The significance of ‘the visit’ in an English category-B prison: views from prisoners, prisoners’ families and prison staff

A number of claims have been made regarding the importance of prisoners staying in touch with their family through prison visits. Firstly from a humanitarian perspective of enabling family members to see each other, but also regarding the impact of maintaining family ties for successful rehabilitation, reintegration into society and reduced re-offending. This growing evidence base has resulted in increased support by the Prison Service for encouraging the family unit to remain intact during a prisoners’ incarceration. Despite its importance however, there has been a distinct lack of research examining the dynamics of families visiting relatives in prison. This paper explores perceptions of the same event – the visit – from the families’, prisoners’ and prison staff’s viewpoints in a category-B local prison in England. Qualitative data was collected with thirty prisoners’ families, sixteen prisoners and fourteen prison staff, as part of a broader evaluation of the visitors’ centre (Dixey and Woodall, 2009). The findings suggest that the three parties frame their perspective of visiting very differently. Prisoners’ families often see visits as an emotional minefield fraught with practical difficulties. Prisoners can view the visit as the highlight of their time in prison and often have many complaints about how visits are handled. Finally, prison staff see potential security breaches and a major organisational operation. The paper addresses the current gap in our understanding of the prison visit and has implications for the Prison Service and wider social policy.