Taking Stock and Moving Forward to Improve Prison Visitation Practices: A Response to Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty-State Survey

Abstract

Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty-State Survey is a wonderful resource. The authors' painstaking research has resulted in a dataset of immense importance. In addition, the authors have gone beyond simply describing their findings and have highlighted some of the issues they believe to be most significant. The authors express the hope that their work will both provide a useful body of information and be a catalyst for the research of others. An additional goal, already accomplished to some extent, is that the compilation and presentation of information from all of the states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons will encourage the administrators of the prison systems in these jurisdictions to engage with and learn from each other, thereby improving prison visitation policies throughout the United States.