Those are ... strange but understandable, particularly where the inmates have young children who don't know the parent is incarcerated.

It also gives the family a way to have photos of their loved one without them all being against a horrible cinder-block wall or something. It's sort of a humane fiction for the family, which is what fascinates me about them.

This is fascinating. I wonder if Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail has a picture of people busting rocks on a chain gang.