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

Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty-State Survey\u27 is a wonderful resource. The authors\u27 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. In this Response, I want to offer my own suggestions for next steps that might be taken to build upon the impressive work of this study. These suggestions fall into four categories, some of which track those the authors offer in their concluding Section: (1) further analyzing the data the authors already have; (2) correlating data relating to quantity of visits with other existing statistical studies; (3) analyzing factors relating to quality of visits; and (4) undertaking further research