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Families, prisoners and advocates press for visitation reform, saying current rules sever family ties
Summary
At a long public hearing, incarcerated people, their relatives and advocates urged lawmakers to pass S.1720 / H.2591 to roll back DOC visitation restrictions, arguing the current system’s pre‑approval lists, limited physical contact policies and scheduling blocks harm children, mental health and reentry outcomes.
Dozens of current and formerly incarcerated witnesses, family members and legal advocates told the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security that the Department of Correction’s visitation rules have become highly restrictive and inconsistently enforced, and that those rules undermine rehabilitation and family stability.
Testimony described a range of obstacles: caps on approved visitors, scheduled‑only visits that must be booked during business hours, shorter visit times, a shrinking children’s area in visiting rooms, and arbitrary dress‑code and search enforcement…
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