In the 1970s, Parchman still did not maintain records on the conjugal visits that took place at the facility. In 1972 women at Parchman became eligible for conjugal visits. In 1974, prisoners of both sexes were permitted to have three-day, two-night family visits. In the 1980s guards reported that inmates were more docile if they had periodic sexual access to their wives. Robert Cross of the "Chicago Tribune" reported in 1985 that the MSP program received relatively little attention compared to newer and more limited conjugal visit policies in California, Connecticut, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, and Washington. Cross added that "The difference, perhaps, is that in Mississippi, where Parchman serves as the only penitentiary, nobody issued proclamations or opened up the matter for debate." As of 1996, a newly established Parchman unit used conjugal visits as a reward in a behavioral modification program and a typical married prisoner at Parchman had one conjugal visit every two weeks, and periodically used the family visits.