Understanding TDCJ Visit Types, Visiting Hours, and Visit Lengths
Planning a TDCJ visit is easier when you understand two things: the type of visit you're requesting and how the schedule works. Here's how Regular, Contact, and Video/Tablet visits fit into TDCJ visiting hours, cycles, and length rules.
TDCJ offers different visit types, and the one you request shapes what your visit looks like. Regular visits are the standard option. Contact visits work differently and follow separate rules. TDCJ also offers Video/Tablet visits. This is not the same as the Securus Video program (only available at certain units). If you see "Video/Tablet" when scheduling, treat it as its own TDCJ visit type, not a Securus video visit.
Note: Not every visit type is available at every unit. What you can request depends on your visitor and inmate relationship, the unit’s visitation area design, and the inmate’s visitation privileges.
Standard visiting hours are Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Use that window as your baseline for planning travel, check-in time, and how many visits you can fit into a weekend.
TDCJ organizes visits into "visiting cycles." Each cycle runs Monday through Sunday. Eligible inmates are typically allowed one visit per cycle. So while visits happen on weekends, the system tracks them across the full Monday-to-Sunday window when counting how many visits are permitted.
A regular visit lasts two hours. The clock starts when both the inmate and visitor(s) are present, not when you arrive at the unit or get in line to check in.
Traveling a long distance? TDCJ offers extended visits, but they're not automatic. Wardens (or their designees) may permit extended visits for visitors traveling more than 250 miles one way, if time and space allow.
When approved, an extended visit can last up to four hours. Since approval depends on the warden's discretion and available space, plan around the regular schedule first. Then ask about an extended visit as early as possible.
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