• Prison regulations affect inmate visitors, too.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of jondoeforty1
  
  

History

• Marrying an inmate has only been permitted since 1987, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a policy proposed by the Missouri Department of Corrections. The justices found that the policy, which required a warden's approval for marriages to proceed, was arbitrary and not a legitimate objective of the institution. Inmates' requests to marry civilians may only be denied if legal requirements are not met or the marriage threatens prison or public safety, according to an October 2007 article in the Americans for Effective Law Enforcement's "Monthly Journal."
  
  

Time Frame

• Scheduling a prison marriage poses unique challenges, the Americans for Effective Law Enforcement's article notes. The institution's use for the ceremony may be approved or denied on security grounds, and inmates must also pay all the costs up front. Since the 1987 decision, the courts have addressed a number of unique situations, as illustrated by a female prison employee's discharge for marrying an inmate. In that case, a court found the action "rationally related to a legitimate interest in prison security," the "Monthly Journal" reported. In other instances, federal prisoners with detainers or pending charges will face a review of their requests by prison staff.
  
  

Conditions

• Children are not recommended to bring on prison visits.Image by Flickr.com, courtesy of Mike Babcock
  
  Visiting spouses behind bars can be a difficult process. Inmates are allowed to see attorneys, clergy and family members, who are subject to officials' approval and placed onto a list. As a woman on PrisonTalk.com's board noted, when discussing Ohio's regulations, the prison bureaucracy also impacts people on the outside. She described several key regulations, including a ban on sleeveless T-shirts, shorts and dresses above the knee. Visitors were also barred from taking more than $25 with them to the institution. Many institutions also restrict the types of items that inmates can receive.
  
  

Considerations

• Because wives are entering a lockdown environment, they cannot reasonably expect an unlimited right to privacy. Inmates and wives may be searched any time with packages and purses subject to inspection as well. Just communicating and traveling to see husbands can be difficulty, as a Pennsylvania woman noted on PrisonTalk.com. Because her husband is imprisoned in New York, the woman must use the prison phone system to communicate with him, at a cost of $3.27 for the first minute and 27 cents per minute thereafter, "so they can keep charging for that first minute," she stated. "How can we combat this?"
  
  

Conjugal Visits

• No issue arouses more controversy than conjugal visiting rights, which allow inmate and spouse some time together. Only seven states allow the privilege, led by California, New York and Mississippi, whose prison system became the first one to implement the practice in 1918. Initially, the visits were offered as an incentive for African-Americans to work hard in the cotton fields at the notorious Parchman farm, according to "Conjugal Visitations," a paper presented on the subject. White inmates were eventually allowed the same privileges during the 1940s. Like all other aspects of prison life, conjugal visits are subject to official approval, based on the inmate's behavioral record, demeanor and other factors.