How to Get on Someone's Visiting List at Avoyelles Parish Detention Center

To visit someone at Avoyelles Parish Detention Center, your name has to be on their approved visiting list. Show up without approval, and you'll be turned away - no matter how far you traveled. Getting on the list first is what makes everything else worth doing: scheduling the visit, planning the drive, arranging childcare.

The incarcerated person is the one who applies to add visitors. At Avoyelles Parish Detention Center, people in custody can generally apply for visitation - except during intake status (the first 30 days), which has its own restrictions. If the person you want to visit is past intake, they should be able to start the process to add you.

Visits involving minors have the clearest restrictions. If the incarcerated person has a current or prior conviction for a sex crime involving a minor - or a documented history of sex abuse with a minor family member - they cannot visit with any minor child at the facility. This includes their own biological or step-children. The warden can approve exceptions, but they're rare.

Even when someone is generally eligible for visitors, approval depends on the facility's process. If something about their current status makes them ineligible under visitation rules - most commonly being in intake - the timeline gets pushed back. When you're trying to figure out what's holding things up, ask the incarcerated person directly: What status are they in? Have they been able to apply yet?

1. Ask the incarcerated person to add you to their approved visiting list - At this facility, you can’t add yourself; the request has to come through the incarcerated person’s visiting-list process.
2. Share the information they need to submit - The incarcerated person has been given instructions on how to add someone. If they tell you they’re missing something from you, send it promptly so they can complete the request.
3. Confirm approval directly with the incarcerated person - If you’re unsure whether you’re on the list, ask them. The facility will not provide visiting-list status over the phone.

• ✓ Your full legal name (so the incarcerated person can submit it for the approved visiting list)
• ✓ A reliable way for the incarcerated person to reach you if they need more details to finish adding you

Visits usually aren't allowed during intake status, which covers the first 30 days after someone enters custody. If intake extends beyond 30 days, the incarcerated person can request a special visit with immediate family under the reception center's procedures. Once they're out of intake, the warden (or a designee) may authorize visits with immediate family at the incarcerated person's request while the full visitation application is being processed.

Getting mixed messages? Go back to the one person who knows what's actually been submitted: the incarcerated person. Ask whether they've applied for visitation and if there are any local procedures they've been told to follow. If you want the rules in writing, request the facility's visiting policy or the Louisiana DOC visitation regulation (OP-C-9). And if you just want to know whether you're approved - skip the phone call. The facility won't confirm visiting-list status over the phone, so you'll need to ask the incarcerated person directly.