NAACP Virginia State Conference supports these bills Hb1246 Hb861 Hb857 Hb851

Dear Members of the General Assembly, I write in strong support of HB173, HB296, and HB1246 based on my lived experience and years of witnessing how powerful visitation can be when it is treated with humanity and consistency. Family connection stabilizes incarcerated individuals, improves behavior, and gives people hope. Visitation is not a luxury; it is a critical part of rehabilitation. Unfortunately, current practices often work against that purpose. On December 6, 2025, my visit at Buckingham Correctional Center was denied, along with three other women, because our jeans were said to be “too tight,” even though visitors wearing nearly identical clothing had been allowed in earlier that same day. One woman had driven nearly six hours and was still denied an in-person visit. This type of inconsistent enforcement discourages families and erodes trust. I have also had a visit stopped because of a one-inch crack in my car window during the middle of summer, in nearly 90-degree heat. Instead of focusing on safety or reasonable solutions, the visit was terminated. Experiences like this make families feel punished rather than supported. What hurts most is that I remember when visitation brought real family unity. I grew up visiting my father during times when DOC hosted family days. We could go out on the yard, eat hamburgers and hotdogs, play cards, and run around in the field. Those moments mattered. They created connection, motivation, and hope. I looked forward to those visits because they felt human. Now, visits feel stripped of that purpose. There is no movement, no access to nourishment, and even using the bathroom can risk ending a visit. Families are expected to sit for hours without basic accommodations. Where is the family unity in that? HB173, HB296, and HB1246 move Virginia toward fairness, consistency, and dignity. They recognize that families are not a threat to safety, but a vital part of rehabilitation. I respectfully urge you to support all three bills. Their passage would help restore trust, humanity, and the true rehabilitative power of family connection in Virginia’s correctional system.

I fully support this bill so does my son. Especially earned sentence credit. Please pass this bill. It's so important!

i don’t agree with this bill because that would mean even more limits on how often you can visit your loved one. it’s already lots of restrictions & that would just add another one. i feel as if visitation shouldn’t be looked upon as a privilege nor be used as punishment. they are still human & deserve to be able to see & interact with their family. i feel we should have longer visitation time with our loved one. hour or two extra nothing too dramatic. the visits give most of these guys incarcerated hope. being able to see their families give them a reason to keep pushing to the next day. communication with family is already very difficult as most facilities are always locked down. as a family member, we all should be able to see our loved ones not based on vadoc gca levels.

I support real family connection and meaningful visitation. I want people to be able to hug their loved ones and maintain relationships that help them survive incarceration and succeed when they come home. But this bill does not expand visitation as a right. It turns family contact into something that must be earned through “good time” class levels and that can be taken away when someone is struggling. HB1246 creates a phase system tied to Good Conduct Allowance levels and time in those levels. That means visitation and physical contact are not protected. They become an incentive and a punishment tool. When a person’s GCA level drops, they can lose good time and also lose family access. That is a double penalty, and it is not pro family. It creates pressure and instability for people who are already living in a high stress environment. This structure will harm vulnerable populations the most. People with mental health disabilities, intellectual or developmental disabilities, limited English proficiency, trauma histories, or communication barriers are more likely to receive disciplinary infractions or struggle to navigate rules. People in protective custody or restrictive housing for safety reasons may be effectively excluded from the “enhanced” visitation that the bill claims to expand. Families should not lose contact because a loved one is in crisis, misunderstood, or placed in isolation. Virginia should strengthen visitation without weaponizing it. If the General Assembly wants to support families, the bill should remove the GCA based phases and instead create a universal baseline visitation standard for everyone. Enhanced appropriate physical affection should be available during contact visits unless there is a specific, individualized safety reason to restrict it. Any restrictions should require written notice, a clear reason, a time limit, and an appeal process. We should not allow blanket bans based on housing status or classification. Family connection should not be used as leverage. It should be protected as a stabilizing, life saving support, especially for people in crisis. Please reject HB1246 unless it is amended to remove the incentive system and include real guardrails that prevent visitation from being revoked arbitrarily or used as a behavioral control.

I am against this bill and I would think if DOC prides themselves on family and rehabilitation they would not be using an incentive tier for men and women to have that much needed time with their families. Also, you already get 2 hours at visit as it is so it’s not like that’s an added bonus.

I write in strong support of HB296, HB173, and HB1246 as an individual directly affected by Virginia’s visitation policies. I am a long distance visitor who must travel hundreds of miles and coordinate interstate and international travel in order to maintain contact with an incarcerated family member. I am also a parent and a spouse, and the responsibility for planning, funding, and navigating visitation falls primarily on me. My husband is my children’s stepfather and supports them at home while I manage the logistics and emotional labour of maintaining family connection through a complex and inconsistent system. Virginia is nationally recognised for reducing recidivism, with a three year re incarceration rate of approximately 17.6 percent, the lowest in the country. Research consistently shows that maintaining family connections during incarceration is one of the strongest predictors of successful reentry. Individuals who receive visits are significantly less likely to reoffend, with reductions in reconviction rates exceeding 30 percent in some studies. Protecting visitation is therefore not only compassionate policy but a sound public safety strategy. In Virginia, approximately one in fourteen children will experience parental incarceration before age eighteen. As a parent, I experience firsthand how visitation policies affect not only the incarcerated individual but the family member who must absorb the financial costs, travel demands, and administrative barriers in order to keep that connection alive. National data shows fewer than half of incarcerated parents receive in person visits with their children, despite in person contact being the most effective way to preserve meaningful relationships. When visits are shortened or cancelled after significant travel, the burden and impact fall directly on the caregiver who has made those sacrifices. HB173 directly addresses these realities by recognising long distance visitors, minor children, and infrequent visitors, and by establishing a minimum two hour visit. For someone in my position, a short or unpredictable visit does not justify the extensive planning, expense, and disruption required. Limiting suspension of visitation to situations involving a direct and substantial safety threat provides essential protection against arbitrary denials that currently occur without explanation or appeal. HB296 addresses the lack of consistent and clearly communicated visitation rules that I and others must navigate. Requirements often vary by facility or change without notice, creating unnecessary stress and uncertainty. Clear standards improve compliance, reduce conflict, and support staff while ensuring visitors are treated with dignity. HB1246 ensures these reforms are implemented through transparency, data collection, and oversight. Advancing HB296, HB173, and HB1246 affirms Virginia’s commitment to public safety, rehabilitation, and the family members who carry the responsibility of maintaining connection under difficult circumstances.

I am a directly impacted family member of someone incarcerated in Virginia. I am submitting this comment in opposition to HB1246, not because family connection is unimportant, but because this bill misunderstands the reality families like mine are living in. My family member has been held in long-term solitary confinement. In that reality, “enhanced visitation” is not meaningful access, it is largely theoretical. When someone is isolated for months or years, visits are rare, tightly restricted, and often impossible to reach. Families live hours away, must miss work and school, and still may be denied contact due to lockdowns, classifications, or arbitrary enforcement. More importantly, this bill does nothing to address the conditions that make visitation meaningless in the first place. There is also a child involved in this. A child who used to hear from their parent regularly. A child who depended on those calls for comfort, guidance, and reassurance. Now there are long silences where no call comes, let alone visits. This is bill is not fair for children and families who are innocent in this. HB1246 suggests that increased visitation alone can repair this harm. It cannot. Visitation is not a substitute for humane conditions. You cannot “enhance” a visit while someone is being psychologically harmed in isolation. You cannot strengthen families while simultaneously breaking the person at the center of them. This bill fails to grapple with that reality. It offers optics without addressing the root harm. For families like mine, it feels like being asked to accept crumbs while enduring ongoing damage. I urge you to listen to directly impacted families and to prioritize policies that reduce isolation, protect mental health, and preserve real human connection, not symbolic access.

We oppose HB 1246 as written. Visitation is not a “behavior incentive”, it’s harm reduction and a basic human need. This bill makes family connection conditional through DOC-controlled phases tied to good-time levels, creating a system where children and loved ones become leverage. HB 1246 also gives VADOC another tool to restrict families through subjective classifications and uneven program access, disproportionately harming people with disabilities, language barriers, and mental health needs, and families who already travel far to stay connected. If Virginia truly believes family connection supports rehabilitation and safer reentry, then visitation should be a protected baseline for all people, limited only by a documented, individualized safety risk with due process and time limits, not by incentive tiers the DOC can weaponize. Please vote NO on HB 1246 in its current form.