Allendale's Visitation Limits: How Often You Can Visit and How Many People Can Attend
Planning visits at Allendale? The two questions everyone asks: how often can your loved one have visitors, and how many people can come at once? Here's how the limits work—and what to do when slots fill up.
Under Phase 6.1 rules for South Carolina medium institutions (Allendale included), inmates without visitation restrictions can receive two in-person visits per week and up to eight per month. That means you could potentially visit both Saturday and Sunday in the same week - as long as your loved one hasn't already hit their weekly or monthly limit.
Verify before you plan: The SCDC family page lists a different limit - up to four in-person visits per month, with one visit per weekend. Since Allendale falls under Phase 6.1 medium-institution procedures, those rules should apply. But policies shift. Call ahead to confirm the current limit before you commit to travel.
Each visit at Allendale allows up to four visitors at a time, and at least one must be an adult. Bringing kids? Make sure an approved adult is part of every group, even if the visit is mainly for the children.
Allendale caps each session at 16 total visits. This is separate from the four-visitors-per-inmate rule. Your group size might be fine, but the session can still fill up once the facility hits 16 scheduled visits for that time block.
You can't schedule a visit at Allendale unless you're already on the inmate's approved visitor list. Once approved, you still need to reserve a slot - all visits must be scheduled at least 15 hours in advance through the GTL scheduler. Wait too long and the session may already be full, even if your loved one has visits left that week.
Each inmate can have up to 15 approved visitors on their list. Getting added requires the "Request for Visiting Privileges" process (Form 19-127). The inmate sends the form to the prospective visitor, who completes it and mails it back to the Division of Visitation for approval. Since only approved people can schedule, this 15-person cap determines who can even get into the system to reserve a slot.
Tips Families
- ✓ Rotate who visits from the approved list so you don’t burn one weekend slot on a group that could be split across different dates.
- ✓ Keep the “up to four visitors per visit” limit in mind when you’re planning family trips; if more than four people want to go, decide in advance who will attend this session and who will go next time.
- ✓ Make sure at least one visitor in your group is an adult every time - otherwise the group may not be allowed to visit.
- ✓ Book early using the GTL scheduler and remember the 15-hour minimum; with Allendale’s 16-visits-per-session cap, popular time blocks can fill up quickly.
Published guidance differs on visit frequency - Phase 6.1 says two visits per week and up to eight per month, while the general family page says up to four per month and one per weekend. Coordinate with other approved visitors around whatever limit is actually being enforced. If your family rotates visits, confirm the current rule first so you don't plan around more (or fewer) visits than your loved one can actually receive.
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