On 6 February 2014, a woman visiting Abu Zaabal prison in Egypt arrived at 9:30 a.m. to find long queues and hundreds of prisoners' relatives. The women's line was the longest and included many children. Families had arrived from dawn carrying food, and she reached the inspection gate only at noon. They then waited again as names were called a few at a time.
Prison visiting makes families serve a separate sentence of time outside the walls. Long travel, exceptions that bypass the order and humiliating searches can precede a meeting lasting only minutes. The queue directly records the burden that incarceration transfers to relatives.