Maine Department of Corrections is proposing to do away with its current policy of requiring contact visits in county jails every two weeks. The DOC has looked the other way, while county jails have flouted this policy. The policy change can not/will not keep drugs out of county jails as touted. (Much of the drugs found in jails does not come via visitors – see here) Nor would it make jails safer. The policy change means the DOC is reneging on its commitment to best practices in Maine’s County Jails. Why should we be concerned:
- Community Safety – numerous studies show that maintaining strong ties with family and friends through contact visits decreases recidivism. That means less crime, less victims, and fewer people incarcerated.
- Costs of Incarceration – contact visits have been shown to decrease the number and percentage of repeat offenders(recidivists) decreasing the number of people incarcerated, decreasing the need for continued increases in county jail budgets which in some cases are rising at a rate higher than the costs of public education.
- Prison Safety – Contact visits serve as an incentive for positive inmate behavior. Inmates who follow jail rules/policy are allowed contact visits. Those who do not, must settle for non-contact/video visits. Jails that take away this incentive see a rise in inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-corrections officer violence.
- Childhood Outcomes – Parental incarceration is a stressful event in a child’s life equal to divorce and/or death. Children who are allowed to maintain their bond with their parent through contact visits have much better outcomes in education, mental health, and life.
- Mental Health – As many as 70 percent of inmates suffer from one or more mental health diagnoses. Withdrawing touch form those inmates only adds to their mental health issues.
Eliminating contact visits from county jails ignores the long term costs of such a policy. As taxpayers and members of the community, we should vehemently object to such a policy, not only on humanitarian grounds, but also on the basis of our pocketbooks and personal and community safety.
Jan M. Collins
Wilton
“Much of the drugs found in jails does not come via visitors – see here.”
The citation is one three year old BDN report of the indictment of York County Corrections Officers and others for Traficking in Prison Contrband. No followup on how the case came out.
I have no dog in this fight but it seems to me very weak evidence presented in this argument by one who does have a puppy in the kennel.
That’s your argument? One instance? From one source? To base the entire prison/jail contraban pipleline on? That argument a 2 month law student could win. You should really cite more sources when making an argument. People on the outside are much more resourcful than one might think, I was watching Hard Time one night, this inmate’s wive had coated the inside of her thighs with vaseline and heroin, the inmate touched her and got the mixture on this hands then he wiped them on his body, the vaseline it turns out keeps the heroin from entering the body as quickly, and can easily be extracted using warm water(google). In another episode a female visitor had 6 9mm cartriges in her. They have found opium between the layers of postcards, under mailing stamps, cellphones stuck(guess where), visitors are not blameless and not all COs are dirty.