Families do not stop being families at the prison gate.

Illinois families are asking the Illinois Department of Corrections and state leaders to modernize family visitation and establish Extended Family Visits (often called conjugal or family reunion visits) in secure, private cottages or apartment-style units on correctional property.

For many families, incarceration means years—or decades—of maintaining a marriage, raising children, and preserving relationships through crowded visiting rooms, short phone calls, unreliable technology, and highly restrictive visitation rules.

Some incarcerated people may never come home. That does not mean they stop being husbands, wives, partners, parents, children, siblings or grandparents.

We are asking Illinois to allow eligible families meaningful private time together where they can cook a real meal, eat together, talk privately, watch a movie, play with their children, celebrate important moments, and experience ordinary family life. Adult spouses and partners should also be afforded appropriate private intimacy.

We propose up to three additional Extended Family Visit days per month, subject to availability and reasonable conduct and security requirements, without taking away existing regular visits. Sentence length or lack of a release date should not automatically disqualify someone.

This campaign also calls for modernization of regular visitation and family communication—including reasonable affection such as holding hands, allowing families to sit together, modern visitor dress rules, better phone and tablet reliability, expanded video visitation, photo/video messaging, sanitary showers, family-funded approved meals and comfort items, civilian-clothing opportunities during designated visits and programs, and modern contraband-screening technology.

We are not asking taxpayers to pay for optional family comforts.

Families are willing to pay for approved groceries, meals, clothing and optional personal items themselves. We are asking Illinois to create secure avenues that allow us to do so while IDOC maintains appropriate searches, screening, supervision and institutional security.

Other correctional systems have operated structured family-visitation programs. Illinois can learn from established models while creating a system appropriate for Illinois.

Security and humanity are not opposites.

Let a wife sit beside her husband.
Let couples hold hands.
Let parents spend meaningful time with their children.
Let families cook and eat together.
Let couples have privacy.
Let families maintain relationships across decades of incarceration.

The visitor came to the prison. The visitor was not sentenced to it.

We ask IDOC, the Governor, and the Illinois General Assembly to work toward implementing secure Extended Family Visits and modernizing policies that unnecessarily interfere with healthy family connection.

Families don’t stop being families at the prison gate. Let families help.