As Black History Month invites reflection on the past, it also demands attention to the present. The policies and practices that allow family separation in Michigan’s prisons are part of a living history that continues to disproportionately harm Black families today.
Against this backdrop, it is important to understand that visitation restrictions are not rare or short-term experiences for incarcerated people and their families, and they do not impact everyone equally.
The Michigan Department of Corrections’ most recent Visitor Restriction Report shows that since August 2025, Black incarcerated people account for the largest share of individuals who lost visitation, particularly for substance-use related violations. Black men were disproportionately impacted, far exceeding other racial groups.
From our experience working with incarcerated people and their families, a substance-use related violation does not automatically reflect active substance use. We have seen a range of circumstances lead to these misconducts. Regardless, family connection should not be treated as a consequence for substance-related concerns, as separating people from their families undermines rehabilitation, stability, and recovery.
While one year is often the minimum restriction period following this kind of visit restriction, many people remain without visits far longer. Statewide, 2,468 incarcerated individuals applied for reinstatement, yet over 1,000 had their visitation restrictions extended, and nearly 41 percent were denied restoration altogether, resulting in prolonged separation from their families. In our work, we have encountered families who have gone years without visitation, including parents and children separated for a decade or more.
Notably, the most common reason for visitation loss was substance-use related violations, not conduct involving violence, escape, or harm to visitors. These policies disproportionately strip families of connection under the guise of discipline, reinforcing racial inequities that already exist throughout the criminal legal system.
This context matters. Through our ongoing conversations with incarcerated people and their families about visitation and family connection, this reflection came forward as one individual’s account. While it reflects a single experience, we are sharing it today because it speaks to broader patterns we are encountering in our work.
The following essay was written by author Demetrius Buckley, an incarcerated Black father, husband, and son whose lived experience reflects what the data too often obscures. His story is not an outlier. It is representative of the real human cost of severing family connection.
My wife waited to enter into the small, crowded visiting room, with my mother who hadn’t seen me in fifteen years. They smiled on the other side of the plastic frame, a happy but somber smile knowing they would have to leave the prison without me. As they entered the visiting room I realized that I was alive in a world away from the real world. I had caused a terrible universal riff in fear, anxiety, and stress. I took a deep breath in that moment like I was learning how to breathe. I felt the air fill into my lungs as my wife and moms walked toward me with open arms. It was then I started to see what I was fighting for, what kept me sane in an environment that takes away humanity from an incarcerated person.
The prison administration had allowed the incarcerated 2-8 hour visits in a day; eight visits in total for the month. During and after COVID, It changed to 2-4 hours in a day. For the incarcerated person, visits remind them what it means to be partially free with family, and how to be loved and nurtured in a social sharedness.
Quality time with loved ones is therapeutic for both family and person serving time. Replacing prison memories from valuable family memories is how a visit is a hope to reimagine a life without bars and chains.
I became aware of this hope during visits. I have so much to lose. It is a needed reminder to keep the incarcerated focus, but if this privilege is being overly restricted by staff then what does it say about Corrections? Administration can strip the incarcerated from their loved ones by force.
“05.03.140 which will go into effect on Dec 9, 2024.” reads a JPAY represented email message on my jp5 tablet. After the decision went into policy that Alcohol misconducts can’t take visits, almost following that institutional change was urine sample testing an incarcerated person for every class one or class two citation ticket. The Control Center is the central hub for ticket reviews and visits in prisons. Failure in these urine sample tests whether it be THC, cocaine, suboxone strips, meth, or other drugs prescribed by the facility through healthcare, will determine an incarcerated person’s access to visits. Even if it is a false positive. These restrictions have nothing to do with visits.
Fighting misconduct tickets for visit restrictions will take up to six months; during the 6 months the restriction will hold visits throughout the process. This gives an opposite response in maintaining facility safety.
I can only express a small amount of this severity when restrictions are set upon an incarcerated person . A restriction of visits follows with a class one which entails Loss of all privileges: phone use, yard time, and JPAY emailing use.
Taking visits deprive the incarcerated person of family connection. It pushes them into a deeper habit, if a drug addiction is the case. The hope level vanishes and so does the thought of having something to lose. It can result in a person overdosing. Family support is vital to the incarcerated body.
“Suicide is a threat to all person involved in corrections. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, from 2001 to 2019, the number or suicides increased 85% in state prison, 61% in federal prison, and 13% in local jails.”
Based on data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and others researchers suicide and family support: “While support is a known protective factor, specific nationwide statistics on how many suicide victims had family support are limited. However, research indicates the following: Lack of connection: studies show that inmates who commit suicide often face a loss of social support and decreased feelings of connectedness, which heavily linked to suicidal ideation and behaviors.”
Family visits are necessary while serving time. No one should be severed from their loved ones for any reason as long as it isn’t harming the family or disrupting the safety in prison.
Thank you for writing this. Reading it brought up a lot for me — my cousin lost his visits for more than two years, and it was devastating. When his sister finally got his visits restored, everything shifted for him. You capture so clearly how much these connections matter, and how deeply people are affected when they’re taken away. I’m grateful you’re bringing attention to something so many families quietly carry