Replacing contact visits with video visits at jails and prisons has been in the news recently. As a former corrections officer, I have seen how important the touch of loved ones is to the incarcerated. Humans are social by nature – living in a space devoid of any human contact can be detrimental to the psyche. When inmates leave a facility better than when they came in, it reduces recidivism.
Visits are the most important things in any inmate’s life. For inmates, holding the hands of their loved ones or giving their children hugs brings the human connection back, reminding them there are people who love them, people waiting for them to be released, promising a future.
Holding your spouse’s hand, hugging your child, is all you have to connect you to the outside world. There is a bond formed between child and parent by making eye contact in person. The same bond is not developed by eye contact on a computer screen during a video visit.
Keeping families strong and intact should be a goal of the Department of Corrections; contact visits help that happen. It should not be the intent of the Department of Corrections to further inflict more punishments by taking away the only contact a person has with his loved ones.
I understand completely the need for security measures with metal detectors, pat searches and K-9 searches in conjunction with contact visits. Those measures are certainly necessary to help safeguard contraband entering secure facilities. Heightened security leads to less contraband trafficked into facilities, which is safer for all staff and inmates. But removing all human contact from prisoners only brings more antisocial behaviors, not healthy, prosocial ones.
People who are incarcerated are humans and should be treated as such. They are repaying their debt to society by being incarcerated – should we really be taking them completely away from humanity, hoping they will miraculously fix themselves?
Amber J. Scheurer
Union
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