Who Can Visit? Understanding Ohio's 15-Visitor Limit and the 'Two Friends' Rule
Trying to figure out who can be on an Ohio Reformatory visiting list? Two rules matter most: there's a cap of 15 approved adult visitors, and only two of those can be friends.
Ohio's visiting-list rules come down to two limits worth planning around. First, an incarcerated person can have up to 15 approved adult visitors on their list. Second, no more than 2 of those adults can be friends. If your loved one has a large family or a wide circle of supporters, these caps determine who makes the list.
The first limit is the 15-adult maximum. This is the total number of adults who can be approved at any one time. Once the list is full, no one else can be added until a slot opens up.
Practical takeaway: If more than 15 adults want to visit, your loved one will have to choose which adults to keep on the approved list so it stays within the cap.
The second limit is the "two friends" rule. Even if there's room under the 15-adult cap, only 2 friends can be on the list. Coworkers, neighbors, longtime family friends - your loved one will need to narrow it down to just two.
Family works differently. Immediate family members and the mother or father of the incarcerated person's children must be declared at the time of arrival on the Incarcerated Person Reception Visiting list (DRC2248). These key family relationships are supposed to be identified up front during the reception process.
There's one exception that can ease the squeeze on that 15-person cap. Official visitors - those defined in policy subsection VI.F - don't count toward the 15. If someone qualifies as an official visitor, they won't take up a slot.
The statewide rules set the outer limits, but day-to-day visiting varies by institution. Each facility - including Ohio Reformatory - has discretion over how many visitors are allowed per session, visit frequency, visit length, scheduling priority, and visiting hours. Two people can both be approved on a list but still need to work within local scheduling and capacity rules when they actually show up.
- ✓ Local rules can cover the number of visitors allowed, visit frequency, visit duration, priority of visits, and visiting hours.
- ✓ If the institution makes significant changes to local visiting guidelines, it must make those changes available for visitors and incarcerated people to review thirty (30) days before the change takes effect.
Note: The 15-adult cap and two-friends limit control who can be on the list. Official visitors don't count against the 15, and local institution rules still govern how visiting actually works.
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