Rampant sexual abuse by guards at women’s prisons in California. An inmate suicide that went unnoticed for 18 hours in Washington state. Multiple jail breaks in Pennsylvania.
Prisons and jails across the United States are overcrowded and understaffed, jeopardizing the safety of incarcerated people, correctional officers and surrounding communities. As state legislatures convene in the coming weeks, many lawmakers are focusing on a key criminal justice issue for prisons and jails: more oversight.
Accountability for the nation’s correctional facilities is decentralized and inconsistent. While some states, counties and municipalities have independent oversight bodies, many rely on internal mechanisms or lack formal systems altogether, according to Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin, which runs the National Resource Center for Correctional Oversight.
Policy experts predict that correctional oversight will take center stage in this year’s legislative sessions, driven by mounting scrutiny of worsening prison and jail conditions and the growing adoption of independent oversight bodies across the country. Adding to the momentum, President Joe Biden last year signed a law creating an independent ombudsman to investigate complaints from the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ 122 facilities. The law also mandates inspections of all federal facilities.
State prisons turn to extended lockdowns amid staffing shortages, overcrowding
“Legislators have become much more aware of what they don’t know and how much of a closed system this is,” Deitch said in an interview. “They’re totally reliant on the corrections officials to tell them what’s going on inside the facilities, and that’s not the best way for legislators to exercise oversight.”
But some correctional officials argue that adding another layer of oversight won’t solve their fundamental problem.
“We know the root causes of our current conditions: We have too many inmates and too few correctional officers,” Michael Resnick, the prisons commissioner for Philadelphia, said in October when he testified before the City Council against a measure that would create a new oversight board and office for the correctional facilities in that city. Resnick could not be reached for comment for this story.
The measure passed, but establishing the new board and office requires voter approval, which could be decided through a ballot question in May.
At least 16 states — both red and blue — considered 31 correctional oversight bills during last year’s legislative sessions, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. However, only Maryland and Virginia approved legislation to create ombudsman offices to monitor their state prisons.
Not all of the bills that were considered would have established independent oversight bodies; some focused on internal changes or specific accountability measures within existing structures.
In addition, advocacy groups and legislators in New Jersey, South Dakota and Wisconsin called for greater independent oversight in response to growing concerns about staff shortages, violence and deteriorating conditions in prisons.
At least 20 states and Washington, D.C., now have independent prison oversight bodies, according to Deitch. Elsewhere, state prisons rely on other forms of accountability.
Legislators have become much more aware of what they don’t know. … They’re totally reliant on the corrections officials to tell them what’s going on inside the facilities.
– Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab
Some state, county and city officials also want to beef up oversight of jails, which are usually operated by local law enforcement agencies or state departments of correction and hold people who are awaiting trial or sentencing, or who are serving shorter sentences.
In Washington state, for example, where an independent oversight office already monitors state prisons, a lawmaker has prefiled a bill that would establish an independent board to oversee the state’s 59 local jails. Last year, a similar bill stalled in the Senate.
The measure would create a seven-member board — made up of corrections officials, an attorney, health care professionals and formerly incarcerated people — that would establish standards for housing and health care in jails, investigate conditions and report their findings to the state.
If the bill is signed into law, Washington would join 28 other states with similar entities, Deitch said.
Oversight in Philadelphia
For years, Philadelphia’s jails have grappled with severe staffing shortages, an increasing number of deaths and multiple jail escapes, among other challenges.
As of June 2024, nearly 900 correctional officer positions remained unfilled, representing a 45% vacancy rate, according to the latest federal court monitor’s report, which was released last September under a class-action settlement addressing conditions of the city’s facilities.
Late last month, the Philadelphia City Council approved a resolution authorizing a ballot measure, to be presented to voters in May, asking whether the city should set up a nine-person jail oversight board and office.
Efforts to establish an independent oversight system date back at least two years. An earlier panel was criticized for its lack of transparency and effectiveness and was not fully independent from the city’s prisons department, according to Sara Jacobson, who served on the board for six years before resigning in 2022.
Jacobson, who is now the executive director of the Public Defender Association of Pennsylvania, told Stateline that during her time as a member she did not receive any documentation outlining the board’s duties.
“One of the reasons I left was that it appeared to me that it existed simply to say that it existed. The agenda appeared to be set by and run by the prison administration. There was almost no access for the public,” Jacobson said in an interview.
Philadelphia Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who sponsored the ballot measure legislation, is part of a working group that is focused on determining the board’s potential budget and defining its investigative powers, and that includes Democratic Mayor Cherelle Parker. Thomas told Stateline that safety — for inmates, staff and visitors — is a key concern.
Under the proposed measure, at least one board member must have previously been incarcerated. People who have worked for the city’s prisons department, Sheriff’s Office or police department would be ineligible. The nine members would be appointed by the City Council, the mayor and the city controller.
Funding for the oversight office would come from the prisons department’s budget, with a minimum of 0.0045% of spending allocated to the office. That amount would be less than $14,000 in the current fiscal year.
Efforts to release prisoners from long sentences draw new interest
Resnick, the prisons commissioner, said last fall that his department doesn’t need the extra eyes.
“There are already several layers of oversight for the [agency], and it will not be helpful to add another and potentially create conflict and confusion,” Resnick told city councilmembers during the committee hearing.
Legislative proposal in Wisconsin
In response to criticism over prison conditions in Wisconsin — including deaths, violence, prolonged lockdowns and criminal charges against a former prison warden and staff — legislators and advocates in that state also have called for the creation of an independent ombudsman to investigate concerns.
State Rep. Ryan Clancy, a Democrat, criticized the Wisconsin Department of Corrections’ complaint system, describing it as ineffective for addressing systemic issues. Currently, complaints are first reviewed by staff at the prison where they originate.
“We really need a system there that allows folks to communicate with a third party who is not tied directly to the management of that prison,” Clancy, a corrections committee member, said.
“It doesn’t make sense to stigmatize the people that are blowing the whistle, and that are just looking out for both their own needs and the needs of other people that they’re incarcerated with,” Clancy said.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
