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| Penn. County May End Contact Visits at Prison |
| By Doylestown Intelligencer |
| Published: 11/04/2002 |
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The Bucks County's Prison Oversight Board is poised to allow the warden to build partitions between visitors and inmates but postponed a final decision until the next board meeting on Nov. 14. Board members discussed the issue at length during a recent public meeting at the jail. They ultimately decided to wait until the next meeting to vote, so families of inmates and rehabilitation groups have time to comment on the idea. Harris Gubernick, the county's director of corrections, and warden Willis Morton made the pitch to build partitioned booths that would place a glass window in a wall between visitors and inmates to prevent them from touching. Bucks now allows an embrace at the beginning and end of the visit, but inmates and visitors are in chairs separated by about 3 feet of space and are not allowed to touch. Still, Gubernick and Morton said, drugs are being brought into the prison. Morton admitted that officers and other staff also are smuggling drugs to inmates but said he rated the No. 1 source of drugs as visitors. Preventing all contact between inmates and visitors will eliminate that, he said. 'The more you control the contact, the better off you are' from a security standpoint, Gubernick said. 'If that was the only issue, it wouldn't need to be discussed,' said county controller Ray McHugh, also an attorney. 'But there are other things to be considered.' County Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick said the issue had been coming up for a few months, and he was ready to change the policy, but in deference to Finley and Hopson, would delay a final vote. The no-contact policy would apply to all inmates, including those who are in jail awaiting trial - which means they are legally innocent - and those who have not been convicted of a drug-related crime. Finley asked Gubernick if any studies had been done on the benefits and risks of contact versus no-contact visits. Gubernick said he was not aware of any. A report from an independent task force on issues at the jail, though, cited two studies from the National Institute of Corrections and The Women's Prison Association & Home, Inc., that showed 'the opportunity to visit with their children may be a critical factor in re-establishing a stable family unit after the parent's incarceration is completed.' In its December 2001 report, the task force recommended that the jail should designate a separate area for children to visit mothers and fathers, so they are not exposed to the general population. That has not been done. |
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