies across states. California and New York allow same-sex partners on conjugal visits. However, couples must have proof of legal marriage.

Are conjugal visits only done in the US?

No, although the practice began in the US, Mississippi precisely, other countries have adopted similar practices. Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Canada, for example, are more lenient about extended family visits.

Brazil and Venezuela’s prison facilities, for example, allow weekly ‘rendezvous.’ In Columbia, such ‘visits’ are a routine, where as many as 3,500 women troop in weekly for intimacy with their spouses. However, Northern Ireland and Britain are entirely against any form of conjugal programs. Although Germany allows extended family visits, the protocols became unbearably tight after an inmate killed his supposed spouse during one of such visits in 2010.

Benefits of Conjugal Visits

Once a normal aspect of the prison system, conjugal visits and the moments that prisoners have with their families are now an indulgence to only a few prisoners in the system. Many prison officials cite huge costs and no indications of reduced recidivism rates among reasons for its prohibition.

Documentations , on the other hand, say conjugal visits dramatically curb recidivism and sexual assaults in prisons. As mentioned earlier, only four states allow conjugal visits. However, research shows that these social calls could prove beneficial to correctional services.

A review by social scientists at the Florida International University in 2012 concludes that conjugal visits have several advantages. One of such reveals that prisons that allowed conjugal visits had lower rape cases and sexual assaults than those where conjugal visits were proscribed. They deduced that sex crime in the prison system is a means of sexual gratification and not a crime of power. To reduce these offenses, they advocated for conjugal visitation across state systems.

Secondly, they determined that these visits serve as a means of continuity for couples with a spouse is in prison. Conjugal visits can strengthen family ties and improve marriage functionality since it helps to maintain the intimacy between husband and wife.

Also, it helps to induce positive attitudes in the inmates, aid the rehabilitation process, and enable the prisoner to function appropriately when reintroduced back to society. Similarly, they add that since it encourages the one-person-one partner practice, it’ll help decrease the spread of HIV. These FIU researchers recommend that more states should allow conjugal visits.

Another study by Yale students in 2012 corroborated the findings of the FIU researchers, and the research suggests that conjugal visits decrease sexual violence in prisons and induces ethical conduct in inmates who desire to spend time with their families.

Expectedly, those allowed to enjoy extended family visits are a lot happier. Besides, they tend to maintain the best behaviors within the facility so that they don’t ruin their chances of the next meeting.

Also, according to experts, visitations can drop the rate of repeat prisoners, thus making the prison system cost-effective for state administrators. An academic with the UCLA explained that if prisoners continue to keep in touch with their families, they live daily with the knowledge that life exists outside the prison walls, and they can look forward to it. Therefore, these family ties keep them in line with society’s laws. It can be viewed as a law-breaking deterrence initiative.

For emphasis, conjugal visits, better termed extended family visits, are more than for sex, as it seems. It’s about maintaining family ties, primarily. The fact is, away from the movies, spouse-alone visits are surprisingly low, if at all allowed by most states’ regulations. Extended family visits create healthy relationships between prisoners and the world outside the bars. It builds a healthy start-point for an effective reentry process, helping inmates feel hope for a good life outside jail .

Harassment and Cyberbullying as Crimes

What is a bench trial jury trial vs. bench trial, related articles.

History of the Freedom of Information Act

Ineffective Assistance of Counsel

Tort Law Definition & Examples

Bail vs Bond: What’s the Difference?

Reckoning with the South

This couple wants you to know that conjugal visits are only legal in 4 states

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
• Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Editor's note: This story was co-written by inside-outside couple Steve Higginbotham and Jordana Rosenfeld, weaving together Jordana's personal experience and reporting with letters from Steve. Together, they examine popular myths around conjugal visits, their decreasing availability, and the punitive logic behind the state's policing of sex and intimacy that stifles relationships like theirs.   Jordana's words appear below in the orange boxes on the right; Steve's are in the purple on the left.

The other day, when I told my grandmother I was researching the history of conjugal visits for an essay, she said, "Oh, like in my stories?" 

You can't talk about conjugal visits without talking about television, because television is pretty much the only place where conjugal visits still exist. A wide variety of TV shows either joke about or dramatize conjugal visits, from popular sitcoms that have little to nothing to do with prison life, like The Simpsons , Family Guy , and Seinfeld, to prestige dramas like Prison Break and Oz that purport to offer "gritty" and "realistic" prison tales. Conjugals loom large in public imagination about life in prison, which leaves people under the unfortunate impression that they are in any kind of way widespread or accessible.

Their availability has been in steady decline for more than 25 years. The mid-to-late 1990s are the often-cited high point of conjugal visits , with 17 states offering some kind of program. (Federal and maximum security prisons do not allow conjugals.) This means that at their most widespread, conjugal visits were only ever permitted in one-third of all states. 

There are only four U.S. states that currently allow conjugal visits, often called "extended" or "family" visits: California, Connecticut, New York, and Washington. Some people say Connecticut's program doesn't count though, when it comes to conjugals—and the Connecticut Department of Corrections agrees. Their family visit program is explicitly intended for the benefit of children and requires that the incarcerated person receiving visitors be a parent. Their child must attend . 

My boyfriend has been in prison for 28 years. He was 18 during the high point of conjugal visit programs. That's when the state of Missouri decided to lock him up for the rest of his natural life, effectively sentencing him to a lifetime of deep loneliness and sexual repression, not just because Missouri doesn't offer conjugal visits, but because when you are incarcerated, your body belongs to the state in every possible way—from your labor to your sex life. 

Every prison riot ever could have been prevented with some properly organized fucking.

That's my boyfriend, Steve.

Not being able to physically express love—or even lust—builds frustration that boils over in unintended ways. 

Intimacy is policed rigidly in prison, and it has certainly worsened over the years. For most people with incarcerated lovers, intimacy happens not on a conjugal visit, but in the visiting room. Visits now may start and end with a brief embrace and chaste kiss. Open mouth kissing has been outlawed. These rules are enforced with terminated visits and even removing a person from the visiting list for a year or more.

Steve and I have kissed a total of six times.

We have also hugged six times, if you don't count us posing with his arm over my shoulder three times for pictures. The kisses were so brief that I'm not sure I remember what they felt like. He told me later on the phone that he knew he had to be the one to pull away from the kiss before we gave the COs in the bubble reason to intervene because I wouldn't. He knew this, somehow, before he ever kissed me. He was right. 

When I last visited him in Jefferson City Correctional Center, Steve told me about a real conjugal visit from '90s Missouri.

Years ago, people used to mess around in the visiting room at Potosi [Correctional Center]. Everyone knew to keep their sensitive visitors away from a certain area, because there was frequent sex behind a vending machine. I can neither confirm nor deny that cops were paid to turn a blind eye to it. I met a guy recently in my wing at JCCC who said he had heard of me, and that maybe I knew his father. I did know his father. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I probably saw his conception behind a Coke machine back in 1995.

The increasing restriction of physical touch—the expanded video surveillance of visiting spaces, the use of solitary confinement for the smallest infractions, and the withering of both in-person and conjugal visit programs—reflects the punitive logic that consensual human touch is a privilege that incarcerated people do not deserve.

This is an evil proposition, and it's one that is at the core of the ongoing dehumanization of millions of people in U.S. prisons, and the millions of people like me who love them. 

One woman with an incarcerated partner put it to researchers this way: "The prison system appears to be set up to break families up." And she's right. For the duration of his incarceration, I will never be closer to Steve than the state of Missouri is. I'm reminded during each of our timed kisses: His primary partner is the state. 

The most difficult part for me about a romantic relationship with a free woman is that I feel selfish. A lot of self-loathing thoughts creep in. I want the best for her and often question if I am that "best." However, an added benefit is that we can truly take things slowly and explore each other in ways that two free people don't often experience nowadays. We write emails daily. And these are important. We vent. And listen. We continue to build, whereas many free people stop building at consummation. 

But these are the realities rarely captured in media portrayals of romantic relationships between free world and incarcerated partners. Conjugals on TV are so disconnected from what it's actually like to be in a romantic relationship with an incarcerated person: Trying to schedule my life around precious 15 minute phone calls, paying 25 cents to send emails monitored by correctional officers, finding ways to symbolically include Steve in my life, like leaving open the seat next to me at the movies. Instead, television shows depict implausible scenarios of nefarious rendezvous that often parrot law enforcement lies. When they do so, they undermine the public's ability to conceptualize that love and commitment fuel relationships like ours. 

Although contraband typically enters prisons through staff , not visitors , television shows often present conjugal visits as a cover for smuggling, like in the earliest TV plot I could find involving a conjugal visit, from a 1986 Miami Vice episode. After his girlfriend is killed, Tubbs gets depressed enough to agree to go undercover at a state prison to bust some guards selling cocaine. In his briefing on the issue, Tubbs asks how the drugs are getting into the prison. Conjugal visits and family visits are the first two methods named by the prison commissioner, never mind that I have yet to find any evidence that Florida ever allowed those kinds of visits. 

Often, the excuse for policing visits so strictly is that drugs can be exchanged. But I know that lie is used for every type of control in prison. For over a year we had NO CONTACT visits because of the pandemic. During that time, dozens of inmates [at my facility] still overdosed and had drug-related episodes that caused them to need medical attention. Those drugs certainly didn't arrive through visits. They strip search and X-ray me going to and from visits anyway.

Everything in prison now is on camera. When a drug overdose occurs, the investigators track back over footage from visiting room cameras. One officer told me that while they were investigating drugs allegedly passing through the visiting room, they saw a guy covertly fingering his wife. This has happened on more than one occasion, but most guards will have enough of a heart not to bother with violations for some covert touching that wasn't caught until the camera review. Most. Sometimes, a rare asshole will just have to assert his power and write a CDV (conduct violation).

Write-ups or CDVs are given by staff at their discretion. The threat of solitary confinement is always looming in prison. It's another clever way of withholding physical interactions with other human beings as a form of torture. Solitary confinement for anywhere from 10 days to three months is a favorite punishment for "[nonviolent] sexual misconduct. " 

There's also a persistent media narrative that prison systems offer conjugal visit programs out of genuine concern for human welfare. A brief glance at the origins of conjugal visits in the U.S. prison system quickly disproves that theory, showing that conjugal visit programs were conceived as a tool of exploitation and social control. 

Conjugal visits originated in Mississippi at the infamous prison plantation, Mississippi State Penitentiary, or Parchman Farm. Mississippi state officials opened Parchman in the early 1900s, writes historian David Oshinsky in his book Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, in order to ensnare free Black people into forced labor. Mississippi, like other Southern states during Reconstruction, passed "Black Codes" that assigned harsh criminal penalties to minor "offenses" such as vagrancy, loitering, living with white people, and not carrying proof of employment—behaviors that were not considered criminal when done by white people. Using the crime loophole in the relatively new 13th Amendment, Mississippi charged thousands of Black people with crimes and forced them to work on the state's plantation. 

Parchman officials started offering sex to Black prisoners as a productivity incentive, "because prison officials wanted as much work as possible from their Negro convicts, whom they believed to have greater sexual needs than whites," Oshinsky writes.

"I never saw it, but I heard tell of truckloads of whores bein' sent up from Cleveland at dusk," said a Parchman prison official quoted by Oshinsky. "The cons who had a good day got to get 'em right there between the rows. In my day, we got civilized—put 'em up in little houses and told everybody that them whores was wives. That kept the Baptists off our backs." 

A certain kind of sexual morality has been instilled in the minds of many people with conservative religious upbringings. They naturally force this morality on people they consider children. That is how many guards see prisoners: as children.

Many states did not begin to join Mississippi in offering conjugal visits until much later in the century, when conservative governors like California's Ronald Reagan would determine in 1968 that allowing some married men to have sex with their wives was the best way to reduce " instances of homosexuality " in prisons. 

Abolitionists who wrote the book Queer (In)Justice , consider how concerned prison administrations have historically been and continue to be about queer sex in prisons. The book exposes both the deep fear of the liberatory potential of queer sexuality, and a broader reality that prisons are inherently queer places since prisons' "denial of sexual intimacy and agency is a quintessential queer experience." 

Beyond behavioral control, the rules that determine conjugal visit eligibility are always also about enforcing criminality, since the state decides what kind of charges render someone ineligible to wed or to have an extended visit. Even in the four states that allow these visits, most people with "violent" charges are only allowed to hold their lover's hand and briefly embrace at the beginning and end of visits.

We don't even have enough privacy to masturbate. 

I can be written up if anyone sees my dick, especially in the act of masturbation. I could face solitary confinement, loss of job, visits, religious programs, treatment classes, recreation, canteen spend, and school for getting written up. Conversely, I can be strip-searched at any given time and be forced to show everything.  

Living in this fishbowl has taught me there is no hiding. Too many bored eyes in the same small area to miss anything. Guards may come knocking on the door at any moment. My cellmate is often inches away from me, and it takes coordination to manage time away from each other because we eat, sleep, go to yard, and do just about everything on the same schedule. 

I choose to skip a meal occasionally and embrace the hunger, because it is much less painful than persistent relentless desire. After years of self-release in showers, in a room with snoring cellmates, or as quickly as possible when a brief moment of privacy occurs, my sex drive is all shook up. Current turn-ons could be said to include faucets running and/or snoring men.

Ultimately, this article is not about the right to conjugal visits. It's about the ways that punitive isolation and deprivation of loving physical contact have always been tactics of the U.S. prison system. 

Regardless of the quality of the representations, the prevalence of conjugal visits in movies and TV allows people to avoid thinking too hard about what it's like to be deprived of your sexual autonomy, maybe the rest of your life.

I have been locked up since I was 18, and I am 47 now. To be horny in prison for decades is painful. To the body and soul. 

There is justice as well as pleasure at stake here, and the difference between the two is slight. 

People who love someone in prison live shorter and harder lives. That we do it anyway shows the significance, centrality, and life-affirming nature of intimate relationships to those on both sides of the wall. Maybe it even points to the abolitionist power of romantic and sexual love between incarcerated and "free" people.

So, I guess we start with that thought and work from there to find a way to tear down the system.

As part of Scalawag's 3rd annual Abolition Week,  pop justice  is exclusively featuring perspectives from currently and formerly incarcerated folks and systems-impacted folks.

More in pop justice:.

'It's not a story—it's a life:' A look at Snapped, from the inside

Barbie: Pretty Police

Come on Barbie, give us nothing!

"Pull up your pants or go to jail!"

Related stories:, steve higginbotham & jordana rosenfeld.

Steve Higginbotham is a writer who spent many years narrating and transcribing materials into braille for the Missouri Center for Braille & Narration Production . He is serving a death by incarceration sentence in Jefferson City, Missouri. Jordana Rosenfeld is a journalist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. More of her work can be found at jordanarosenfeld.com .

• City & County Jails
• State Prisons
• Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP)
• US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• US Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
• US Military Prisons and Jails (MIL)
• US Enemy Combatant High Value Detainees (HVD)
• FIND AN INMATE

What is a conjugal visit?

Conjugal visits allow couples and family members to be reunited for extended visits in medium-security facilities...

SEARCH FOR ANY FACILITY OR INMATE IN THE COUNTRY

City or county jail.

Locate the state, then the city or county where you think they are being held.

STATE PRISON

Locate the state where you think they are being held.

FEDERAL PRISON

You must first go to any Federal Bureau of Prisons facility.

• Connecticut
• District of Columbia
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• New Hampshire
• North Carolina
• North Dakota
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• West Virginia

STATE PRISON INMATE

Locate a federal prison inmate.

Conjugal visits are private visits that allow married couples to spend time alone, engaging in companionship and sexual relations. They are also for families to reunite (up to three family members), where children and siblings can be a part of the visit, as well (in Connecticut, children are required to be part of the conjugal visit). They are only available in medium-security facilities.

Sometimes they're referred to as extended visits or family visits or family renunion visits, and they can last for 1-72 hours, depending upon the facility.

Although many believe that such visits have value in helping to rehabilitate inmates, reduce recidivism rates, and strenghten family bonds, this extension of family visitation rights has nearly disappeared across the USA. There are no federal prisons that offer conjugal visits, and very few states permit them (California, Washington, New York and Connecticut still permit conjugal visits). Only inmates with a proven good behavior record are eligible.

To find out how to visit someone you know, begin your search for an inmate or arrestee here:

To find your jail or prison visitation policies, begin by finding the facility or prison system here:

• Login or Sign up

Prison Visitation: A Fifty State Survey

As a digital subscriber to Prison Legal News, you can access full text and downloads for this and other premium content.

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login

More from this issue:

• Arkansas Sheriff Took Kickbacks for Card Fees, Class-Action Suit Says , by Erik De La Garza
• Prison Visitation: A Fifty State Survey , by Chesa Boudin
• Maine Prisoner’s Contraband Conviction Vacated
• Pennsylvania: No Prison Time for Guards Convicted of Abusing Prisoners , by Christopher Zoukis
• My Life with Lifers, by Dr. Elaine J. Leeder. (E-Books Unbound, 2012). 140 pages, $4.99 (e-book) or $14.95 (paperback) , by John Dannenberg
• Mandatory Lifetime Monitoring a Direct Consequence of Sex Offense Plea Bargain in Michigan
• Governmental Highway Robbery: Asset Forfeiture and the Pillaging of the American People , by John W. Whitehead
• $17.75 Million Settlement for Victims of Pennsylvania “Kids for Cash” Scandal , by David Reutter
• Virginia Prisoner Pardoned After Accuser Admits She Lied
• Ex-Felons are About to Get Health Coverage , by Michael Ollove
• CCA Admits to Falsified Staffing Records, Violating Contract with Idaho DOC
• Utah: Private Company Offers to Pick Up Prison Tab , by Eric S. Peterson
• Iowa Sex Offender Special Sentence Provisions Interpreted: Time-Served Credit, but Not Earned-Time, Reduces Revocation Term
• California: Parole Placement of Serial Killer’s Accomplice in Remote County Upheld
• North Carolina County Conned into Building $100 Million Jail
• Seventh Circuit Vacates Summary Judgment for Nutriloaf Diet
• Eighth Circuit Overturns Jury’s $850,000 Verdict for Nebraska Detainee’s Suicide
• Oklahoma Parole Board Members Charged with Violating Open Meeting Act , by Christopher Zoukis
• CCA Excludes Shareholder Resolution Requiring Company to Fully Disclose Information about REIT Conversion
• No Room for 900 New Washington Prison “Rugs”
• Faulty Background Checks Blamed on Digitized Records, Greedy Amateurs , by Joe Watson
• Prison Health Care Provider under Fire in Illinois , by Christopher Zoukis
• Lawsuits Filed Over Unrelated Deaths of Two Oregon Prisoners
• Muslim Prisoners Challenge Ohio’s Denial of Halal Meals; Pork Producers Protest , by Joe Watson
• New York: $225,000 Settlement for Prisoner’s Suicide Attempt, Abuse at Rikers Island
• California District Attorney Sued by Former Colleague
• Administrative Remedies “Unavailable” when Prisoner under Threat of Intimidation or Retaliation
• California: Lifer Entitled to Credit for Time Served Following Governor’s Erroneous Veto of Parole Grant
• Kentucky DOC May Not Alter Presentencing Custody Credits
• Oregon Parole Board’s Notice-of-Rights Form Violates APA
• New York Creates “All Crimes DNA Database”
• Federal Court Limits New York’s Civil Commitment Statute, but Injunction Vacated on Appeal , by Derek Gilna
• $695,000 Settlement in Discrimination Suit by Deaf Colorado Detainees
• California State Bar Recommends District Attorney’s Disbarment , by Christopher Zoukis
• New York Sex Offender Registration Determination is Exception to Article 78 Review
• Sixth Circuit: Disciplinary Conviction Does Not Bar Excessive Force Claim , by Christopher Zoukis
• California: Nine Detainees Charged in Jailhouse Killing; Five Sentenced to Life Terms
• Oregon: Only Voluntary Surrender Avoids Fugitive Dismissal Rule
• Oregon Jail Guard Gets Three Years for Sex with Prisoner
• Arkansas Prisoner’s Ad-Seg Reviews Held to be Meaningless; Case Remanded to Recalculate Damages
• U.N. Considers Revisions to Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners , by Christopher Zoukis
• News in Brief

More from Chesa Boudin:

• Prison Visitation: A Fifty State Survey , May 15, 2013

More from these topics:

• Electronic Monitoring: An Alternative to Incarceration or a Troubling Extension of Punishment? , April 15, 2024. Commentary/Reviews , Statistics/Trends , Electronic Monitoring , Electronic Surveillance , Bail/Pretrial Release , Conditions of .
• Pharmacies Are Giving Your Prescription Data to Police Without a Warrant , April 15, 2024. Medication , Statistics/Trends , Warrantless Searches .
• ‘Trail ’Em, Nail ’Em, and Jail ’Em’: Issues Private Probation and Parole , April 15, 2024. Sentinel , Contractor Misconduct , Reviews , Statistics/Trends , Cost of Prison Systems , Electronic Monitoring , Probation, Parole & Supervised Release .
• Research Shows It Makes Sense to Hire Individuals with Criminal Records , April 15, 2024. Resources , Work , Statistics/Trends , jobs .
• Time Served Under the First Step Act: Reduction, Not Revolution , April 15, 2024. Statistics/Trends , First Step Act .
• Sentencing Project Finds “Important Inroads” Against Mass Incarceration, Racial Inequality Behind Bars , April 1, 2024. Racial Discrimination , Statistics/Trends .
• Parole and Probation Accused of Driving Prison Growth , April 1, 2024. Commentary/Reviews , Statistics/Trends , Probation, Parole & Supervised Release , Conditions of .
• 428 Georgia Prison Employees Criminally Charged in Five Years , April 1, 2024. Guard Misconduct , Criminal Prosecution , Statistics/Trends .
• Alaska Prisons Report Three Deaths in Three Days , April 1, 2024. Statistics/Trends , Wrongful Death .
• Federal Prisoners Released Under First Step Act Show 37% Reduction in Recidivism , April 1, 2024. Crime , Statistics/Trends , Rehabilitation/Recidivism , First Step Act .

How Pain and Suffering is Calculated in Personal I...

If someone experiences a personal injury due to the negligence or intentional actions of another party, the legal system allows...

Can I File for Divorce If I’m Pregnant?

For some couples, pregnancy can add uncertainty about the future of their relationship. Considering divorce when pregnant is a...

Whistleblower Protections

Whistleblowers play a crucial role in exposing wrongdoing in organizations and government entities. While whistleblowers are...

Copyright © Dopplr Legal News and Information . 2024 • All rights reserved.

• legal questions
• 11 Min Read
• 15th April 2016

Conjugal Visits: Rules and History

The phrase is well known in popular culture – conjugal visits means private alone time with a significant other while in prison. We all understand the connotation of conjugal visits, but allow me to spell it out. Yes, inmates are permitted to engage in sexual relations with their spouse during conjugal visits . However, many times these visitations are not used for intimacy at all. A lot of prisoners who earn this right choose to have family members come to see them, in an effort to remain close with those who matter most. In New York, 52 percent of these visits did not involve spouses.

Where Are Conjugal Visits Allowed?

States That Allow Conjugal Visits

As recently as 1995, 17 states had conjugal visit programs, although federal prisons never allowed it.

Today, only four states still allow conjugal visits:  California, Connecticut, New York and Washington. 

New Mexico and Mississippi cancelled their programs within the past two years.

How Did the Conjugal Visit Program Start?

Parchman Farm

The very first prison to allow conjugal visits was  Parchman Farm (now  Mississippi State Penitentiary ).  Parchman farm began as a labor prison camp for black men in Mississippi which was a blatant attempt to keep slavery alive 50 years after the end of the Civil War.

Prison authorities believed that if black men were allowed to have sexual intercourse, they would be more productive. 

They also believed that black men had stronger sex drives. Therefore, every weekend, women would be driven in by the bus load to fraternize with the prisoners. There was no state control or legal status, the visits were simply thought to encourage surviving a six day work week of harsh labor and conditions, not to mention racist guards.

Over the years, conjugal visits evolved to spending more time with family. Even the aforementioned Parchman Farm had cleaned up the act by the 1960s; visits were sanctioned, furlough programs had begun, and cabins were built so inmates could spend time alone with their significant other. The prison would even provide toys for the family.

Following their model, conjugal visit programs saw a steady and fast rise in use. It was touted as a model of rehabilitation after a reporter paid a visit to Parchman Farm and declared it, “the wave of the future.”

Conjugal Visit Rules

Good behavior is an obvious requirement for earning family and conjugal visitation rights, but there’s a bit more to it than that. For the most part, the rules surrounding family visits are the same; they must be in medium security or lower prisons, and they must not have been convicted of sexual assault . However, each state has their own protocol for selecting which inmates have earned the privilege of family visitation:

• Connecticut : Inmates cannot be level 4 or above in close custody (levels are on a scale of 1-5 and refers to how much they are monitored by guards on a day-to-day basis). They cannot be a member of a gang, be on restrictive status, or class A or class B disciplinary offenses within the past 12 months prior to requesting involvement. The spouse cannot come alone ; other eligible family members must participate.
• New York : This state and California are the only ones that allow visitation for same-sex couples. Proof of marriage must also exist. Here are the guidelines for New York’s Extended Family Visit Program .
• California : Inmates and visiting family members are subject to a search every four hours . See: California Extended Family Visit guidelines. 
• Washington : There are a long list of requirements that inmates and visitors alike must meet before being allowed to participate in the visitation program. There are a slew of disallowed crimes, along with minimum time served, active participation in a reentry program, and housing status rules to qualify. If there are two family members in the same prison, joint visits can be arranged pending approval.

The length of the visit varies from six hours to an entire weekend, which is determined by the supervisor of the prison on a case by case basis. And just as there are eligibility requirements for prisoners, the same can be said for those who wish to visit them. Apart from the verification of the relationship, visitors must also be free of crime.

• If a family member other than a spouse, such as brother or sister, wishes to visit, it will be scrutinized closely.
• If a child is participating, a birth certificate showing that the inmate is their biological father is required.
• If the inmate is a step-father, he must have been present during the child’s formative years (ages 7-12). There must also be consent from the child’s legal guardian.
• The visitor cannot be on parole, or subject to criminal drug charges.

On top of these requirements is a good deal of paperwork which needs to be filled out. With all of the supervision and background checks, it would be extremely difficult for anything sinister to happen. To inmates and their family, visitation is purely about spending time with the one’s they love. So why are so many states stopping it?

Why Have Visitation Programs Been Discontinued?

As previously stated, there were 17 states with visitation programs 20 short years ago; today there are only four. The reasons for this have varied slightly, one of which being public opinion. People just don’t think criminals should have access to anything, much less time with family members. Some even get upset when they learn inmates have access to health care . Most of these people probably fail to realize that those convicted of violent crimes are not allowed to participate in family visitation programs.

Another reason is claims of contraband being snuck in and babies being conceived during these visits. But no numbers are given to back up these claims, and they appear unfounded at best as a result. The Corrections Commissioner for Mississippi even stated that they provide inmates with contraception during their visits. While there are no numbers to back up these claims, they try to use others to convince everyone that it’s too expensive.

The main reason widely given is budget cuts. That was the fallback for Mississippi and New Mexico when they cancelled their programs. In New Mexico, the program cost $120,000 a year . Their 2016 budget totals $6.2 billion . The cost of keeping the program active amounts to less than one-five hundredth of one percent of the state budget. The median household income in New Mexico is $43,782, which means that, divided evenly amongst the average taxpayer, everyone would only contribute about two cents each to a family visitation program. Yet somehow, the benefits don’t outweigh the cost.

Why Should Visitation Programs Continue?

At a rate of approximately $32,000 per year for each inmate, it’s been well documented how much it costs to keep someone in prison. Overcrowding is also a huge problem, which has many causes. But where family visitation comes into the picture is its documented ability to reduce recidivism, which show that 76 percent of those released from state prisons are arrested again within five years. Initial studies have found that visitation programs are responsible for lowering parole violations by 25 percent , but it could be higher than that according to an older study, which suggests recidivism was decreased by 67 percent because of visitation programs.

Conjugal and family visits also reduce occurrences of sexual violence in prisons by 75 percent .

This is a number too large to ignore, because the snowball effect here is that it also drastically lowers the rate of sexually transmitted diseases between prisoners. Then there is evidence that is hard to quantify. Prison guards have stated that prisoners who have access to visitation are generally happier, and are encouraged to keep up their good behavior in order to keep earning visitation privileges, or perhaps even early release. This is why prisons in the four states that still allow it have changed the name from “conjugal visits” to “family visits.” There is more to it than just intimacy; there is connection that these families are trying to maintain. If the prisoner is able to interact with the person or people for whom he will be responsible upon release, it will only motivate them to work harder to never put them through it again.

Lifers in state of California eligible for conjugal visits as well? due gov. Jerry brown recent signed off?

To Phavy do we know what disqualifies a lifer from getting conjugal visits besides being a sex offender and/or domestic violence. I have my husband in a state prison in CA and he has been in prison for 20 years but we needed to find out what qualifies him or disqualifies him from getting visits. Please advise, thank you in advance

The program is allowed for those who have a release date. Unfortunately it is not available for inmates serving life sentences.

If the offender has two non-sexual violent felony strikes in Ca but he has a release date and the visitor was a co defendant on an old case, can the offender get conjugal visits with the visitor if they get married?

Very great article! As much as I advocate conjugal visitation, early justifications are shocking to me. I still hope that in future, the trend will go back to the use of extended visits in more than just 4 states. It also does not appear too expensive, particular since some prisons even charge visitors a fee per night.

Do lifers get conjugal visits if they are in prison for non violence on woman???

It would depend on where they are sentenced and what exactly the offense is, along with how they have conducted themselves while in prison.

I pray they go back to the old way,, but with different intentions I have a question my husband was convicted of corporal punishment on a spouse does he qualify for conjugal visit yes he has a release date

Is there any way a state like FL could reconsider “family visits” I mean my boys miss their father and he was only sentenced 10 years. I was thinking of a petition but I doubt people will view it how you and I do. Just being able to watch a movie together and hang out like we use to would mean so much I can wait for sex but the joy it brings to my boys is much more fulfilling. I mean it’s so backed up in FL they could be making more money if they charged family visits.

Marilyn Wiggins

Amber I will sign a petition if it’s started. The sanctity of family is important.

karen lea pollard-mills

I WOULD SIGN A PETITION ALSO! LETS START ONE NATIONWIDE! NOT JUST FOR EACH STATE!

I believe this would be great. Even if there was a price tag many people would pay it. That would help lower the cost of prisons.

Does anyone know what prisons in New York allow conjugal visits?

In the post, there is a link to the guidelines for New York’s Extended family visit program. Click it to see all the guidelines and how to apply for them. Good luck.

Leslie L Miller

My husband is serving life without! He was convicted at 19, you know they are taking every form of human contact away from human beings and expecting them to just lay down be good and wither away slowly! Why? My husband is now 37, he is not the same person he was , we have been married 12 years together 15, never consummated our marriage! To some of us it’s a religious right if only one time! Changes need to be made in our system! It’s broken if we don’t rethink alot of things all we are going to create is detached MONSTERS, with no concept of real feelings or emotions!

I couldn’t agree more! The love of my life is serving life w/o parole and was 19 also. He’s served 15 years now and has changed, grown up and matured. Have you read about the science that states teens are not fully matured until their mid 20’s and should not be given life w/o parole at such a young age? 11 men were released on this science and more states need to follow suit and parole those who have changed and matured and will not repeat their mistakes! They deserve a 2nd chance. There is a video on this called second chance kids also! Good Luck with your husband!

Jacquelyne Garza

What year where the conjugal visits taken away in California, I think it was 1994 or 1995 or 1996 which one was it ??? Please tell me.

The article plainly states that CA is one of the remaining states allowing such visitation. I’ve also seen them taking place on MSNBC’s Lock Up.

Will inmates who have prior rules violations for drug smuggling into the prison be permitted conjugal visits?

does anyone know the list of things you can take into your conjugal visit?

Go to the prison website

So inmates who have life without the possibility of parole can’t have conjugal visits at all? My guy has been transferred to a level 3 prison now. Does that mean anything?

lizy vicent

I believe anybody that owns 100% of your heart is worth fighting for. Yes, I am boasting because I never adhered to some negative advice from my parents when I was about getting married. There was a war between our two family then my husband was his mothers puppy, his family members used him a lot that he cant make any decision without consulting them. What surprised me most was the moment a 36-year-old man seeks his parent and some family members consent before dating anyone, the worst happened when he was instructed to bring me along to their country home in Rampart, New Orleans, it was risky to accept such invitation.The war between our families started when he finally proposed (that was about 4 years ago), his family gave some conditions if he must wife me (we have to live with them), I was in shock when my husband accepted and was happy with their conditions (so crazy). My family wagged and demanded I should breakup with him immediately.I decided to give him the last shot as a man whom has already taken over 100% of my heart, I took a risk to go spiritual with them by consulting Priest Udene via [email protected] , I dont know how but the spiritual father already knew I was going to consult him. He first of all told me the danger I was into and how my husband has been enslaved since birth, how they keep brain washing him to do their wills.Like the quote that says a person sees clearly only with the heart, I realized that nobody saw what I saw in my husband and thats why I used the help of PRIEST UDENE to put him out of his misery. His eyes where opened by PRIEST UDENE for the first time, his family fell in love with me and granted every of our request, our families have known peace since after the love spell.It is over 2 years after the love spell and my husband has continued to improve every day without interference from his family. I have waited too long to share this amazing piece. Thanks for your time and also to PRIEST UDENE. I knew him through reading some amazing testimonies on blogs.

Tracey Duffy

Are the visits during the weekend or weekdays, usually?

Patricia Monteiro

Me and my fuance plan to marry soon. He is serving a 15 to life sentence and has been in nearly 4 years now. He does not have a release date. He is single celled in a level 4 prison. He has a history of violence. Will he be eligible for conjucal visits upon marriage ?

does patton state hospital allow family visits?

mariah clifton

hi…me and boyfriend are trying to get married in the california state prison but he has a prior domestic abuse charge on him from years ago with his babymomma does that stop us from conjugal visits once we are married?

jackie larbi

Thank god that we do not allow this to happen in are prisons.

Cancel Reply

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

Current ye@r *

Leave this field empty

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Trenton Prison Unveils ‘Contact Visiting Area’ in Old Death House

By Fred Ferretti Special to The New York Times

• Dec. 7, 1972

TRENTON, Dec. 6—The State Prison here opened its gates today for a preview of a newly decorated “contact visiting area” transformed by paint and convict labor from its old Death House into color‐coordi nated cubicles where prisoners will be able to see and touch their families and friends.

The visiting area, which will accommodate 40 inmates and 150 visitors, will be put into full use this weekend.

Contact visits, in which the inmates may touch and kiss visitors, have been a practice in the Rahway and Leesburg prisons for some time, but until this week prisoner‐visitor meetings at Trenton were conducted by telephone through safety windows.

Visitors' hands will be stamped with a symbol visible under an ultra ‐ violet light. “Without that stamp, nobody gets out,” Superintendent William Fauber said. Inmates will be searched, before and after visiting hours, he added, but visitors will not.

Program Was Planned

Mr. Fauber said that one problem he and his staff might have to contend with was “the possibility of drugs being passed mouth to mouth.” There will be no smoking permitted in the visiting area, he said, because “we don't want the sweet smell of marijuana around.”

Robert L. Clifford, Commissioner of Institutions and Agencies, said that the contact‐visit program would be used neither as a reward for inmates nor would the withholding of visiting privilege be used as a disciplinary measure. He said that the program had been planned for some time and that it was “just a question of getting the space.”

Several selected prisoners and their families tested the new system last weekend, but the inmates worked on the area and the route leading to it right up until the visitors arrived this morning. A reception lean‐to just inside the 20‐foot iron gate had “Wet Paint” signs all over it as did the steel‐barred door leading to the former Death House.

The black deck paint was so fresh that today's visitor's tracked it through the former double‐decked execution chamber as they were guided through the area by Albert Wagner, Director of Corrections and Parole, Mr. Clifford, and Mr. Fauber.

In place of the gray and dull green corridors and 18 steelbarred cells, there are now 18 cubicles, nine of which had the bars removed and nine with their steel doors removed. They have been painted pink, blue, yellow, orange and beige. The sinks and toilets that once stood in the individual cell areas are no longer there and green and blue and red and beige plastic chairs are arranged in the visiting cubicles.

In what was once the area where witnesses to executions sat, chairs are now lined up, creating a waiting room. Across half of the room, however, is an asbestos paneled wall stenciled with “No Smoking” signs. Behind it is the old oak electric chair with its leather straps sitting where it has been since 1907. This area has not been painted. It is dirty green with an old light fixture hanging down from an embossed tin ceiling.

The state's electric chair was last used on Jan. 22, 1963, when Ralph Hudson became the 180th person executed by the state. When New Jersey abolished the death penalty last year, the men in the Death House were scattered throughout the state's prison population.

Two Contact Visits Monthly

Mr. Wagner then conceived of plans to reuse the Death House. Except for its colored cubicles, it is now all of white enamel. The walls still holding bolts that once held draperies pulled aside at execution time are white with beige trim.

Contact visits will be permitted only on weekends from 7:30 to 9:45 in the morning morning and from 11:30 A.M. to 1:45 P.M. Prisoners will be permitted two contact visits a month as well as one noncontact visit, so that each of the 1,200 prisoners could see family and close friends on three weekends each month.

Trenton Prison, first built in 1847, is considered crowded and because it is in Trenton proper it lacks room for expansion.

Mr. Clifford declined to speculate on whether the program could be the forerunner of a conjugal visit plan for inmates and their wives. “But if you're asking if this was designed with that in mind,” he said, “the answer is no.”

How to Get a Conjugal Visit

Shackled births, prisoner experiments, and rampant tb just another day on the ward., laura mcclure.

Michael Mechanic

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

Photo: Mark Allen Johnson/Zuma Press

48 states allow the shackling of female inmates while they are giving birth. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the practice puts “the health and lives of the women and unborn children at risk.”

Less than 1% of prisons distribute condoms.

2 / 3 of gay, bisexual, and transgender inmates in California report being sexually assaulted.

Disease rates in US prisons compared to general population: hiv: 490% higher aids: 500% higher Tuberculosis: 400% higher Hepatitis C: 2,000% higher

US prisons and jails house 3 times as many people with serious mental illness as US mental hospitals do.

In June 2006, the Institute of Medicine recommended an increase in the use of prisoners as biomedical test subjects after laboratory scientists complained of a shortage of rhesus monkeys.

The South Carolina Senate has considered legislation that would take up to 180 days off prisoners’ sentences if they donated an organ.

In their first two weeks out of lockup, ex-cons are 13 times more likely to die than the average person, according to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine . Leading cause: drug overdose.

the shower myth You go to prison, you get raped. That’s the Hollywood version, anyway. “It can be horribly violent,” says Nancy Wolff, a Rutgers University professor who studies sexual assault, “but it’s not as big of a problem as people think.”

In a Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of nearly 24,000 inmates from 146 state and federal prisons, about 1 in 50 reported nonconsensual sex with a fellow inmate last year, with fewer than half of those incidents involving violence. Roughly 1 in 100 reported staff sexual misconduct beyond “touching only.” Wolff did a similar survey of 8,000 New Jersey prisoners in 2004. “Many of the men would say, ‘You’ve been watching too much Oz ,'” she recalls. “They were actually angry with me at times for wasting their time, when they really wanted to focus on issues that are much more pertinent to their lives. They argued to me that prison rape was much more of a problem in the past, but with the onset of aids it’s just too risky.” When sexual violence does occur, Wolff says, the most likely victims include sex offenders, snitches, transsexuals, effeminate men, and…inmates with gambling debts. — Michael Mechanic

failure to conjugate State-sanctioned prison sex makes people squirm, hence the official term for Big House hanky-panky: Some “family visits” reward well-behaved inmates and their better halves with up to three days in a condom-stocked trailer. Mississippi prisoners can score 60 minutes in a “bedroom-like” facility during visiting hours, and last year California became the first to allow overnight visits by domestic partners, gay or straight. (Although lifers need not apply.)

Outside of those states and three others—New York, Washington, and New Mexico—you won’t be gettin’ any. Federal prisons don’t allow conjugal visits. Ditto state death rows, although the wife of one condemned inmate reports that, back in the 1990s, San Quentin’s guards tended to look the other way while they snuck a quickie in the visitors’ bathroom. But the spouses posting on sites like PrisonTalk.com want more regular hookups. Notes “Distressed Wife” of Ohio: “Women need more than just a kiss and hug every two weeks in three years.” — Laura McCllure

Mike Johnson’s Visit to Columbia Wasn’t a Hit

Julianne McShane

Idaho Wants the Supreme Court to Ignore Reality. The Justices Seem Ready to Oblige.

DOJ Filing: Steve Bannon Is a “Co-Conspirator” in a $1 Billion Fraud Case

Dan Friedman

AIPAC Spent Millions to Take Down the Squad. The Working Families Party Is Fighting Back.

Nia t. evans

We Recommend

The Supreme Court Has Already Given Trump What He Wants in the Immunity Case

Meet the MAGA Candidate Vying to Replace Mitt Romney

Stephanie Mencimer

Emergency Abortion Care Is Before the Supreme Court—and Blue States Should Be Very Worried

Nina Martin

These Conservative Christian Lawyers Are Helping States Defend Their Abortion Bans

John Cage Would Want You to Listen to Columbia’s Pro-Palestinian Protesters

The GOP’s Grand Plan: Minority Rule

Churches Don’t Have to Be Accessible. That’s Bad News For Voters.

Julia Métraux

This Tribe Will Gladly Accept Clean Energy Funding, Even If Wyoming Won’t

Jake Bolster

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use , and to receive messages from Mother Jones and our partners.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones ' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Independent. In print. In your mailbox.

Inexpensive, too! Subscribe today and get a full year of Mother Jones for just $14.95.

Bold. Brave. Beautiful.

Award-winning photojournalism. Stunning video. Fearless conversations.

Looking for news you can trust?

We noticed you have an ad blocker on..

Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism? We're a nonprofit (so it's tax-deductible), and reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget.

We noticed you have an ad blocker on. Can you pitch in a few bucks to help fund Mother Jones' investigative journalism?

Don't let an algorithm decide what news you see.

Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

NCJRS Virtual Library

Conjugal visiting (from justice and corrections, 1978, by norman johnston and leonard d savitz - see ncj-47922), additional details.

111 River Street , Hoboken , NJ 07030-5774 , United States

No download available

Availability, related topics.

Gov. Phil Murphy Visits Hollywood to Tubthump New Jersey Production Tax Credits: ‘Our Incentives Are as Competitive as Any in the World’

By Cynthia Littleton

Cynthia Littleton

Business Editor

• Wrangling the Regulators: Hollywood’s Urge to Merge Is Dampened by Antitrust Policy Debate in Washington 11 hours ago
• Is There a Hollywood Use Case for Crypto and Blockchain Tech? 13 hours ago
• Gov. Phil Murphy Visits Hollywood to Tubthump New Jersey Production Tax Credits: ‘Our Incentives Are as Competitive as Any in the World’ 5 days ago

Gov. Phil Murphy has made TV and film a top priority for New Jersey ever since he took the helm of the Garden State in 2018. This week, Murphy made a West Coast swing to talk artificial intelligence with firms in the Bay Area and to talk new business with studios in Hollywood. Murphy’s targeted courtship has helped spark a building boom across New Jersey for soundstages and production facilities. Here Murphy discusses the impact of the state’s production tax incentive program and why he sees Georgia as a bigger rival for luring productions than neighboring New York.

Popular on Variety

We were selling New Jersey, checking in with folks who are already making investments and producing either television series or films in New Jersey. We were extremely well received. Clearly the incentives are as competitive as any in the world but we’ve got the soft stuff as well. We’ve got values, which really matter, whether it’s reproductive freedoms or being the No. 1 state to raise a family or on the climate, you name it. We’re a big pro-union pro union state, including with IATSE and Teamsters and SAG-AFTRA and the writers. There’s a lot to like about New Jersey.

What are your specific selling points for doing business in New Jersey versus New York? Do you make a purely economic argument about the cost of living in the Garden State versus Manhattan?

RELATED CONTENT: New Jersey: Where Film Began

I find that we’re much more in competition Georgia than with New York. In terms of the big studios and the big, bold strokes that we’re pursuing, Georgia is as much on the radar as anywhere else right now. It also feels like the incentive program itself in Georgia has gotten political. And that’s not the case in Jersey and I don’t expect that it will become the case.

But tax incentive programs can become controversial if voters feel like they are giveaways to Hollywood. Are you confident that New Jersey gets more than a dollar back for every dollar it devotes to tax credits for production activity?

Supremely confident. I’ll give you a couple of metrics. The math argument only looks narrowly what does the state put out versus what came back into the state’s coffers. And to me, that’s a fraction of the argument. The argument really is, for what the state put out, what did that lead to in terms of economic activity in New Jersey? Right now, for every dollar we’re putting on the street, we’re getting $6 to $8 back in economic activity. That’s at the high end and will likely go higher when the big studio partners like Netflix are up and running [with dedicated stages]. So that’s a significant impact that, by the way, is both immediate and it’s broad. And the thing I love is that it’s local. It’s [helping] the diner, the dry cleaner, the hotel, the caterer. …The other metric I will give you is that the year before we got here, economic activity in total in film and television [in the state] was mostly music videos and infomercials. It was something like $65 million. The numbers aren’t in for 2023 but we think they’re around $800 million.

Netflix is moving into Fort Monmouth for studio space and Lionsgate is helping to develop a studio and retail complex in Newark. Are there other major soundstage or production infrastructure projects in the works?

You’ve got Cinelease in Jersey City with three soundstages. It sounds to me like they’re going to be expanding in Kearny. There is a studio that is in the works, who we met with the principals of, in West Orange and then there’s a big one which is public knowledge, called 1888 Studios, which is in formation in Bayonne, New Jersey, which is right on the Hudson River across from New York City. So those are the ones that are out there but we’ve had conversations with others that are not public knowledge. There continues to be a keen interest to both make stuff and to invest in bricks and mortar. So watch that space as they say.

What are New Jersey’s other economic pillars right now? What are the main driver of your state’s economy?

With all that you’ve got going on, what is the next frontier for New Jersey, in entertainment or other business sectors?

More of the same. I’ve got a year and a half-plus remaining as governor, I want to leave the table set as well as it can be for the generation to follow. And I think we’re on track for a lot of really exciting stuff. So, further development of the projects I mentioned, development of projects that are not yet on the radar screen but we’re planting seeds. Continuing to produce a lot of content in New Jersey. I’ll give you an example: There’s a movie called “Miller by Marriage” which Ed Burns is producing, directing, writing and starring in filming in Morristown. My wife went up there. She knows the Burns family from other walks of life. They were thrilled — effusive about how they feel about how they’ve been treated [by state and local officials during filming]. We just hired a new executive director for our Motion Picture and Television Commission who you may know — Jon Crowley, a veteran showrunner and producer himself. In some states, the film commissioner basically says, ‘Hey, welcome’ to whatever the state is and that’s the last you see them. Jon’s commitment is basically to provide a high-end concierge service — scouting, going through any permitting issues, continuing to build out the Film Ready NJ program in communities. Clearing brush. if you will.

Gov. Murphy, I have to ask, there’s been speculation about your political future. Do you have the ambition to pursue another political office once your governorship is done?

I’ve got nothing at the moment. But more importantly — I’m a recovering thespian which is probably part of the reason I’m so into [boosting production in New Jersey]. It’s not just good for the economy and for job creation. I’m a big fan of the arts. I acted a lot in middle school, high school and in college. So I feel like I’m at home with this industry.

So clearly your next target is the stage?

[ Laughs ]. I wouldn’t say that either. I have no plans at this point. If I come to something, I’ll make sure Variety knows about it.

More From Our Brands

Kanye west announces ‘yeezy porn’ amid reports of adult film company, no kidding, swizz beatz owns a camel-racing team—and it could win him $21 million, caleb williams goes solo in nfl representation debate, be tough on dirt but gentle on your body with the best soaps for sensitive skin, ahs: delicate finale delivers ominous, abrupt ending — grade it, verify it's you, please log in.

N.J. Rep. Donald Payne Jr. dies at 65

Rep. Donald Payne Jr., D-N.J., has died at age 65 after several weeks in the hospital following "a physical accident at his home on April 6," his office confirmed in a statement Wednesday.

“During his treatment for this health issue, he faced medical complications due to diabetes and high blood pressure that led to subsequent cardiorespiratory arrest," the statement said. "Despite the dedicated efforts of the medical staff to treat him and improve his health, they were unable to prevent his passing unfortunately.”

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement that he and his wife were "deeply saddened."

“With his signature bowtie, big heart, and tenacious spirit, Donald embodied the very best of public service," Murphy said. "As a former union worker and toll collector, he deeply understood the struggles our working families face, and he fought valiantly to serve their needs, every single day."

He continued, “Donald’s love will live on in the homes of his neighbors in Newark, who now have access to safe drinking water, and in the good-paying jobs he helped create for his brothers and sisters in labor."

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., reacted to the news on X , calling Payne "a good friend, highly effective public servant and compassionate leader. My prayers and support are with the Payne family and his loved ones during this difficult time. May he forever Rest in Peace."

With Payne’s death and the recent resignation of Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., there are now 217 Republicans and 212 Democrats in the House.

Payne experienced a "cardiac episode" early this month after complications linked to his diabetes, his office said last week, after the New Jersey Globe  reported that he remained unconscious at the time. Earlier in the month, Payne's office said he was improving and had a "good" prognosis and an expectation of a "full recovery."

He had served in Congress since November 2012, representing New Jersey's 10th Congressional District, which covers parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties. Payne succeeded his father, Rep. Donald M. Payne, who also died in office.

Payne Jr. was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and served on the House Homeland Security and Transportation and Infrastructure committees. He last voted in late March.

New Jersey law says the governor can schedule a special primary and a special general election in the event of a House vacancy. The special primary election must be held 70 to 76 days after the governor’s proclamation, and the special general election must be held 64 to 70 days after the primary.

It appears that the new vacancy is too late for a special election to coincide with the state’s June 4 primary, in which Payne was running unopposed.

The state Elections Department did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

The filing deadline for congressional races has also passed.

Payne’s seat is expected to remain in Democratic hands. President Joe Biden won the 10th District, which includes Newark, by 62 percentage points in 2020, according to calculations from Daily Kos Elections .

Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

Julie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.

Bridget Bowman is a deputy editor for NBC's Political Unit.