In a 2024 article published in The Conversation, researchers Nicole Ryan and Nathan Ryan highlight the difficulties many family members and friends experience when trying to visit loved ones in prison, and the many proven benefits of prison visits for successful community reintegration.
Ryan and Ryan write, “We found misinformation and limited information of visitation rules and processes help create such negative experiences for visitors. Some stopped going altogether. This is important to address because visitation is a crucial factor in helping prevent reoffending, but also to maintaining good mental health for those behind bars.”
For comment, ACSO reached out to Cas Patterson, program manager of our Queensland-based Community Re-Entry Services Team (CREST). CREST delivers pre-release services across six male correctional centres in South East Queensland. Because of her work with CREST, Cas has significant expertise and lived experience of navigating the prison system as a support worker. We wanted to learn more about her experience with prison visits and the importance of pre-release services, so we reached out with some questions.
This was Cas’s response:
“Having visits and contact with loved ones is often the key to successful reintegration. When we speak to clients within correctional centres one of the first things they want to tell us is why getting released back to the community is so important to them, and in most cases, this is to be with their loved ones. Pro-social support is a very strong protective factor when it comes to a person’s risk of recidivism and the more that can be done to strengthen/maintain those bonds while a person is housed in a correctional centre the better the clients’ chances are of avoiding reincarceration.
“Part of the CREST service is to link clients into community supports so they are well set up for their reintegration. So, while we do not have contact with the clients’ loved ones, we do initiate key relationships with services that provide holistic wrap around support to the client outside of their key support people/network.
“Many of our clients report that they do not have any contact at all with the outside world, and in cases such as these, CREST is their only conduit to the community while in a correctional centre.
“Removing any barriers to allow people housed in correctional centres to have more contact with their loved ones would not only have a positive impact on the individual but would also help their support network cope with the period of incarceration. Additionally, having visits and contact with loved ones supports in maintaining relationships, especially when there are children involved.”
The working knowledge of the CREST team, as experts in supporting clients with complex needs and forensic histories, provides a crucial source of understanding for promoting best practice across ACSO and the industry more broadly. The same can be said for ACSO’s other expert teams. We would like to thank Cas Patterson for taking time out of her busy schedule to share these valuable insights.
Click here to read the full article Most prisoners never receive visitors, and this puts them at a higher risk of reoffending by Associate Lecturer Nicole Ryan and Doctor Nathan Ryan.
News & Events
ACSO Comment: Access to in-prison visits is crucial for reintegration
January 28, 2025
In a 2024 article published in The Conversation, researchers Nicole Ryan and Nathan Ryan highlight the difficulties many family members and friends experience when trying to visit loved ones in prison, and the many proven benefits of prison visits for successful community reintegration.
Ryan and Ryan write, “We found misinformation and limited information of visitation rules and processes help create such negative experiences for visitors. Some stopped going altogether. This is important to address because visitation is a crucial factor in helping prevent reoffending, but also to maintaining good mental health for those behind bars.”
For comment, ACSO reached out to Cas Patterson, program manager of our Queensland-based Community Re-Entry Services Team (CREST). CREST delivers pre-release services across six male correctional centres in South East Queensland. Because of her work with CREST, Cas has significant expertise and lived experience of navigating the prison system as a support worker. We wanted to learn more about her experience with prison visits and the importance of pre-release services, so we reached out with some questions.
This was Cas’s response:
“Having visits and contact with loved ones is often the key to successful reintegration. When we speak to clients within correctional centres one of the first things they want to tell us is why getting released back to the community is so important to them, and in most cases, this is to be with their loved ones. Pro-social support is a very strong protective factor when it comes to a person’s risk of recidivism and the more that can be done to strengthen/maintain those bonds while a person is housed in a correctional centre the better the clients’ chances are of avoiding reincarceration.
“Part of the CREST service is to link clients into community supports so they are well set up for their reintegration. So, while we do not have contact with the clients’ loved ones, we do initiate key relationships with services that provide holistic wrap around support to the client outside of their key support people/network.
“Many of our clients report that they do not have any contact at all with the outside world, and in cases such as these, CREST is their only conduit to the community while in a correctional centre.
“Removing any barriers to allow people housed in correctional centres to have more contact with their loved ones would not only have a positive impact on the individual but would also help their support network cope with the period of incarceration. Additionally, having visits and contact with loved ones supports in maintaining relationships, especially when there are children involved.”
The working knowledge of the CREST team, as experts in supporting clients with complex needs and forensic histories, provides a crucial source of understanding for promoting best practice across ACSO and the industry more broadly. The same can be said for ACSO’s other expert teams. We would like to thank Cas Patterson for taking time out of her busy schedule to share these valuable insights.
Click here to read the full article Most prisoners never receive visitors, and this puts them at a higher risk of reoffending by Associate Lecturer Nicole Ryan and Doctor Nathan Ryan.