How to Visit Great Plains Correctional Facility

A Prison With a Longer History Than Most in Oklahoma

Before getting into the visiting rules, it helps to know what makes this facility a little different. GPCF opened its doors in 1991 under GEO Corporation, making it Oklahoma’s first privately operated prison. Corrections Corporation of America, now known as CoreCivic, took over operations in 1998 and ran the facility for close to two decades. CCA closed the prison in 2015, and ODOC reopened it the following year under a lease agreement, which is how it has operated ever since: a state-run facility inside a privately owned building. You may also see it listed on some ODOC materials as “Great Plains Correctional Center” rather than “Facility.” Both names point to the same address in Hinton, so don’t worry if a form or a phone call uses the other one.

Visiting Schedule

ODOC runs GPCF’s visits inside a statewide window of 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The facility head decides which specific days within that window are open for visiting, while ODOC’s Visiting Privilege Level system (below) decides how many hours any individual inmate is actually allowed to use. Visiting days include Saturdays, Sundays, and state-recognized holidays. When a holiday lands on a weekday, it becomes a bonus visiting day at the inmate’s usual weekly hour allotment. Call the ODOC Visitation Unit at (405) 768-3269 or GPCF at (405) 778-7000 before you drive out, since hours and open days can shift.

How Many Hours You Actually Get

This trips up a lot of first-time visitors: not every inmate at GPCF gets the same amount of visiting time. ODOC scales the weekly hour allowance to two things, the inmate’s security classification and a privilege level they earn through behavior, Level 1 through Level 4. Someone newly arrived, or someone who has lost privileges, gets far less time than someone who has held a high level for a while.

Security Level	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Maximum	1 hour, non-contact	Up to 2 hours/week	Up to 3 hours/week	Up to 4 hours/week
Medium	1 hour, non-contact	Up to 2 hours/week	Up to 4 hours/week	Up to 6 hours/week
Minimum	1 hour, non-contact	Up to 4 hours/week	Up to 6 hours/week	Up to 8 hours/week

No matter the security level, Level 1 always caps out at one non-contact hour a week. A contact visit, meaning the brief hug and kiss ODOC allows at the start and end, only opens up once an inmate reaches Level 2 or better. The person you’re visiting will know their current level, so ask them directly rather than guessing based on how much time you got last time.

Segregation, Protective Custody, and Disciplinary Status

If the inmate you’re visiting is in special management housing, meaning administrative segregation or protective custody, visiting is capped at one non-contact hour per week, and only with a mother, father, spouse, attorney, or clergy member. GPCF isn’t one of the facilities ODOC’s policy carves an exception into for this rule, so this one-hour cap applies here without exception.

Inmates on disciplinary status (what ODOC calls DU time) don’t get visits at all, aside from an attorney or clergy. If that disciplinary detention stretches past 60 days, the inmate shifts over to the same visiting privileges as someone in long-term segregation or protective custody.

Getting on the Approved Visitor List

You can’t just show up. Every visitor has to clear ODOC’s approval process first.

1. Request the Visitor Request Form (DOC 030118B). The inmate can mail it, or you can ask the ODOC Visitation Unit for it directly. To skip that back-and-forth, use the email box at the top of this page and we’ll send you the official link now.
2. Fill in every field. Your legal name, birth date, address, and relationship to the inmate, along with a copy of your state-issued ID or driver’s license.
3. Get it to the ODOC Visitation Unit by 1:00 PM Wednesday. Forms submitted after that time get pushed into the following week.
4. Wait out the background check. ODOC runs an Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and FBI records check on you, along with a check against the Office of the Inspector General’s Visitor Alert system. This is required for every visitor age 18 and up.
5. Hear back once you’re cleared. ODOC’s policy doesn’t set a promised turnaround for this check, so if enough time has passed that you’re wondering, call and ask rather than assume a specific deadline. Once you’re approved, that approval holds for three years before you’d need to file again.

Official ODOC form

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Just transferred in from intake? An inmate who lands at GPCF fresh from Lexington Assessment and Reception Center, before their formal visitor list is even approved yet, can still get one visit within the first 30 days. That visit comes from family members already documented in the inmate’s field file, while the Visitor Request Form works its way through processing.

Who Can Actually Be on the List

Each inmate is allowed up to 20 approved visitors at a time, and kids under 18 don’t count toward that number. No more than 5 approved visitors are allowed to show up for the same visit. ODOC’s definition of immediate family covers a spouse, birth or surrogate parents, grandparents, in-laws, children (step and adopted included), grandchildren, siblings, and aunts or uncles.

A handful of rules surprise people:

• A “friend” visitor is locked to one inmate. If you’re added as a friend rather than family, you can’t also be on another inmate’s approved list anywhere in the ODOC system, private prisons included.
• Former inmates wait three years. Anyone who isn’t family and has done time themselves has to wait three full years after finishing their sentence, supervision included, and even then the facility head has to sign off.
• You can’t hop straight to a different inmate. Get removed from one person’s visiting list, and you’re locked out of joining anyone else’s list for a full year.
• If the inmate cuts you, there’s a cooldown. An inmate who has you removed from their list can’t add you back for 120 days.
• Former ODOC staff face a three-year wait. Anyone who used to work for ODOC or an ODOC contractor needs three years off the job before being added as a non-family visitor.

Bringing Kids

Kids need paperwork, not just a car seat. If the child belongs to the inmate, they need to arrive with an approved adult visitor. If it’s someone else’s child, the visit requires that child’s own parent or legal guardian, plus proof of the relationship, a birth certificate or adoption paperwork works. Turning 18 doesn’t grandfather a young visitor in either; they have to file their own Visitor Request Form like any adult once they hit that age.

ODOC can restrict a child’s visits altogether if it receives documentation from a court, DHS, a guardian, or a district attorney showing the visit isn’t in that child’s interest.

Dress Code

ODOC’s dress code (form DOC 030118A) applies to every adult visitor and to any child over 11, unless a documented medical or handicap condition applies. Wearing any of the following can get you turned away at the door or pulled out of a visit already underway:

• Shorts, skirts, or dresses that sit above the top of the kneecap, or that fit tightly
• Wraparound skirts, or skirts and dresses slit above the kneecap
• Tube tops, tank tops, crop tops, halter tops, spaghetti straps, sleeveless tops, or anything sheer or mesh
• Leggings, biker shorts, or body suits
• Spandex of any kind, swimwear included
• Blue, periwinkle, camouflage, or orange shirts, since those colors belong to inmate uniforms
• Sweat suits that fit tightly
• Low-cut tops, or clothing with rips or cutouts
• Anything printed with profanity, slurs, or offensive imagery
• Any headgear other than a religious head covering
• Clothing that shows the midriff, sits off the shoulder, is extremely tight, or exposes any part of the breast

Underclothing appropriate to your gender is required. When in doubt, dress plainly and conservatively rather than risk turning back at the gate.

What to Bring and What’s Off Limits

Bring your photo ID and not much else. Cell phones, cameras, recording gear, oversized bags, and bulky outerwear all need to stay in your car.

Contraband covers cell phones and their accessories, any electronic device, alcohol, firearms, ammunition, drugs or paraphernalia, unapproved paperwork, and photos that weren’t cleared beforehand, along with anything else that could compromise security. Trying to sneak any of that in, or even stashing something on the grounds for an inmate to grab later, can cost you your visiting privileges and lead to felony charges. Passing anything between yourself and the inmate that wasn’t approved ahead of time, even something totally harmless, ends the visit on the spot and puts your spot on the list at risk.

Baby supplies, bottles, diapers, and baby food, are welcome at every ODOC facility.

Security Screening

Expect these steps before you reach the visiting room:

• Pat search. Everyone 18 or older is patted down. Anyone under 18 skips this.
• X-ray. Property gets scanned by x-ray at facilities operating at medium security or above.
• Metal detector. You get three tries to clear it. Fail a fourth time and the visit ends there.
• Canine screening. At the facility head’s discretion, a drug-detection dog may check visitors and vehicles. A first alert costs you just that day’s visit. A second alert on the same person or vehicle brings a 90 to 180 day suspension. A third means a full year suspended.

Need the restroom mid-visit? You get one trip, with no extra time tacked on afterward. If the visiting room doesn’t have separate restrooms for visitors and inmates, the inmate gets strip-searched before rejoining the visit. Refusing any part of the screening ends your visit immediately and puts your visiting privileges at risk. Every adult visitor shows ID, checked against the approved list and their appearance, at every single visit, no exceptions for regulars.

Vending Machine Money

Inmates can’t hold cash, so if you want a snack or a drink from the machines during your visit, that’s on you. Visitors can bring in up to $30 in quarters, carried in a clear quart-size bag. Expect sandwich, snack, and beverage machines available in the visiting area.

Video Visitation

Can’t make the drive to Hinton? ODOC runs video visits through Securus Video Connect for anyone already approved on the inmate’s visitor list.

Set up a Securus account and apply online for GPCF specifically. You’ll get an email confirming approval or denial. Approved sessions run 20 minutes and need to be booked at least 48 hours out, first-come, first-served in 30-minute slots. If GPCF has to cancel a scheduled video visit for its own reasons, ask Securus for a credit toward a future one. Only people on the approved visitor list can be on camera, since anyone else appearing suspends the visit or gets the account shut down. Kids can’t run their own video visitation account; a minor’s session has to go through an approved adult’s account, with that adult present the whole time. You’re responsible for your own device and internet, and the same dress code and conduct rules apply as an in-person visit, with everything recorded and subject to live staff monitoring. Securus, not ODOC, sets the pricing, so confirm current rates directly with them.

Attorney and Special Visits

Attorneys get the same general access as a regular visitor, though they may need to show their Oklahoma Bar Association card. Paralegals, investigators, and expert witnesses tied to a case may need a letter on the attorney’s letterhead confirming their role. With enough advance notice and the facility head’s sign-off, an attorney visit can happen outside standard hours, without a barrier, and with a laptop or tablet for reviewing documents. Staff can watch these visits but don’t record the audio.

Special visits cover situations that don’t fit inside the standard schedule: a family member who traveled a long way, a re-entry program volunteer, a visit tied to hospitalization, clergy, or a visit during disciplinary status where only an attorney or clergy qualifies. Reach out to the facility or the ODOC Visitation Unit to arrange one. The facility head sets the length and terms case by case.

Rules of Conduct and What Happens If You Break Them

A normal visit permits a short hug and kiss at the start and the end, and that’s the extent of physical contact ODOC allows. Off limits: extended embracing, excessive kissing, hickeys, touching or fondling genitals, breasts, buttocks, thighs, back, or stomach whether over or under clothing, sitting on laps, straddling legs, lying down, or using a restroom meant for the opposite sex. Breaking any of this shuts the visit down immediately and can get you pulled from the visitor list for a length of time the facility head decides.

Beyond conduct, ODOC applies the same escalating penalty structure to every rule violation, statewide, across every facility including private prisons under ODOC contract:

• First violation: restricted from 90 to 180 days.
• Second violation: restricted from 180 to 365 days.
• Third violation: restricted permanently. Only a regional administrator or someone above them can lift a permanent restriction.

A few violations skip straight to permanent restriction the first time, no warning tier: helping an inmate escape, smuggling in a weapon, smuggling in a cell phone or other electronic device, bringing in drugs or alcohol, or assaulting staff, a visitor, or an inmate.

These carry real legal weight too, not just facility consequences. Oklahoma Statutes Title 57, Chapter 1, Section 21 spells out the criminal penalties:

• Weapons, drugs, alcohol, or money and financial documents meant for anyone besides the inmate or their spouse: a felony carrying one to five years in ODOC custody, a fine of $100 to $1,000, or both.
• Tobacco or tobacco products: a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in county jail, a fine up to $500, or both.
• A cell phone or any device that can send or receive a communication, brought into a secure area: a felony carrying up to two years in ODOC custody, a fine up to $2,500, or both.

Tobacco is banned across the whole ODOC system. If you’re carrying any, leave it locked in your vehicle for the entire visit and don’t use it again until you’re fully off state property.

Contact

Great Plains Correctional Facility 700 Sugar Creek Road Hinton, OK 73047 Phone: (405) 778-7000 ODOC Visitation Unit: (405) 768-3269