Existing law requires the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, when amending or adopting regulations that may impact the visitation of inmates, to recognize and consider the value of visiting as a means to improve prison safety, the important role of inmate visitation in maintaining connection with family and community, and the role of inmate visitation in preparing for successful release.

This bill would prohibit a facility, as defined, from denying visitation on the basis of specified characteristics or factors, including, among others, sex, race, and criminal history. The bill would require a facility to allow all visits with an incarcerated person to be contact visits unless the incarcerated person is housed in a restricted housing unit, as specified. The bill would prohibit a facility from denying, revoking, suspending, limiting, or interfering with visitation privileges for a disciplinary matter or rule violation unrelated to visitation. The bill would require facility staff to take specified actions with regard to correctable issues with a visitation, including, among other things, allowing the visitor a reasonable opportunity to correct the issue and return to visiting up to one hour before the end of the visiting period. The bill would, if a visitor has traveled more than 100 miles to attend a visit, or has not visited within 30 days, require a credible and documented security threat for the visit to be denied by the facility.

The bill would prohibit a facility from searching visitors without their voluntary, informed, and written consent. The bill would authorize a facility to respond to refusal of that search only with denial of contact visiting for that day, and would require the facility to offer a noncontact visit on the same day. The bill would require other restrictions and procedures for searches of visitors, as specified. The bill would require data regarding searches, alerts, and resulting denials to be collected and published annually by the department in aggregate form.