I ask this question periodically and have yet to get a detailed answer here; I've been directed to other subreddits and still no real satisfaction. In light of this week's theme, I figured I should take another shot at it.
EDIT: I'm being asked what passage I refer to; in the Matthew Gospel, chapter 25, Jesus describes the separation of the sheep and the goats, and the sheep are virtuous because they clothed him, attended to him when he was sick, and either "came to him" or "visited him" when he was imprisoned, depending on what translation one reads.
To clarify further: I understand there may be linguistic/etymology-focused answers to be had as to what that term means. But I'm seeing a fairly broad consensus for how that term is translated, and in any event, I'm less interested in the etymology than I am attempting to ask a purely historical question. Do we know what prisons/imprisonment looked like at that approximate time and place, and if so, what might be involved in visiting someone in that circumstance? Personally, I know a lot about what it means to visit someone in prison today, but have no idea what it might have entailed at the time this passage was written; hence my curiosity. I'd be happy to hear answers focused on either the life and times attributed to a historical Jesus, or the time and area around which suspected writing of the passage would have occurred. Either perspective would be more than I've read anywhere else.
EDIT 2: thanks to the Redditor who caught my etymology/entomology error. It's Monday... that's my only excuse
The Greek for Matthew 25 is pretty straightforward: en phylakêi êmên kai êlthate pros me. “I was in prison and you went to me.” Êlthate is the simple past for the verb "to go."
Philology aside, we have some literary evidence from Greece and Rome on visitors to prisons. Socrates is probably the big example of visiting an incarcerated person – his discussions with his friends while imprisoned forms the immediate context and premise for Plato’s Crito and Phaedo.
As for ancient Rome, which is more pertinent and for which we have much more evidence, friends and family could often visit prisoners, and circumstances varied depending on the status of the person, the reasons for their punishment, and the discretion of the jailers and local magistrates. Pliny’s Natural History talks about a plebeian woman, having recently given birth, visiting her mother in prison. The doorkeeper searched her so that she could not bring food to her mother, so she fed her with her own breast milk (Naturalis historia 7.36.131). On the other hand, Herod Agrippa was permitted by Tiberius to receive his friends and freedmen, who brought him his favorite foods (Josephus, Antiquitates 18.204). Also, visiting hours were presumably during the day. The Acts of Thomas tell us that Vazan had been locked up in prison for a whole night because he stayed too late during his visitation (154).
Bribes were unsurprisingly a large factor in altering the circumstances of visits. Bribery could allow visitors to sleep alongside friends in prison, spend time with them, or bring food when they otherwise were not allowed to (Lucian, Peregrinus 12; Toxaris 31). The Acts of Paul tell us that Thecla brought a bribe of a silver mirror in order to listen to Paul’s preaching (3.18). The deacons Tertius and Pomponius bribed the soldiers to allow the imprisoned Christians to refresh themselves in a better part of the prison (Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas 3). Cicero’s in Verrem talks about “how every groan and pang meant a scheduled profit” for the prison warden, who were known for racketerering by accepting bribes in exchange for visitors allowing food and clothing, or the better treatment of certain prisoners.
There came to be a tradition in the Apocrypha where women, often wives of non-Christian officials, visited different imprisoned apostles. Paul is visited by Eubula, Artemilla, Thecla, in the Acts of Paul. Visitors bearing bribes and gifts were apparently frequent enough that Tertullian even criticized certain Christians who expected to be treated with some privilege while in prison. One man, Pristinus, had become so used to the baths, food, and visitors that he did not actually want to die when the time came, and his friends fed him drugged wine to make sure his execution would occur (De Ieiunio 12).
I think this would be my starting answer to the question. There is obviously a lot more to consider, since these accounts are strewn across various texts ranging from the Roman Republic to the imperial period, and textuality needs to be considered alongside historicity. Archaeological work might also provide a more physical and spatial perspective. Also relevant is the interface between Roman and Jewish legal and carceral practices, which might differ contextually given the tenuous and rapidly changing relationship between Romans and Jews.
References:
Hillner, Julia. Prison, Punishment and Penace in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Wansink, Craig Steven. “‘Imprisonment for the Gospel’: The apostle Paul and Roman prisons.” 1993. (Probably the best one for your question and the one to which I mostly referred when coming up with an answer).