What to Do If Your Visitation Gets Denied or Revoked

Contraband is one of the most common reasons GDC refuses or revokes visitation. The department can deny visits to anyone suspected of having contraband, caught with it on the premises, or attempting to bring it into the facility. Depending on what staff believe happened, you could be turned away at the door, removed during a visit, or blocked from future visits entirely.

Dishonesty and repeated rule violations can also trigger denials or revocations. If you're found to be deceptive on the Significant Other form, GDC can deny or revoke your visitation. Repeated warnings about a particular behavior can have the same result. Even if the issue seems minor to you, staff may view repeated noncompliance as a pattern worth acting on.

1. Ask for the specific reason and what happens next: Contact the facility and request the reason your visit was denied or your privileges were revoked. If the issue is tied to contraband suspicion, a form issue, or repeated warnings, you need to know which one staff are documenting.
2. Collect anything you were given or told: Save any written notice, the name/title of the staff member you spoke with, and the date and time. If the reason involved repeated warnings, write down what the warnings were about and when they happened.
3. Follow instructions exactly, and keep your paperwork truthful: If staff tell you to correct a form, update information, or wait through a suspension period related to security needs, do that first. For anything involving the Significant Other form, accuracy matters, because deception on that form can be grounds for denial or revocation.

The Ombudsman is not an appeals court for visitation. GDC's Ombudsman unit cannot overturn a Warden's decision to deny or revoke your visits, even if you strongly disagree. If you're hoping to get a Warden's decision reversed, the Ombudsman isn't the path.

It helps to understand where the Ombudsman fits in GDC's escalation chain. For certain concerns (GDC gives this order in the context of medical treatment), they advise contacting staff in this sequence: the inmate's Counselor, then the Chief Counselor, then the Deputy Warden of Care & Treatment, then the Warden, then the Regional Director, and only then Ombudsman staff. Even for visitation issues, the practical takeaway is the same: start as close to the facility as you can and escalate step by step.

Sometimes visitation problems are tied to discipline on the inmate's side, like a disciplinary report that changes privileges. If an inmate is found guilty of a disciplinary infraction, GDC gives them the opportunity to appeal through the Disciplinary Appeal process. If your loved one's visitation status changed after a disciplinary finding, that appeal process is the formal path to challenge the outcome.

Verify Escalate

• ✓ Inmate’s Counselor
• ✓ Chief Counselor
• ✓ Deputy Warden of Care & Treatment
• ✓ Warden
• ✓ Regional Director
• ✓ Ombudsman staff

Before you escalate, make sure you understand the exact stated reason for the denial or revocation. Contraband suspicion is treated seriously. GDC explicitly allows refusal of visitation based on suspicion alone, being caught with contraband on the premises, or attempts to introduce it. In other cases, visitation may be suspended to meet special security needs of the facility, which can happen even when you haven't personally done anything wrong. When you do move up the chain, keep your message simple: what happened, what you were told, and what you're asking to be clarified.