Alaska to allow prison visits for fully vaccinated inmates, family members

Alaska’s Department of Corrections (DOC) will allow family members to visit fully vaccinated inmates starting on Wednesday, Alaska Public Media reported.

It will be the first time public visitations are open for the state’s prisons in more than a year, as corrections officials closed all nonessential access in March 2020 amid to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only facilities in Anchorage and Ketchikan will remain closed due to recent outbreaks.

Earlier this month, a judge ordered that the state’s DOC allow in-person visits for lawyers and their clients. Misdemeanor trials resumed in the state this week, and felony trials will begin again on June 1, according to Alaska Public Media.

Only inmates who have had two weeks pass since their second dose of vaccine are eligible to have visitors, the outlet reported.

More than 1,800 inmates have been fully vaccinated in the state as of April 11, according to the Department of Corrections.