States that allow conjugal visits12/1/2023 This history set a precedent for conjugal visits as a policy of social control, shaped by prevailing ideas about race, sexual orientation, and gender. Their desire for intimacy, privacy and, most basic of all, touch, reveals the profound lack of human contact in prison, including but also greater than sex itself. The policy was mostly limited to Black prisoners because white administrators believed that Black men had stronger sexual urges then white men, and could be made more pliable when those urges were satisfied. The men built structures for these visits out of scrap lumber painted red, and the term “ red houses” remained in use long after the original structures were gone. The visits were unofficial, and stories from the decades that followed are varied, ranging from trysts between married couples to tales of sex workers, bussed in on weekends. Parchman, then a lucrative penal plantation, sought to incentivize Black prisoners, who picked and hoed cotton under the surveillance of armed white guards, by allowing them to bring women into their camp. The men at Somers wrote of conjugal visits as something new, but in fact, Parchman had adopted some version of the practice as early as 1918. “Perhaps we’re whistling in the wind,” they wrote, “but if the truth hits home to only a few, we’ll be satisfied.” But the urgency of the mens’ plea, as chronicled in The Bridge and the Somers Weekly Scene, gives voice to the depth of their deprivation. Conjugal visits, the editors of The Bridge wrote, are “a controversial issue, now quite in the spotlight,” thanks to their implementation at Parchman Farm in Mississippi in 1965. This observation marked the beginning of a long campaign-far longer, perhaps, than the men at Somers could have anticipated-for conjugal visits in the state of Connecticut, a policy that would grant many incarcerated men the privilege of having sex with their wives. So many people in this state talk about how they want to decrease the inmates and the jails are overcrowded but don't have any resources or anything for the inmates to look forward to.“The words ‘conjugal visit’ seem to have a dirty ring to them for a lot of people,” a man named John Stefanisko wrote for The Bridge, a quarterly at the Connecticut Correctional Institution at Somers, in December 1963. Although having to leave a loved one is hard in ANY situation at least the family gets to be a family, the relationships can continue to blossom, the children get much needed attention and love from both parents and the inmate has a lot to look forward to everyone benefits. The inmates if getting married while incarcerated should be allowed a "honeymoon" where they are in a cabin or trailer that is nice and clean like a hotel and maybe even (as long as throughly checked), they are allowed to bring their own linens and food (just purchased and sealed) for a 3 day stay to enjoy marriage, then it decreases to 48 hours and if the family has kids give them more time. Not only will it help with decreasing the reentry of the inmates but it will help with their psychological wellness while incarcerated and give them something to look forward to. I know I have known my fiance since I was 11 he's the love of my life and it's horrible that we have to get married the way we do but we love each other that much and are dedicated to make it work, this will help! I believe that if the inmate has shown growth and good behavior since being incarcerated whether he has been in one particular place for a long time or if he has been incarcerated 6 months or longer and transfered, he or she should be allowed conjugal visits if in there for longer than a year. So many people are allowed to get married in places such as MCTC or Patuxent in Maryland but can not enjoy their marriage. In many places they are called Family Visits where you can bring the children if you have any and have a mini vacation on the property, it's got a yard and everything. California, New York, New Mexico that it really does work as a motivation for the inmates, (some articles will be linked below). There have been many studies in the states that offer this option I.e. Maryland is one of the states that do not allow conjugal visits but should.
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