Prisoner Visitation and Support - Pollock

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Although most people cannot imagine spending years living with little or no contact with the outside world, it is a reality that prisoners across the country face on a day to day basis.

The federal prison system houses more than 198,000 prisoners in over 121 federal and several thousand more in 5 military prisons, many of whom are too far from their homes to get visits from family and friends at any point during their sentence.

Ninety-eight percent of these prisoners will eventually be released back into society, and the quality of their contact with the outside world will often determine whether they will commit crimes again and return to prison.

With few other opportunities for human contact, prisoners look to Prisoner Visitation and Support for a voice, encouragement, and a chance to reconnect with the world around them.

PVS visitors offer help and moral support to prisoners who seek contact with someone outside the immediate prison community to support them in their struggle to survive their incarceration, to live constructive lives and to maintain their self-esteem.

For many such prisoners, their PVS visitor is their only contact with the outside world, and a friend in their time of confinement.

Although we seek to serve the needs of all prisoners who desire visits, our priority is to visit those prisoners who:

• do not ordinarily receive visits from family and friends,

• want or need a visit,

• are in solitary confinement or on death row, or

• are serving long sentences.

Our purpose is to provide prisoners with regular face-to-face contact from the world outside of prison to help them cope with prison life and prepare for a successful re-entry into society.