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A 'conjugal visit' is a scheduled extended visit during which an inmate of a prison is permitted to spend several hours or days in private, usually with a legal spouse. While the parties may engage in sexual intercourse, the generally recognized basis for permitting such a visit in modern times is to preserve family bonds and increase the chances of success for a prisoner's eventual return to life outside prison.
The visit will usually take place in a structure provided for that purpose, such as a trailer or small cabin. Supplies such as soap, condoms, tissues, sheets, pillows, and towels may be provided.

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In the United States

Around the World

In Popular Culture

In the United States

In the United States, inmates must meet certain requirements
to qualify for this privilege, for example, no violation of the rules in the last six months, history of good behavior, and so on. Those imprisoned in medium or maximum security facilities and inmates on death row are not permitted conjugal visits.
The visitor may be required to undergo a background check, and the inmate must also be free of any sexually transmitted diseases. As a matter of procedure, both visitor and inmate are searched before and after the visit, to ensure that the visitor has not attempted to sneak any items in or out of the facility.
Over the last 40 years, most new prisons included special buildings specifically designed for "Sunday visits." Today, conjugal visitation programs, also known as the Extended Family Visit, survive in only six states: California, Connecticut, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York and Washington.
In June 2007, California's Department of Corrections announced it would allow same-sex conjugal visits. The policy was enacted to comply with a 2005 state law requiring state agencies to give the same rights to domestic partners that heterosexual couples receive. The new rules allow for visits only by registered domestic partners who are not themselves incarcerated. Further, the domestic partnership must have been established before one of the partners was incarcerated. [1]
The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not allow conjugal visits.[2]

Around the World

France and Canada allow prisoners who have earned the right to a conjugal visit to stay in decorated home-like apartments during extended visits. In the Russian penal system, well-behaved prisoners are granted a three-day break from incarceration to see loved ones twice a year. In Brazil, male prisoners are eligible to be granted conjugal visits for both heterosexual and homosexual relationships, while women's conjugal visits are tightly regulated, if granted at all. In July 2007, the prison system in Mexico City has begun to allow gay prisoners to have conjugal visits from their partners, on the basis of a 2003 law which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation. [3]. Neither the English nor Scottish prison system allows conjugal visits, and political pressure to punish criminals makes it a difficult issue to suggest. However, home visits, with a greater emphasis on building other links with the outside world to which the prisoner will be returned, are allowed. [4]

In Popular Culture

On the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', Jerry imagines conjugal visits to be the best sex possible. Later on George finds 'fugitive sex' to be superior.