To: Governor Gavin Newsom
Gov. Brown: Protect in-person visitation in jails
We urge you to sign Senate Bill 1157 (Mitchell)- Strengthening Family Connections: In-Person Visitation. This bill ensures that people in jail and their families will have access to in-person visitation. Research has shown that in-person visits strengthen family connections and reduce recidivism, increase the chances of securing employment post-release, and facilitate successful reentry.
Why is this important?
Increasingly, county jails are replacing in-person visitation with video visitation. At least eighteen counties in California have eliminated, plan to eliminate, or severely restrict in-person visitation in at least one of their jails.
SB 1157 would require facilities that elect to use video visitation to also provide in-person visitation and would require that facilities that do not offer any in-person visitation to offer in-person visitation by January 1, 2022.
Being able to have an in-person visit with their loved one who is incarcerated is crucial for family members, many of them children. Please ask Gov. Brown to sign this important bill.