The state prison system has suspended prisoner visitation because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previously, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections suspended visitation, but reinstated it. With the numbers of prisoner infections at unacceptable levels, the state has again cut off in-person contact for prisoners.
Visitation is an important part of a prisoner’s life. It maintains a connection to the outside world, family and a reason to maintain hope in a very depressing situation.
It’s also important to prison safety. Visitation makes prisoners more easily managed, which is critical to a system as understaffed as DOC is.
Corrections officials termed the decision “unfortunate, albeit necessary,” which is correct on both accounts.
Look at the map of rural counties with the highest rates of COVID-19 infections. In some cases, adjacent counties are among those with the lowest infection rates.
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What do the high infection rate counties have that their neighbors do not? The answer is usually a prison.
DOC has declared eight prisons to be COVID-19 hot spots, meaning they have infection rates of at least 20% among prisoners kept in cells or 15% among prisoners kept in open bay housing.
At last report, nine inmates and three employees may have died from COVID-19 complications, DOC says.
Visitation increases the potential for COVID-19 to get out of prison. The state’s decision reflects a calculated choice: The safety risk of suspending visitation is lower than the safety risk of continuing it.
But there are risks either way.
Last week, we called on the state to do more to protect the prisoners, prison employees and community against spread of coronavirus.
Suspending visitation is a step in that direction, but there were better options that have been left unaddressed, including the offers of nonprofit groups to get prisoners already close to release out of prisons with serious COVID-19 problems. The state is yet to respond publicly.
We can’t speak against the state’s decision to close off visitation, although we recognize that it comes at a public cost. We will, however, continue to maintain the state can and should do more to fight spread of COVID-19 in prisons and beyond.
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On Sept. 11, the Tulsa World Let’s Talk virtual town hall and the League of Women Voters of Oklahoma cohosted a town hall forum on State Questions 805 and State Question 814.
