Petition for Contact Visits with Death-Sentenced P

[guest]

Petition for Contact Visits with Death-Sentenced Prisoners
www.petitiononline.com/OSPvisit/petition.html
To: Terry Collins (ODRC) and David Bobby (Ohio State Penitentiary)
Petition for Contact Visits with Death-Sentenced Prisoners

Mr. Terry Collins
Director
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction

Mr. David Bobby
Warden
Ohio State Penitentiary

Dear Sirs:

Death-sentenced prisoners may be on Death Row for many years before their appeals are decided. The State of Ohio does not permit death-sentenced prisoners to have contact visits with their families until a few days before execution.

We understand the following to be true:

1. A number of Southern states including Louisiana and Virginia permit family members to have contact visits with their loved ones throughout the prisoners’ time on Death Row.

2. At the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, maximum security prisoners in general population may have up to twelve (12) contact visits a year whereas death-sentenced prisoners are not allowed any contact visits.

3. Death-sentenced prisoners believe that it might contribute to their good behavior in prison, and thus strengthen their arguments for clemency, if contact visits were permitted.

The request for contact visits for death-sentenced prisoners has been before you for many months. Many executions in Ohio are possible in the near future. Please grant this petition. A HUG IS A HUMAN RIGHT!

Sincerely,

[thinkinkmesa]

Below I will post some of the discussion going on about this subject that is being posted on one of the yahoo mail groups.
"James Conway, a death-sentenced prisoner at OSP, brought a pro se law suit on behalf of himself and his relatives. He lost in district court, appealed to the Sixth Circuit, and lost again. That is one reason I feel that public pressure is the better way to go for the time being. The OSP warden does not oppose contact visits. The bottleneck is Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, headquartered in Columbus."

Then there was this reply;
"But if the warden is not opposed, why does he not institute it? From what I have seen, wardens have the right to set visiting rules/practices and other procedures in their own prisons. Why does Collins have more power in THIS situation?"

Then this one;
"The answer allegedly is, because not all death-sentenced
prisoners are at OSP, and there is a perceived need to treat this group uniformly."

"Respectfully, IF that's the mind set, then why do the 4-A status Prisoners at Lucasville get (I'm told) full-contact visits EVERY visit; however, at OSP, they only get a select number of days each year, determined by Administration?"