Visiting Someone in a Massachusetts Prison (Massachusetts DOC)

Massachusetts DOC visitor guide. Visitors must be pre-approved and added by the incarcerated person; the maximum is 20 pre-approved visitors at every institution regardless of security level, with exceptions allowed in writing by the Superintendent, and a visitor list may be revised four times per year. Minors under 18 do not need pre-approval but must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian with physical custody who is on the list, or by another adult with an approved Minor Consent Form, and need a birth certificate or official hospital record. Newly committed people may have two visitors plus a reasonable number of children pending approval and must submit a visitor listing within 30 days; those two slots go inactive after 40 business days if approval is not completed. Family members recently released from custody wait six months and other formerly incarcerated applicants one year. Passive drug-detection dogs screen everyone entering, and video visits are booked through Securus.