Why Do They Do It That Way?: A Response to Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty-State Survey

Abstract

Through an unprecedented collaboration between Yale Law School's Liman Program and the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA)-the membership organization encompassing the Chief Executive Officers of the fiftystate corrections departments and the Federal Bureau of Prisons-we practitioners now have available a full and fascinating set of data describing every jurisdiction's policies governing visiting. The effect is that of a large mirror. It reflects back to us how each of our systems handles this universal feature of prison operations- one of the most significant aspects of institutional life. The results fairly cry out for us to compare and contrast. In addition to the authors' astute observations and those queries that may occur to other readers of the Feature, our members are now pondering a host of questions. Why do we do it this way? Why don't our colleagues? Why do they do it that way? Why don't we? What is the logic of particular practices? Do they make sense?