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Washington State Institute for Public Policy

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Publications

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Assessing the Impact of Prison Visitation on Adults Confined in Washington State: Contact Visits, Prison Infractions, and Recidivism

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Corey Whichard, Micah McFeely - December 2025


During a contact visit, incarcerated individuals meet face-to-face with visitors in a designated area where limited physical contact is allowed. Although past research suggests that participation in contact visits is associated with improved outcomes (e.g., fewer infractions, lower recidivism), there is no published research on contact visits in Washington. We analyzed records from a comprehensive database of all contact visits in Washington prisons between 2008 and 2023 to answer three research questions: (1) Who gets visited? (2) Does visitation impact prison infractions? (3) Does visitation impact recidivism?

We found that about 48% of incarcerated individuals received at least one contact visit during their prison stay. The most powerful predictor of visitation is travel time. Individuals confined in facilities located a short drive from their county of conviction were much more likely to receive visits. We also found that visitation has a complex relationship with whether individuals violate prison rules (i.e., infractions). Visits cause a decrease in violent infractions (e.g., fighting) but an increase in trading infractions (e.g., sharing/loaning items). The risk of receiving a serious infraction dramatically declines during the weeks leading up to a contact visit, increases immediately after the visit, then gradually returns to baseline levels within a few weeks. Finally, we found no evidence that visitation impacts recidivism.

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