Parenting From Prison in Wyoming
Wyoming has five state correctional facilities. Five, for the least populous state in the country. The entire Wyoming Department of Corrections state prison system fits in five locations: the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins, the Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution in Torrington, the Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk, the Wyoming Honor Farm in Riverton, and the Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle.
That smallness shapes everything about parenting from a Wyoming facility. There is no sprawling network of dozens of prisons spread across the state. If you know which of the five facilities holds the parent, you know the address, you know the visiting schedule, and you know the geography of the contact.
What you are working with in Wyoming is the geography of the state itself, which is immense. Wyoming is large even by western standards -- the tenth largest state in the country by area, with fewer than 600,000 people living across 97,000 square miles. The five facilities are not clustered. Rawlins is in south-central Wyoming, about 100 miles west of Cheyenne. Torrington is in the southeast near the Nebraska border. Lusk is in the remote northeast. Riverton is in the central Wind River Basin. Newcastle is in the northeastern corner. For a family in Jackson Hole or Cody in the northwest, every state facility is three to five hours away.
For those families, the phone call and the video visit carry the contact. The in-person visit is what happens when the trip can be organized. And Wyoming's own policy on visitation is worth knowing: the WDOC explicitly states that it is department policy to "permit, promote, facilitate, and encourage approved visitation" because studies have shown that more frequent visitation is associated with lower rates of recidivism. The department treats visitation as a rehabilitation tool, not a privilege granted reluctantly.
Video Visits Through ICSolutions
Wyoming DOC offers The Visitor video visitation system through ICSolutions for remote visits. Families register at **icsolutions.com** at no cost. The visit can be conducted from a Windows computer, an Android device, or an **iOS device** -- iPhones and iPads work for Wyoming remote visits. From wherever the family member is, the visit happens through the app or the computer application.
The visit takes place remotely while the inmate remains in their housing unit. For families in Jackson, Cody, Gillette, or any other corner of the state far from the five facilities, the ICSolutions video visit is the face-to-face contact that does not require a five-hour drive.
For a parent, use the video visit the same way every state in this series uses it: schedule it consistently, one child per session when possible, full attention for the duration, I love you at the end. The child who sees their parent's face on a screen every week is having a different experience from a child who only hears a voice. Wyoming gives you the video channel. Use it.
Each WDOC facility posts its own video visiting information and schedule at **corrections.wyo.gov/institutional-information/visitation**. The Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp also posts a specific Video Visitation Request Form for scheduling. Check the specific facility's page for current procedures.
Phone Calls
Phone calls at WDOC facilities run through the contracted phone provider -- confirm the current vendor and account setup at corrections.wyo.gov or by contacting the WDOC Central Office at **307-777-7208** (1934 Wyott Drive, Suite 100, Cheyenne WY 82002). All calls are monitored and recorded except attorney calls. FCC rate caps apply. No incoming calls to inmates.
For a parent calling their children: use the call for one child, one specific question about their actual week, I love you at the end. Wyoming's call system is the daily thread between the less frequent in-person visits that the state's geography requires for many families. Build the daily phone call as the rhythm the in-person visit anchors rather than replaces.
Visiting at the Five Facilities
Each of Wyoming's five facilities has its own visiting schedule. The current schedules from the official WDOC visitation page at corrections.wyo.gov:
**Wyoming State Penitentiary (Rawlins):** Both in-person and video visiting information posted at corrections.wyo.gov. Rawlins is in Carbon County on Interstate 80, the most accessible of the five facilities for families in Cheyenne (about 100 miles east) and accessible from Salt Lake City to the west.
**Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution (Torrington):** Visiting schedule posted at corrections.wyo.gov. Torrington is in Goshen County in the southeast, near the Nebraska border. Accessible for families in Cheyenne (about 90 miles west) and communities in southeastern Wyoming.
**Wyoming Women's Center (Lusk):** Saturday and Sunday, 0700-1100 and 1145-1530. Lusk is in Niobrara County in northeastern Wyoming -- one of the most sparsely populated county seats in the United States. For families in Casper, it is about two hours. For families in Cheyenne, about two and a half hours north.
**Wyoming Honor Farm (Riverton):** Visiting schedule posted at corrections.wyo.gov. Riverton is in Fremont County in the central Wind River Basin, about 130 miles northwest of Casper.
**Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp (Newcastle):** Male population: Friday 2:30 PM-3:00 PM and Saturday 8:00 AM-8:30 AM / 2:00 PM-2:30 PM. Female population: Sunday 8:00 AM-8:30 AM / 2:00 PM-2:30 PM and Monday 2:30 PM-3:00 PM. Video Visitation Request Form available on the WDOC website for scheduling. Newcastle is in Weston County in the northeast, about 190 miles northeast of Casper.
For all facilities: all visitors must be approved before visiting. WDOC Form 534 contains the visiting rules. WDOC Form 535 is the Summary of Inmate Visiting Eligibility by Status -- it clarifies what visiting is available based on the inmate's current status within the system. Both forms are available at corrections.wyo.gov. Government photo ID required at all visits.
The Letter in Wyoming
Physical mail travels to the facility's mailing address. Include the inmate's full name and DOC number on all mail. Confirm the specific address format and current mail policies at corrections.wyo.gov or through the specific facility before sending, as mail procedures can change.
Write to each child individually. One letter per child, their name at the top, their world inside it. Wyoming's landscape is among the most distinctive in the country: the high desert basins, the Wind River Range, the open plains that stretch flat toward Nebraska in the east, the Bighorn Mountains rising in the north, the Tetons in the northwest that every Wyoming family knows as a landmark even if they live hours away. Write to the season your child is living in. Write to the specific geography of where they are. Ask the real question. Give them something to respond to.
The letter in Wyoming, as in every state in this series, is the artifact that the phone call and the video visit cannot produce. Send it. It arrives in your handwriting. It is the object that persists in a child's hands in a way a screen session does not.
Wyoming's Five Facilities and the Distance
In most of this series, geography has been a variable -- a complicating factor for some families and a manageable reality for others. In Wyoming it is the central fact. The state is enormous and empty. Casper and Cheyenne are the two largest cities, each with about 60,000-65,000 people. Between the cities and the five correctional facilities, and between the facilities and the families of the people inside them, are hundreds of miles of high-altitude terrain, interstate highways that close in winter weather, and the particular isolation of rural Wyoming communities.
For families near the facilities -- in Rawlins, Torrington, Cheyenne, Riverton, or the communities around each facility -- the visit is manageable. For families in Sheridan, Cody, Jackson, or Powell in the northwest quadrant of the state, the nearest facility is several hours away.
The ICSolutions video visit and the daily phone call are the regular contact channels for those families. The in-person visit is what happens when the trip can be organized -- in summer when roads are reliable, during school breaks, when a family can put together the gas money and the hours.
For the Family Holding Wyoming Together
Confirm the specific facility's visiting schedule and procedures at corrections.wyo.gov. Register at icsolutions.com for video visits. Get the phone account set up -- contact the WDOC Central Office at 307-777-7208 for the current phone vendor information if it is not clear from the facility's page.
And look at the visiting schedule. Wyoming's commitment to visitation is written into its departmental policy because the research supporting it is real. More frequent visitation reduces recidivism. A parent who maintains contact during the sentence is more likely to succeed after it. The contact is not just good for the child. It is good for the parent. Wyoming knows this and says so.
Use every channel. The phone call, the video visit, the letter. And when the trip can be made -- across the high desert or the plains or whatever distance separates you from the facility where your parent is -- make it. Wyoming gives you five facilities in the fifth-largest state by area, with fewer than 600,000 people spread across it. The access exists. The distance is the only obstacle, and distance is surmountable.
Federal Inmates From Wyoming
Wyoming has no major Bureau of Prisons sentence facility. Federal defendants from Wyoming typically go to regional BOP facilities in the Mountain West. If you are in federal custody and housed out of state, the national BOP standard applies.
**Phone:** 300 minutes per month, 15-minute call caps at $0.06 per minute, plus 100 extra minutes in November and December. **TRULINCS/CorrLinks:** $0.05 per minute on your end, free for the family, up to 30 approved contacts, text only, no attachments.
FAQ
**How many state prisons does Wyoming have?** Five: Wyoming State Penitentiary (Rawlins), Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution (Torrington), Wyoming Women's Center (Lusk), Wyoming Honor Farm (Riverton), and Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp (Newcastle). Wyoming also operates 3 Adult Community Corrections programs and 23 probation/parole field offices statewide.
**How do video visits work in Wyoming?** WDOC uses ICSolutions' The Visitor system for remote video visits. Register at icsolutions.com for free. Visits can be conducted from a Windows computer, Android device, or iOS device. Each facility posts its specific video visiting procedures and schedules at corrections.wyo.gov.
**What are the visiting hours at the Wyoming Women's Center in Lusk?** Saturday and Sunday, 7:00 AM-11:00 AM and 11:45 AM-3:30 PM. Lusk is in Niobrara County in northeast Wyoming. Confirm current hours at corrections.wyo.gov before the visit.
**What are the visiting hours at Wyoming Honor Conservation Camp in Newcastle?** Male population: Friday 2:30-3:00 PM and Saturday 8:00-8:30 AM and 2:00-2:30 PM. Female population: Sunday 8:00-8:30 AM and 2:00-2:30 PM and Monday 2:30-3:00 PM. Video visits also available through a Video Visitation Request Form on the WDOC site.
**Where do I send mail to someone in a Wyoming state prison?** Send to the facility's mailing address with the inmate's full name and DOC number. Confirm the current address and mail procedures at corrections.wyo.gov or by calling the WDOC Central Office at 307-777-7208.
**What is WDOC's policy on visitation?** WDOC policy explicitly states that the department will "permit, promote, facilitate, and encourage approved visitation" as an integral part of rehabilitation. The department cites research showing that more frequent visitation is associated with lower rates of recidivism.
**Is there federal prison in Wyoming?** Wyoming has no major BOP sentence facility. Federal defendants from Wyoming typically go to regional BOP facilities in the Mountain West. BOP rules apply: 300 phone minutes per month with 15-minute call caps at $0.06 per minute, plus TRULINCS email through CorrLinks at $0.05 per minute on the inmate's end, free for families, up to 30 approved contacts, text only.