PROTEST GREETS PLAN TO TRIM PRISON VISITS.

Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer

Friends and relatives of state prison inmates are upset by a plan to reduce visiting hours.

They complain that if prison officials follow through with the plan to eliminate one of the four weekly visitation days, weekend visiting days will be too crowded, preventing some visitors from seeing inmates.

``It's just incredible what they're putting us through,'' said Martha Riley, whose husband is held at California State Prison, Los Angeles County.

Current prison visitation times are 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays through Mondays, but the new rule - expected to take effect April 8 - would end Monday visits.

Prison officials contend that Monday is a light visiting day and the change should affect few people.

``The majority of our visits take place on the weekends,'' said Dean Crenshaw, prison spokesman. ``Most of the time we don't have a problem, and we don't anticipate any problems.''

But Riley said the prison already turns away visitors when the visiting room fills up.

``They're supposed to take them all,'' said Riley. ``But there's not enough chairs and visitors are sent away.''

Crenshaw says overcrowding seldom occurs in the visiting area, but officials currently are reviewing the possibility of enlarging them.

Riley said the change is just the latest problem facing visitors at the prison, which opened in 1993.

In November, a petition signed by 324 people listed complaints such as slow processing of visitors, a visitors dress code, closure of the visiting area patio and dirty restrooms.

On a recent visit, Riley said, she arrived at the prison at 10:30 a.m., was not processed until 1 p.m. and was allowed to see her husband for only about 90 minutes.

Following the petition and several letters to prison officials, Warden Ernest Roe has reinstated a visitor committee made up of prison staff and friends and relatives of prisoners in an attempt to improve communication and address visitors' concerns, officials said.

``It's an opportunity for visitors to interact with the prison administration,'' said Crenshaw.