A Volunteer Visitation Program to Federal and Military Prisoners Throughout the United States
How Covid-19 is Affecting our Work
While some facilities are not allowing visitors due to restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic, many are open for visitation. Our visitors are visiting where they are able, and for those facilities that are still closed, current PVS visitors have been granted special permission to correspond with prisoners until visiting resumes.
For people that are incarcerated, "lockdown" means that there are no outside visitors allowed, and that they are confined to their cells for 23 or 24 hours a day. All educational and recreational programs are cancelled, they are no longer permitted to congregate in common areas, and phone calls are restricted. As you can imagine, this puts a strain on all prisoners, but especially those that receives PVS visits since they often do not have anyone else on the outside.
During normal times, Bureau of Prisons and PVS policies do not allow written communication between visitors and the prisoners they visit. We are thankful to the BOP for allowing our current visitors to correspond via mail with the prisoners they were visiting before the lockdown. This is a special privilege we have been given during the pandemic, and once prisons open and visitors start visiting again, letter writing will stop.
We are still accepting applications for new visitors once facilities open. To find the facility closest to you, and to get current information about the status of Covid-19 at each institution, you can visit the Bureau of Prisons Coronavirus Resource Page.