Phara Souffrant Forrest

A state lawmaker wants the state to establish visiting procedures for state and local jails as well as visiting rights for visitors and those in the jails.

Assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest, D-Brooklyn, has introduced legislation (A.11507) that would standardize procedures around the state.

“Unfortunately, visits are often treated as a privilege rather than a right. County jails in New York state often have limited visiting hours and few, if any, provisions for children or visitors with any vulnerabilities,” Forrest wrote in her legislative justification. “County jails typically only allow for an incarcerated person to receive a total of two hours of visiting each week, though the majority of people in jails have not been convicted of a crime, these limited visiting hours disrupt their relationships with their children and family. It is rare that a prison or jail has an administrator oversee visiting, collect and report data on visiting, monitor quality and treatment of visitors, and respond to visitors’ questions and concerns. The lack of attention and oversight regarding visiting means that visiting a New York correctional facility or forensic facility is often stressful, confusing, and too commonly traumatic.”

In-person visits at the Chautauqua County Jail are available Wednesday through Sunday from 7:25 a.m. to 8:25 a.m., 8:40 to 9:40 a.m, 9:55 to 10:55 a.m., 12:05 to 1:05 p.m. and 1:20 to 2:20 p.m. Walk-up visits are accepted for in-person visits subject to availability and timing during established visiting hours. Visitors can also schedule an appointment on the Sheriff’s Office website.

Forrest’s bill would establish visiting schedules for forensic mental health facilities and state and local correctional facilities, require visitors to be processed as expeditiously as possible and require data to be collected on visitor wait times. Jails would be required to have visitor waiting rooms, processing areas, visiting rooms and visitor bathrooms that are accessible and clean, and require functional vending machines with a variety of healthy foods representative of diverse cultural backgrounds.

Correctional facilities would also be required to have an amnesty box for visitors to dispose of items that would be confiscated while going through the security process.The state and local municipalities would also be required to establish procedures regarding the daily use of available screening methods, exempts anyone pregnant or under 18 from using body scanners that use any level of ionization, establishes procedures and requirements for when visits can or cannot be denied, requires that body scanner and pat-down searches be conducted by an employee of the same gender as the visitor or incarcerated individual, requires all visitor processing to be recorded by stationary or body-worn cameras, where applicable, and establishes that a malfunctioning body scanner cannot result in visits being canceled.

Forrest also proposes an investigation and appeals process when contraband is found or a visitor or incarcerated individual is denied a visit for any reason. The bill would mandate that no visitor or incarcerated individual be denied contact-visits beyond the day that the visit is denied. Jail employees would have to receive training on visitor processing annually and protocol would be established when an employee is found to have wrongfully or unfairly denied visits to a visitor or incarcerated individual.

Forrest took particular issue with the suspension of visits to all 41 state prisons during the corrections officer strike in February 2025, with limits on visitation in state prisons remaining more than a year later. Forrest said the state Division of Criminal Justice Services restored one weekday visit to all maximum security prisons starting April 29, though holiday visits remained suspended. On May 18, the Clinton Correctional Facility became the only maximum security prison out of 13 to return to visits on every day of the week.

“Visiting is a lifeline for incarcerated people and their families and is one of the only means of maintaining strong family and community ties,” Forrest wrote in her legislative justification. “Numerous studies have shown that frequent visits produce significant positive outcomes.”