Private Family Visiting Program

The aim of the Private Family Visiting Program is to enable inmates to develop and maintain positive family and community relationships that will assist them in preparing for reintegration into society as law-abiding citizens. Under the program, private family visits are allowed once every two months for periods of up to 72 hours per inmate. The actual frequency and duration of visits, however, are determined by the number of inmates participating in the program and the facilities available at the institution.

Visits take place in special family visiting units located within the institutional reserve in an area that provides as much privacy as reasonably possible. The fully furnished units have at least two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom.

Inmates are eligible for private family visiting except those inmates who are:

	assessed as being currently at risk of becoming involved in family violence;
	in receipt of Unescorted Temporary Absences for the purpose of contact with family members;
	in a Special Handling Unit or are awaiting a decision or have been approved for transfer to a Special Handling Unit.

Family members eligible to participate in the program are spouses, common-law partners, children, parents, foster-parents, siblings, grandparents, and persons with whom, in the opinion of the institutional
head, the inmate has a close familial bond.

Private family visits are subject to the procedures and regulations outlined in the booklet Private Family Visiting. For detailed information, refer to Commissioner's Directive 770 on Visiting and the corresponding Guidelines.

First-time participants in the program should confer with the Officer-in Charge of private family visits at the appropriate institution.