A man living in Jefferson County, just north of Natchez, believes the state of Mississippi should allow him regular bedroom visits with his wife.

The only problem is the man is incarcerated — sentenced to 40 years for burglary and attempted armed robbery.

Last year, former state corrections chief Christopher Epps formally ended the practice of allowing conjugal visits for minimum-security inmates who have not recently violated prison rules.

At the time, Mississippi was only one of six states still allowing the practice, another has since stopped conjugal visits, leaving only four states allowing them.

Federal prisons do not allow the visits.

The inmate’s challenge is based on whether or not Epps had the authority to outlaw the practice in state prisons or not.

We hope and suspect the federal magistrate will rule that no state or federal law provides conjugal visits as a constitutional right owed to inmates.

From our view, Epps’ decision, which he said at the time was based on cost savings, needs to stand.

If you do the crime, you need to do the time and not have that time periodically broken up with periods of marital normalcy.