Addressing the ethical and legal complexities of hospital visitation restrictions for patients who are incarcerated

Society of Hospital Medicine: Addressing the ethical and legal complexities of hospital visitation restrictions for patients who are incarcerated

As there is not a right for incarcerated persons to be permitted visitors during hospitalization unless the patient is terminally ill, incarcerated patients are often completely restricted from having visitors. These burdensome restrictions have the effect of disconnecting the incarcerated person from their support system during a time which is known to be emotionally and psychologically taxing. Even when terminally ill patients who are incarcerated are permitted to have visitors during their hospitalization, the visitor may be forbidden from engaging in physical contact with the patient. The effect of this policy is that a parent may be forbidden from holding the hand of their dying child, regardless of the magnitude of the crime in which they are incarcerated, just because he was under custody of the carceral system while dying.