Poll: One of your immediate family memebers is in prison, do you go visit them?

[Lufia Erim]

Just curious. This thought just ran through my head. Let's say hypothetically one of your close family memebers were sent to prison and they were truly guilty of their crimes ( as well as admit to it).

Would you go visit them? If so why? If not why?

For those who think it depends on the crime, what's your personally line. As in what crime(s) would they commit that you would tell yourself you are not going to go see them . As well as which ones would you be okay with going to see them?

Personally, i wouldn't go visit. Regardless of who it was. I most likely would cut tieswith any family that commit a bad enough crime to warrant jail time. I am not one to associate with criminals of any kind as harsh as that may sound. Having a criminal record is a pretty big deal, and i don't really want to be in the company of anyone who has such a record. That and the idea of going to a prison , even just for visiting, isn't very appealing.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

Shit, that is way harsh

I've made some mistakes in my past, some of them may even have landed me in jail if things played out a little differently, so I would totally visit close family and friends.

I'm not sure exactly where my cutoff would be, though. If they did something especially cruel or vicious like unprovoked murder or rape then I totally wouldn't visit them

But I think most criminals deserve to be treated more as humans, and less like monsters

 

[tippy2k2]

I guess it depends more on which family member and why they did it.

If it's an immediate family member, I would certainly visit them unless it was some kind of like...super insane setup. Like, "they decided to shoot a bus full of nuns because the dog told them that Ryan Reynolds would love them forever if they did that" insane. Talking with them is useless because it's clear that something in their brain broke.

It would be half out of love and half morbid curiosity to find out why the hell they did whatever they did.

 

[Erttheking]

Depends on which family member. I have...strained relations with some. Those ones can go to hell.

 

[Barbas]

Why not? If for no other reason, I imagine I'd be very interested to know the story behind why they did it. I think that if they did something cruel and evil for attention then I wouldn't visit them at all. Depending on the severity of the crime, I might not consider them a part of my family any more. They'd still be human, but I doubt me or any relative I know would speak of them in the future.

 

[feeback06]

My mother is an opiate addict, so if she were imprisoned on another drug related charge then absolutely not. As for anyone else, I'm not sure.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yes, just out of the sake they're family. Even then I liked most of my family members even if one or two of them are annoying (like one of my cousin is the complete oppersite of me but he mean well).

 

[CeeBod]

My Dad did serve jail time, and without going into the details, the victim of the crime was another close family member. As a result I shut him out completely, didn't visit him, and didn't talk to him for I think 5 years after he got out. Even now some 10 years later, I only have very minimal contact with him.

If a member of my immediate family was in jail for something less shitty though, of course I'd have visited - cutting off contact with any family member found guilty of any crime, whatever it is, is frankly an unthinking knee-jerk reaction that really doesn't show you in a very favorable light. Everyone has done something stupid they wish that they hadn't, and all it takes to get a criminal record is to have that stupid shit be the wrong thing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that counts doubly so if you're not from a white wealthy family who can get away with more shit of course.

 

[Xan Krieger]

If my mother went to prison for any reason I'm saving her regardless of how much damage needs to be done or how many people need to be offed. You do not arrest my family members and expect to see your own family ever again.

 

[Recusant]

They're family. You don't turn your back on family. If nothing else, then for the mercenary reason that that's so they don't turn their backs on you.

I used to be a truck driver. The company I worked with used electronic paperless logs. If you don't know, you need (in the US) to use logbooks to keep track of the hours you spend driving and doing other on-duty activities. These act as legal documents (well, sort of); if you put your location as being at mile marker 200 and then two hours later you're at mile marker 400, you've incriminated yourself as violating the speed limit. At a weigh station, I got hit with a computer error (the fax didn't go through; I don't know to this day whether it was another error, or someone looking at it and thinking "oh crap, we can't send this") that said I'd driven 950 miles in 8.75 hours- in other words, that I'd spent nearly a whole driving day averaging 118 MPH.

Obviously that wasn't true; this was Wyoming (very large and sparsely populated), but the police would have to be comatose for that to go unnoticed for that long. But a logbook is a legal document. And that was almost double the local speed limit, which isn't speeding, it's reckless driving- that's a mandatory arrest. Had that fax gone through, I'd've found myself sitting in a holding cell while the police tried to sort out what was clearly a mistake with the company headquarters. "Reckless driving" sounds like, and is, a serious offense. "Being the victim of a computer glitch" is not.

Even assuming it was an actual serious crime that they actually committed- if they're repentant, you're going to want to help them get their life back together. If they're not, well, you're going to want an explanation.

 

[Michel Henzel]

Sure, why not? Seen the inside of prison plenty of times before. And yes, that isn't even a joke.



Well, they did let me out again at the end of the day though. My parents have both worked in prisons and my mother still does work as a guard. So that is why I've been to prison plenty of times . From women's prisons to max sec. ones, I've seen the inside of plenty of prisons. And yeah, my mom is a total badass, just saying.

Though to answer the question, it would depend on the crime.

 

[monkeymangler]

Well... my Uncle is on death row in California. Never visited him though.

Sad part: he wasn't my uncle when he got put there. My aunt married him... while he was on death row. Got a cover story from People magazine and about two weeks worth of Leno/Letterman jokes.

My family isn't exactly normal...

 

[WolfThomas]

I consider immediate to be first degree relatives. Sister, Mother, Father. Seeing as none of them are criminals and are not horrible human beings, I'm going at least once to ask "Why?" Even for a messed up crime. Can't promised I'd ever go back though if it was truly terrible what they did.

 

[MysticSlayer]

The last time I was in this situation was when I was ten, so it wasn't really a choice. Still, I remember enjoying the brief visits. That said, I've heard plenty of stories about inmates who hated visits because of how painful seeing their family leave was, and I believe the family member that was in prison expressed similar sentiments. As a result, I'd probably only come as often as they'd want me.

Besides, I don't really like the idea of cutting them off. Ideally, we want criminals to be able to get back into society and not get back in to committing crimes. Integrating back into society becomes extremely difficult when what little bit of society you were close to decides to cut you off and leave you on your own. I can understand having limits on what you'll tolerate (i.e. no matter how much you try, they refuse to truly take advantage of your help), but I'd rather give them at least a second chance.

 

[FPLOON]

Sure before they get transferred to a private prison and end up dead due to either a riot and/or of poor upkeeping...

Other than that, I do have a relative who just got out of prison... He'll forever be labeled as a registered sex offender...

 

[Mad World]

I would definitely. And, man... that's harsh. Can't say that I agree with what you said at all.

 

[chadachada123]

Considering every American poster here, including you, OP, has committed numerous felonies that *could* hypothetically warrant a year in prison, yeah, I would most likely visit a parent or sibling depending on the crime. At the very least, for more serious crimes, I'd like to hear straight from their mouths their side of the story, if only for closure.

 

[Fijiman]

Well I suppose it would mostly depend on the crime. If it was some form of robbery I probably would go visit them at least once. For something like murder, however, would make it harder for me to go visit them, even more so if the person murdered was someone I knew.

 

[MHR]

What's with OP?

That kind of person, wouldn't want them visiting anyway.

Probably in jail for smacking some sense into someone.