Conjugal Visits Research Articles

Conjugal Visits in Prison: Psychological and Social Consequences.

Conjugal Visits in Prison: Psychological and Social Consequences.

PUBLIC OPINION AND PENAL POLICY

Abstract This article discusses the issue of who should run the penal system 7he major assumption of penal administrators has been that the public was in favor of a punishment policy. This research indicates that the public is not as punishment‐oriented as expected, though older respondents gave greater approval to restrictive conjugal visitation policies. Age variations may indicate a change in public opinion. The evidence also indicates that the public is more willing to support such programs as conjugal visits and work release than was previously thought. A willingness for more favorable treatment of inmates was found for those who had some contact with inmates.

Conjugal Visitation Rights and the Appropriate Standard of Judicial Review for Prison Regulations

Conjugal Visitation Rights and the Appropriate Standard of Judicial Review for Prison Regulations

A proposal for a trial of family therapy and conjugal visits in prison.

Book reviewed in this article: Any plan for conjugal visits has to be acceptable both to the general public and to prison officials. This paper examines the existing objections to conjugal visits in prison, and proposes that they be introduced together with family therapy as components of an overall rehabilitative effort.

Prisoners’ Conjugal Visitation Rights in India: Changing Perspectives

Right of conjugal visitation remains an old debate which has resurged recently with the Jasvir Singh decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The international community is divided over the boons and banes of such a benefit being extended to convicts. Some construe it as a privilege; the recent trends argue that the same is an extension of our basic human rights, constitutionally enshrined as being inherently ‘fundamental’ and hence sacrosanct. With the modern penal systems across the globe embracing the Reformative Theory of punishment, the idea that a criminal is a product of the social, economic and environmental conditions is increasingly gaining acceptance. By that logic, a better way to humanize the social ecology within the four walls of the prison and to reform that individual is by allowing conjugal visitation. The article is primarily a stakeholder analysis of the problem, the key stakeholders being the prisoner, his/her spouse, the correctional department and the society. It will further discuss the possible benefits and the setbacks of conjugal visitation, the varied international stance and India’s take on the issue in light of the Jasvir Singh judgement. Finally, a determination will be attempted as to whether such a correctional provision is a right arising out of a broad interpretation of Article 21 of our Constitution.

The Conjugal Visit at Mississippi State Penitentiary

The Mississippi State Penitentiary is located in Sunflower County on the old Parchman plantation. Parchman, as the institution is called, is probably the world's largest penal farm system. Although a state penitentiary, it is essentially a large plantation comprising almost 22,000 acres of rich delta farm land, which the inmates till while repaying a debt to society. After a long period of experimentation in various penal adaptations, Mississippi, during the years from 1895 to 1906,1 made the transition to the penal plantation system, an adaptation which from all indications has been well-suited to the economy and culture of the state. Since it is basically a plantation, the buildings and other physical facilities at Parchman differ considerably from those which one finds at the average state prison in the United States. The buildings are of many different types: administration, hospital, barns, storehouses, cotton gins, equipment sheds, and repair shops. Other large buildings are found in the inmate camps. Parchman's 2,100 inmates are housed in racially segregated camps located at various places throughout the plantation. The female inmates, few in number, are housed in one camp. Each male camp contains anywhere from 150 to 200 inmates. The male camps are crowded at the present time, and thus a new camp, intended to be used for first offenders, is under construction and well on the way toward completion. Each camp at Parchman is a separate community within the plantation and is overseen by a sergeant responsible for the work of the camp as well as discipline and order. A camp consists primarily of a large building surrounded by a wire fence. This building includes living space for inmates, toilets, kitchen, separate quarters for trusties, nd a d ing room which also serves as an educational and recreational room. The living quarters for the regular gunmen2 are divided into two parts; each part sleeps 65 to 70 inmates in the white cam s, while each part houses from 90 to 100 inmates in the Negro camps. Lights are kept on all night in the c mps, and trusties pace the hall which connects the quarters at all times. Each camp has a concession counter run by an inmate appointed by e sergeant of the camp. Each section also has a television set which the inmates may watch until ten p.m. if they choose. When the inmates leave the camp for work they are searched and a count-off' is held; this procedure is repeated when the inmates return to the camp from work in the fields. The camps at Parchman work and play in competition with each other. The work is allotted by camp and varies with the season. The work may be planting, gathering, slaughtering hogs, or whatever is most urgently needed at any particular time. Since cotton is the chief crop grown, most of the work, especially in the fall, centers around the production of this crop. There are inter-camp sports and organized quartets and bands which promote considerable rivalry among the camps. There is also a monthly magazine entitled Inside World which is written and published by inmates. One camp at Parchman, the maximum security camp, varies from the general pattern. This camp is a square unit surrounded by a high fence with electrically controlled gates that slide open only after the guard is positive of the identity of the person or persons entering the restricted area. In maximum security one finds death row, where the condemned prisoners await their execution dates. Maximum security also contains cells for the inmates sent from the regular camps for disciplinary reasons, usually for a period of 30 to 90 days. For the married inmate, an important part of every male camp except maximum security is the little building, divided into private rooms, located near the main camp building. When an inmate's * The author is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Mississippi. Professor Hopper received his B.A. degree from Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, and his M.A. degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is currently on leave from the University of Mississippi and is a candidate for the Ph.D. degree in sociology and corrections at Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida. 1 For a good account of the various periods and experiments in the history of Mississippi's prison system, see Foreman & Tatum, A Short History of Mississippi's State Penal Systems, 10 Miss. L.J. 255 (1938). 2 Term used for inmates who must be guarded at all times. Unlike most prisons, much of the guarding of inmates at Parchman is done by trusties. SA method of roll-taking.