California prisons cancel visits, citing coronavirus. Conjugal stays to continue

California’s prison system is going to stop allowing the public to visit inmates as it tries to prevent the new coronavirus from infecting prisoners, guards and staff at its nearly 40 institutions. But prison officials will continue to allow certain inmates to continue to have “overnight stays” with their loved ones.

So far, no inmates are known to be infected.

“However, as part of CDCR’s COVID-19 prevention efforts, normal visiting will be canceled statewide until further notice,” the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced Wednesday night on social media. “CDCR values visitation as an essential part of rehabilitation, but at this time the Department must make difficult decisions in order to protect the health and wellness of all who live in, work in, and visit state prisons.”

CDCR officials are making an exception for “overnight family visits will be held as scheduled.”

In certain circumstances, state prison officials allow prisoners to have overnight stays with their immediate families. California is one of only a handful of states that still allows such stays, commonly called “conjugal visits.” Prison officials began allowing the visits in 2017. Prisoner rights groups say research shows that keeping inmates connected with loved ones outside prison walls helps reduce the rates of inmates re-offending after they’re released.

Some on social media questioned why the state would suspend visitations, but not these overnight stays.

“But love shack visitations are still ok? Makes a lot of sense,” one woman said in a comment on the CDCR’s Facebook post.

The CDCR’s social media account replied that state health officials had only recommended suspending gatherings of more than 250 people.

“No instructions have been made to forgo smaller gatherings where you can practice social distancing,” the agency said.

There are roughly 115,000 state inmates held in three-dozen prisons across the state. Another 70,000 people are held in California’s county jails, located in 56 counties.

Michael Bien, lead attorney for the inmates in a decades-long court fight to improve mental health care inside the prisons, said visitation for inmates is an important factor for them.

“I know CDCR leadership and Receiver (J. Clark) Kelso and his staff have been carefully considering the complex issues raised by the virus,” Bien said in an email Wednesday night. “Visiting adds some risk but is also a tremendous and necessary positive force in the prisons. Weighing the risks and benefits of activities is what we all are engaged in these days.”

Experts said it’s only a matter of time before the virus gets behind bars.

“If it’s inevitable that it’s going to hit the country, it’s even more inevitable it’s going to hit the jails and prisons,” Michele Deitch, a jails and prisons expert at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law, told The Sacramento Bee last week. “And it’s going to spread like wildfire.”

This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 9:54 PM with the headline "California prisons cancel visits, citing coronavirus. Conjugal stays to continue."