Essay On Conjugal Visit

A conjugal visit for an inmate allows for family members to have an extended private visit with the inmate. Many times this visit is just the legal spouse of the inmate and the couple may engage in sexual activity if they so choose. All information in this paper will focus on the idea of conjugal visitation with a legal spouse for the purpose of sexual activity between the inmate and the spouse while confined to a penal institution within the United States. Inmates have gotten creative in their petitions to the courts; while they are persistent in claiming violations of their First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, the inmates have not been successful in obtaining the opinion of the courts that favor their position.
Due to the fact that a conjugal visit is essentially a contact visit one would be justified in reckoning that it is liable to Supreme

Tarlton v. Clark is a case in which the courts refused to rehear the case regarding the inmates alleged right to a conjugal visit. The courts held in Tarlton that the conjugal visits fail to reach a level which would be a constitutional right. Seeing this has not deterred inmates from claiming eighth amendment violations due to denial of conjugal visit requests. Anderson v. Vasquez was a case in which death row inmates claimed a violation of their eighth amendment rights for denial of conjugal visits, also adding that they have been denied the right to preserve sperm for artificial insemination for their spouses. While adding this extra condition may appear to present a new issue; the courts held that because the original complaint did not list the denial of artificial insemination it would not be considered as a pretext to hear the case. In doing so the courts showed that said inmates never requested to preserve their sperm through prison officials and restated that inmates do not have a constitutional right to conjugal visits