Weak after a cancer diagnosis, Vida Kivenas wanted to travel to see her grandson at Pinckneyville Correctional Center one final time before she passed away. Twice, she and her daughter drove over four hours to the prison in hopes of a visit. But both times, they found out upon arrival that visits were canceled at the Southern Illinois facility due to short staffing. A month later, she passed away.
Thanks to our sponsors:
“It was just awful,” her daughter, Nadia Kivenas, said. “You’re expecting to see someone and then they cancel the visit, especially in a time of need.” Several family members and advocates with loved ones incarcerated in prisons across Illinois told WTTW News that their in-person visits have been canceled by the Illinois Department of Corrections due to short staffing or lockdowns. Those visits are crucial for those inside and their loved ones, serving as a connection to the outside world and relationships. Those incarcerated are
entitled to up to seven visits per month. Naomi Puzzello, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Corrections, said they “recognize concerns around cancellations and continually work to minimize disruptions to visitations and keep loved ones informed.” “IDOC is committed to providing the seven in-person visits per month that individuals in custody are entitled to, and works diligently to restore visiting opportunities as soon as conditions allow,” she said in a statement.
A ‘Staffing Crisis’
Cut visits are one impact of the “staffing crisis” IDOC is facing, as the prison watchdog group, John Howard Association,
reported in the fall . That understaffing has led to an increase in lockdowns, which typically result in facility-wide restrictions consistent with solitary confinement or restrictive housing. Lockdowns have risen 285% from the financial year 2019 to 2024, according to that John Howard report. When a facility is on lockdown, visits can be limited or eliminated altogether, the report states. “This is really problematic, and we cannot continue to function this way if the staffing levels can’t increase,” said Jennifer Vollen-Katz of the John Howard Association. Each facility’s specific operational requirements determine visitation cancellations on a case-by-case basis, Puzzello said. A minimum number of staff are required to supervise visitation areas, but it varies by facility size and layout.
Last-Minute Cancellations
Since October 2023, Menard Correctional Center has been on lockdown nearly every day, according to IDOC data. Those restrictions can limit incarcerated people’s access to programming, work, recreation, phone calls, visitation and other activities for significant periods of time. For Rafael Kennedy, who’s incarcerated at Menard, the lockdowns resulted in a canceled visit with his mother and his 10-year-old son in April. In the visitation room, he likes to play cards and pick his son’s brain to try and get an idea of his personality. He’s in-tune with himself, Kennedy wrote to WTTW News. But in early April, when Kennedy’s mom and his son tried to visit, 45 minutes into their nearly three-hour drive they received a call that visits were canceled. “When it’s canceled I feel let down either by the system or my loved one that scheduled the visit,” Kennedy said. “[Visits are] like an energy charging moment. I feel the safest; I can get surrounded by the familiar love.” Since the COVID-19 pandemic, IDOC requires visitors to schedule a visit online. Prior to that, visitors could show up day-of for a visit. But scheduling hasn’t benefited families, as scheduled appointments go canceled, Julie Anderson said. Her son was incarcerated for 27 years. Now that he’s out, she visits friends she made in the course of his time inside. Anderson has been trying to see one of those friends, incarcerated at Pinckneyville Correctional Center, since January. Four visits have been canceled. In addition to not seeing a friend, it also means full-day commitments wasted: a five-hour drive to the facility, $225 in elder care for her mother and taking time off from work. There is little consistency in how visitors find out about cancellations, according to those interviewed. Some arrive at a facility to find out it’s canceled. Sometimes, an email is sent out: “Visits are cancelled … the institution is on lockdown.” Others won’t bother leaving their house until they can give a facility a call the morning of a visit, checking they’re visits are still on. “I can call in the morning when I’m leaving … hoping nothing happens along the way, but they can call an hour into the ride, three hours into the ride, four hours into the ride and just tell you that they’ve gone on lockdown and it’s been canceled,” said Denice Bronis, who visits her son at Shawnee Correctional Center, a six-hour drive from her house. Staff work to notify visitors as promptly as possible, Puzzello said, while advising visitors to call the facility before traveling to confirm a visit. Bronis was last able to visit her son in March, and is crossing her fingers that she can see him in May. Twenty-six years of visits mean the world to her, as she’s able to feed her son chicken sandwiches or burgers out of the vending machine — “nothing but unhealthy food, but you at least get to feed your child.” To ameliorate the issue, Vollen-Katz said IDOC needs to hire more staff. If that can’t be done, practices and policies need to be adjusted. That could look like moving officers in place to staff units in a way that would allow people inside movement. If more staff can’t be hired, Vollen-Katz said these issues could be offset by closing down facilities in the state, as many are facing millions of dollars in deferred maintenance while being understaffed and under capacity. “Rather than continuing to accept short staffing as something that we can’t do anything about in terms of the impact that has both for the people who work in the facilities and the people who are incarcerated, we have to find other ways of doing things so that life in these prisons isn’t as isolating and deprived as it currently is for everybody,” Vollen-Katz said.
Thanks to our sponsors:
Thanks to our sponsors:
