Butler County jail officials say they are temporarily suspending visitation in child dependency cases with incarcerated individuals while they “rework some parameters” regarding the policy.

But the lawyer for a Butler woman who was planning to sue the county and prison over denied visitation makes a point when he says the timing is “rather striking.”

“I would hate to think that this decision would be some form of retribution or indirect response,” said J. Lansing Hills, who filed the writ of summons on behalf of Kasey Dischman, 30, informing the county and the jail of the intended court action. “But as a thinking person I can only say the timing seems to be a bit odd. I hoped it wouldn’t be something so petty.”

We too question the timing, although the specific lawsuit was withdrawn because Dischman was released to pretrial supervision pending further court proceedings, making the legal action a moot point.

Warden Joe DeMore said the Butler County Prison is working with the county Children and Youth Services to “evaluate some security concerns” regarding visitation with inmates and children involved with CYS.

He said those visits have been temporarily suspended while authorities are working on “tightening down parameters around approving and disapproving visits.”

This type of visitation began at the jail facility in January 2017, and is a “privilege at this point,” DeMore said.

Charley Johns, director of CYS, said “our jail visit program is currently paused just to evaluate the policies and procedures and determine how we are going to move forward with that.”

Maybe the suspension of privileges is unnecessary, even though a thorough evaluation and adjustments might be warranted. Regardless of the circumstances of the specific case involving Dischman, county officials might benefit greatly from a thorough review and reworking of supervised child visits for inmates, which they accurately portray as a privilege rather than a right.

The timing is right because of the coincidence of yet another circumstance that surfaced two weeks ago, when Butler County Controller Ben Holland notified state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-12th, after Holland noticed that his 4-month-old son’s birth certificate says “parent” and “parent” instead of “mother” and “father,” which he called wrong and concerning.

Metcalfe responded by sending a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and 26 state legislators stating that the change violates state law because it was not brought before the General Assembly. He requested that the change be rescinded.

In effect, one regulatory requirement is being relaxed while another is being tightened.

It won’t be an everyday occurrence, but there will be times when these regulations conflict — when the question of parentage is not made clear by the new birth certification.

Skeptics might scoff at the idea of inadequate state certification in this day and age. But even the most cynical might want to check twice before boarding that next commercial flight whether or not that Pennsylvania driver’s license is suitable.

As long as they’re reworking the parameters, the “parent/parent” question should be taken into consideration, too. It’s a convenient opportunity to do so. It might even be irresponsible not to do so.

Of course, the ultimate gesture of responsibility would include a complete report of the findings and changes to the visitation program. The best way to get folks to follow the rules is to post them prominently.