California prisons to expand weekend visits and offer families free bus rides statewide
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is adding a third visiting day each weekend for inmates and is offering free bus rides for families wanting to visit their loved ones incarcerated in any of its prison facilities.
CDCR officials said its prisons statewide will move to three days of in-person weekend visiting on July 7, which is in line with the state Legislature’s intent to expand in-person visits.
“The expansion of three in-person visiting days a week, while offering free transportation statewide, will allow us to meet demand at our busier institutions and provide more opportunities for people to see their loved ones — enhancing public safety by promoting successful community reintegration,” CDCR Secretary Jeff Macomber said in a news release.
The expansion to three visiting days at prisons statewide will happen as CDCR ends video weekend visits at most of its facilities. The video visitation was a temporary measure implemented three years ago to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
During the previous fiscal year, the California Legislature approved $20.3 million to expand in-person visits to three days, according to the CDCR. The state prisons in August 2021 expanded its weekend visits to Fridays, offering a hybrid of video and in-person weekend visiting.
CDCR has partnered with TransMETRO to provide free bus rides to all California state adult prisons. This bus rides will be available to anyone who has been approved as a visitor by CDCR.
The buses depart Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Central, Southern, Northern, and Bay Area regions. Each region schedules service to all institutions on a rotating basis. Interested visitors can register for the free bus rides using the online portal on CDCR’s website. The Northern California bus schedule shows departures from Sacramento, Stockton, Chico and Redding.
CDCR also is launching a new Facility Status web page that will provide the latest visiting status information for each prison with the most current hours of in-person visiting and if there will be changes due to events like emergencies or holidays.
CDCR used to offer two days of in-person visiting on Saturdays and Sundays. But those visits were suspended in March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. To prevent further spread of the infectious virus, CDCR offered video visits at all prisons by the end of 2020 as safe and temporary alternative.
In the spring 2021, CDCR began a temporary hybrid plan of video and in-person weekend visits. CDCR officials said weekend video visits were always intended to be a temporary measure during the pandemic.
CDCR officials said conservation camps will continue hybrid video and in-person visits on Saturdays and Sundays, since those facilities do not have three days of visiting. But weekend video visits will end July 7 at all other CDCR facilities.
CDCR will continue to offer inmates opportunities for them communicate with friends and family through tablets and phone calls. Inmates are eligible for 15 minutes of free video calls from their tablet every two weeks, and phone calls made from standard institution wall phones and tablets are always free of charge.
This story was originally published May 8, 2023 at 2:40 PM.
