The mass incarceration movement has produced a number of unintended social and economic consequences. Chief among them is the finding that incarceration has done little to reduce the likelihood of future criminal behavior by released offenders. And given that imprisonment rates have grown rapidly among women and racial and ethnic minorities, the harmful effects of incarceration are increasingly felt among these groups.

Prison visitation has emerged as a promising tool to protect against the potential criminogenic effects of imprisonment. In particular, visitation may serve to create, mend, or maintain the social ties that are critical for successful offender reentry into the community. Existing work suggests that prison visitation reduces recidivism, but it is unclear as to whether this relationship is consistent across genders and racial and ethnic groups. Males and females, and prisoners from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, may have access to different levels and types of social support during imprisonment, and can face unique social and structural disadvantages upon their release from prison. As such, prison visitation may not have a similar impact on recidivism for all offenders.

Accordingly, this study sought to advance the literature and inform correctional policy by: 1) examining the effects of visitation on recidivism using a racially and ethnically diverse sample of male and female prisoners; 2) examining whether the effects of visitation on recidivism are universal across genders; 3) examining whether the effects of visitation on recidivism are universal across racial and ethnic groups (i.e., across White, Latino, African American, and Native American offenders); and 4) examining why these effects may vary (or not) by gender and race/ethnicity.

To carry out these objectives, we used administrative data on over 36,000 prisoners released from the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) during FY2011-2013, along with detailed self-report data on the nature of prison visitation collected from a subsample of 231 inmates incarcerated in ADC. These data sources are particularly unique in that they include a large number of male and female offenders from various racial and ethnic backgrounds and inmates from all levels of security within ADC. The self-report data we use allows for a qualitative, contextual analysis of inmates’ experiences with prison visitation.

Our work revealed three major findings.  First, visitation was associated with a reduced likelihood of reoffending within 24 months of release from prison.  This pattern was established using multiple methodologies that took advantage of several ways to measure both visitation and reoffending.  We found that more visits and visits closer to release were most beneficial, and that visitation reduced the likelihood of rearrest, reconviction, and reimprisonment.  Second, we did not observe any gender differences in the relationship between visitation and reoffending; both men and women were less likely to reoffend when they had been visited.  Third, we did not observe any racial and ethnic differences in the relationship between visitation and reoffending; it did not matter if the prisoner was White, Latino, African American or Native American, prison visits led to a lower likelihood of reoffending among all racial and ethnic groups.  Our interview data revealed a number of common themes that helped explain these consistent findings.  Visitors and prisoners of both genders and all races and ethnicities talked about reentry and planned for the future, discussed ways to improve behavior, and engaged in conversations about relationships and family.

These findings have critical implications to advance knowledge and understanding within criminology and related fields.  We provide evidence that visitation may lessen the harmful effects of incarceration for all prisoners, including at-risk groups that may be especially vulnerable to the pains of imprisonment.  This critical finding could serve as a foundation for scholars in other fields such as psychology, public health, or social work who may be interested in ways to reduce the collateral consequences of incarceration on prisoners, their families, and their communities.

Our work has a number of broader impacts that contribute to the societal goals of public safety and equality in the administration of justice while educating students and practitioners on prison visitation.  We have presented our results and implications to the Arizona Department of Corrections, and we will continue to seek out ways to share our work with the individuals and agencies that are at the forefront of correctional policy.  We have involved undergraduate and graduate students in the project at all levels and will continue to make the data available for theses, dissertations, conference presentations, and publications.  Perhaps most importantly, our work indicates that prison visitation can play a role in offsetting the unintended social and economic consequences of mass incarceration while increasing public safety through reduced reoffending.

As we search for ways to address the unintended consequences of mass incarceration, our work suggests that the protective effect of visitation on reoffending is remarkably consistent across gender, race, and ethnicity.

Last Modified: 08/22/2017
Modified by: Kevin A Wright