Prison Red Tape Prevents Reunion

Prison is an isolating place, so visits from friends and family are highly prized. They give prisoners a connection to what is happening in the free world, even if the visit experience is unnatural and sanitized by prison rules. Many prisoners don't even get visits, from friends or family members. The last statistic I heard, only something like 16% of prisoners get visits. I don't know how accurate this data is, but given that undisputed research data shows community connections are an essential element to reducing re-offense rates, one would think the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) would make every effort to encourage and facilitate visits and other methods of maintaining healthy connections. Unfortunately, that is exactly the opposite of what happens. 

Anyone who has visited a prisoner in Michigan knows that the visitation process is cumbersome, intrusive, and highly disrespectful. It is an exception to the rule if a corrections officer treats visitors with dignity and respect (although to be fair, the younger, newer officers tend to be more respectful). Instead, visitors are often treated disrespectfully, coldly, and rudely. I have been told repeatedly by family and friends who have visited me about the rude and disrespectful treatment they have experienced, and they are not even the prisoner!

To have a visit, a prisoner must list the potential visitor on his or her visiting list. Prisoners can have an unlimited number of immediate family members (parents, grandparents, siblings, etc., but not aunt, uncles, or cousins), but we are limited to only ten non-family members. Furthermore, we are only allowed to change our visitor list once every six months. This means that if someone pops back up into a prisoner's life, they may have to wait up to six months before they can visit. This happened to me recently. 

Unbeknownst to me, a friend from my past sent in a visitor application so he could visit me. Because he was not on my visitor list, my counselor offered me the opportunity to add him; I had not changed my visitor list within the previous six months. I have not talked to this friend in more than fifteen years, so I was excited to have a visit from him. I updated my list, but I did not know I already had ten non-family members on my list (only two visit me with any regularity). Rather than give me an opportunity to remove someone, my friend's application was simply denied. When I tried to rectify the situation, I was told by the Warden's assistant that I could only update my list every six months, and I had just updated it to add this friend. The problem? My list never changed because I didn't have the room to add him to my list.

The bureaucracy and red tape found in the MDOC, and especially the apathy to our humanity, shocks me sometimes. Clearly, my visitor list was never updated, even though I had submitted a change. I don't have this friend's contact information, so I am unable to explain the situation to him. The result? I will not get a visit from this friend, which doesn't help encourage my community connections. This sort of heartless decision-making is all too common for a department that supposedly holds a goal of rehabilitating its wards.