Jessica Mathews / Associated Press / News@whmi.com


AP: Most Michigan jails now prohibit in-person visits, but at least one county is allowing them again amid a series of legal challenges alleging the policies force inmates to pay high rates to contact their families through private phone and video vendors.

“Right 2 Hug” lawsuits in St. Clair and Genesee counties alleged local governments have profited from the calls by depriving children of the right to visit their parents.

Both cases were initially dismissed, but plaintiffs have appealed, and each case could come before the Michigan Court of Appeals as soon as this fall.

“Kids have a constitutional right to see and hug their parents,” said Cody Cutting, an attorney with the Washington-based Civil Rights Corps, who is representing youth plaintiffs in the Michigan complaints alongside the group Public Justice and Royal Oak-based law firm Pitt McGehee Palmer Bonanni & Rivers PC.

“The brave children and parents bringing these lawsuits look forward to showing the Court of Appeals that the St. Clair and Genesee County jails’ cruel bans on family visits violate that fundamental right.”

While the litigation continues, Genesee has already begun allowing in-person visits for the first time since 2013, according to Sheriff Chris Swanson, who is running for governor and seeking the Michigan Democratic Party’s 2026 nomination.

“The in-person visit stance never even crossed my mind, because it became a standard practice for staffing and as a revenue source for county jails,” Swanson said. “Before the case was even adjudicated, I thought, well, we know what to do.”

In St. Clair County, inmates pay $12.99 for 20 minutes of “painfully inadequate” video calls, according to one complaint.

In Genesee County, it’s $10 for 25 minutes, according to the other complaint.

In each case, contracts guarantee local governments get some of those fees.

Critics contend that the reliance on virtual visits creates unnecessary costs for families and goes against established research showing the positive effects of physical touch for both children and their incarcerated parents.


How jails handle visits

Most Michigan county jails have shifted to fully remote visits in the last decade, contracting with outside telecommunications vendors to allow scheduled remote video calls or on-site video kiosks.

A few counties, including Ottawa and Lapeer, offer in-person, no-contact visitation options in addition to video calls. But the vast majority rely entirely on telecommunications provided by companies like Securus Technologies — owned by private equity firm Platinum Equity, which is chaired by Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores — and the Virginia-based Global Tel Link (GTL).

In a 2015 report on the practice, the nonprofit research group Prison Policy Initiative found video visits first became an option in the 1990s but proliferated in the early 2010s as telecommunications companies began bundling video calls into phone contracts.

Still more jails, including Wayne County, did away with in-person visits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, in many cases opting to remain virtual even after the virus was no longer an immediate public health threat.

Unlike Michigan’s state prisons, which house people convicted of more serious crimes and allow in-person visits, jails are typically considered short-term facilities to hold people awaiting trial or those serving short sentences.

A 2020 state report analyzing jail and pretrial incarceration trends in Michigan found average jail stays in county facilities between 2016 and 2018 were 45 days for felony offenses and 11 days for misdemeanors, though averages varied widely — especially for people being held in jail while awaiting trial, who in some cases may wait months or years for their time in court.
Law enforcement officials in Michigan and other states have argued that keeping visits virtual reduces security risks of bringing outsiders into jail facilities and is a more efficient use of jail resources.

In a July 2024 order dismissing the “Right 2 Hug” challenge, St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Michael West sided with county attorneys’ arguments that the jail’s existing visitation policy suffices.

Todd Shoudy, an attorney representing St. Clair County, told the Detroit Free Press at the time that video visits “actually offers an easier and more reliable means of conducting free onsite visits than the old system of visits previously conducted through a glass partition.”

Sheriff departments that run county jails have cited funding shortages in recent years, and nearly three-quarters of all law enforcement agencies in the state were struggling to recruit personnel as of last year, according to a University of Michigan survey.


A different approach

Advocates say the costs of phone and video calls to and from jail can be cost-prohibitive to incarcerated people and their families.

At the state level, the Michigan Department of Corrections in 2022 lowered prison phone rates to 8.7 cents per minute, a 38% decrease. At least six other states have moved to allow free phone calls in state prisons, most recently New York.

Under then-President Joe Biden, the Federal Communications Commission issued a rule last year that would have capped phone and video call costs based on the size of the prison or jail starting April 1, 2025. President Donald Trump’s administration paused the rule change in July.

Though phone and video call rates vary widely at the local level, costs can add up, said Lois Pullano of the group Citizens for Prison Reform. Beyond the financial burden, not being able to see family members in person can take a “real emotional toll” on children, Pullano said.

“It’s a huge burden to families,” she said. “This practice of punishing entire families needs to be addressed.”

Swanson said Genesee County began its “Operation Restoration” program to allow in-person visits again in July 2024, setting aside one Saturday a month for children 13 and under to see their relatives in person and two Saturdays a month for older children and adults.

The county jail also now offers a free 20-minute video visits every week, Swanson said, noting that the county has seen “incredible results” and no issues with contraband or violence.
“There is zero indication that I will ever stop this, as long as I’m the sheriff,” Swanson said, adding that if he were elected to statewide office, he’d push other county jails to do the same.

Elsewhere in Michigan, at least one other county is considering allowing in-person visits.

Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia M. Dyer, in the department’s annual report, said the county has been testing pilot programs for in-person visitation, writing that allowing incarcerated people to see loved ones could help reduce recidivism.

“Our goal is to center dignity and humanity in our visitation policies—not only to improve behavior and recidivism outcomes, but to strengthen family bonds and promote community wholeness,” Dyer wrote in the report.

The dual lawsuits challenging St. Clair and Genesee County jail visitation policies will continue in court, though county attorneys in Genesee argue it’s a moot point now that in-person visits are allowed again.

Cutting, the Civil Rights Corps attorney, said the legal challenge will continue, noting the county has not yet submitted evidence to court that “Michigan families’ rights to spend time together are now being accommodated.”

Swanson said he’s not worried. “I will have to see what the appellate court says, but I’m convinced that the moves that we took before and during are the right moves,” he said. “We’re going to continue to restore families.”

This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Photo: Google Street View.