Inmates' teenage children allowed visitation when accompanied by younger siblings
Published: 03 May. 2026, 07:00
![A prison inmate is seen greeting her kids in a ChatGPT generated illustration [CHATGPT]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2026/05/03/fa5d4913-a7f3-45e1-b876-43f0ceb39eb6.jpg)
A prison inmate is seen greeting her kids in a ChatGPT generated illustration [CHATGPT]
Teenage children of inmates will now be allowed to join special prison visits with their younger siblings, after the government eased a rule that had previously barred anyone 13 or older from participating.
The change addresses a longstanding problem in which siblings who traveled together to see a detained parent could be split up at the gate, with only the younger child allowed in.
The Ministry of Justice said Thursday that it sent an internal directive on April 14 ordering all prisons and detention centers to broaden the range of children who can accompany inmates during so-called care visits. The program had previously been limited to children under 13.
The Justice Ministry's care visit is a special type of prison visit, where an inmate is allowed weekend visitation with their children if they are under the age of 13 without barriers on the weekend. In the case of a children aged 13 and over, the inmate would have to meet them from behind bars.
Under the new rule, teenagers ages 13 to 18 may also take part in unobstructed visitation of a parent in custody when accompanying a sibling under 13. The children must be siblings, and one adult guardian must go with them.
The change came after a case in which an older sister and younger brother who had gone to see their mother at a detention center were effectively separated just before the visit because of the age cutoff.
In 2024, siblings traveled over three hours from North Jeolla to a detention center in Incheon to see their mother just to be told that the older sibling wasn't allowed visitation rights because she was 14 years old, one year over the age limit. The older sister was ultimately unable to see her mother.
The rule change does not fully resolve the issue, because teenagers aged 13 to 18 still cannot take part in care visits on their own. This means middle and high school students who want to see a parent in custody without a younger sibling are left with no choice but to visit only on weekdays.
Practical constraints also remain. A shortage of correctional officers and facilities makes a broader expansion of care visits difficult.
“Even though the change comes with the condition that care visitation is possible only when accompanied by a younger sibling under 13, it is the start of a positive change,” Lee Kyung-rim, head of children's nonprofit foundation Seum, said. “I hope the system will be improved further so that visitation rights can be fully guaranteed for all children under 19 in the future.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY IM SOUNG-BIN [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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