WEBINAR: Fighting for families: How advocates are resisting attacks on visitation and physical mail
by Sarah Staudt, June 4, 2026
Protecting family connections and bonds with loved ones during incarceration is one of the most important and, increasingly, one of the most difficult things advocates can do. Contact visitation, handwritten cards and letters, and regular phone calls improve mental health outcomes for both people in prisons and the families who love and support them. They also strengthen parent-child relationships and familial bonds, improve in-prison conduct and make prisons safer, and can significantly increase a person’s chance of success upon release.
Nevertheless, jails and prisons across the country are implementing increasingly restrictive communication policies. Contact visitation is under attack, and more than 30 states no longer allow incarcerated people to receive physical mail from their loved ones. These moves, ostensibly in the name of security, not only devastate incarcerated people and their loved ones but make us all less safe in the long run. But families are fighting back, championing policies to protect these vital lifelines and the benefits that come with them.
Join the Prison Policy Initiative on July 1 from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm EST, as we welcome Jodi Hocking, Executive Director of Return Strong Nevada, and Taj Mahon-Haft PhD, Director of The Humanization Project in Virginia. We’ll take a closer look at the importance of family connections, learn more about the ways they are under attack, and share strategies to help families fight back.
This webinar will include live American Sign Language and Spanish interpretation.
