Last week, the Mississippi Department of Corrections acknowledged a change in its prisoner visitation policy. The new policy restricted visitation to members of the inmate’s immediate family.

The policy would exclude pastors, friends, girlfriends, fiances, cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles and in-laws .

The public outcry was swift, not only from those who would be excluded from visitation under the new policy, but from the ACLU, which questioned the legality of the change in policy.

In response, MDOC says it is postponing the change, as well it should. In fact, we believe the policy should be permanently scrapped. It’s simply a terrible idea, a move likely to cause only harm and no good.

We do not know what prompted the MDOC to make this change — MDOC officials have not commented — but there is an assumption that by limiting visitation from non-family members, it will cut down on contraband entering MDOC jails and prisons.

That is a difficult argument to make, though. Visitors are screened far more closely than any other group of people who have access to inmates. Prisoners are required to submit names and contact information for those on their “visitation list.” Those potential visitors are subject to background checks. For example, felons are excluded from visiting inmates.

Besides, it’s well established that the overwhelming majority of contraband entering a prison or jail arrives through staff, vendors and those inmates who go on work details outside the prison grounds. If contraband is a problem, the logical solution is to tighten security measures for those groups of people.

Visitation is a powerful inducement for prisoners to mend their ways, providing contact with the outside world and delivering a message of hope to those for whom prison is often a place of hopelessness and despair.

Studies have shown inmates who receive regular visitation commit fewer disciplinary infractions and perform consistently better in prison programs such as job training, spiritual growth and drug/alcohol recovery. Prisoners who have visitation are more likely to attain their GEDs and pursue higher education than those who do not have visitors.

All of this makes for a safer environment, not only for the prisoner but for the prison staff as well.

The vast majority of inmates will return to society. It is, therefore, in society’s best interest that the inmates leave prison as better people than when they arrived.

We must temper our emotional impulse to “punish” in favor of the more practical and humane approach.

Contact with the outside world through the love, support and encouragement of a visitor is very important as these men and women pay their debt to society and prepare for their return to the community.

Compassion is not, nor has it ever been, confined to blood relations.

In fact, we often find that our truest friends, our most trusted confidants and our most inspiring influences are people we consider our extended family.

Denying our inmates those important influences is not only bad for the prisoner.

It is bad for our society, as well.

— The Commercial-Dispatch, Columbus.