Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas, said based on her experience “that is unusual. Natural deaths in custody usually account for the vast majority of deaths.” She also said the sizable number of suicides in Hawaiʻi prisons is unusual because suicide is usually far more common in jails than in prisons.

"Too many inmates for too few deputies can cause, among other problems, health issues among inmates to go unnoticed and therefore untreated," said Michele Deitch, the director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

Michele Deitch, a University of Texas at Austin professor who runs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, said the routine inspections are part of the ombudsman’s office establishing regular oversight of the corrections system. “The job of the ombudsman — or any other kind of oversight body — is to bring attention to those issues, so that no one can claim ignorance about them. So that the public is informed, so that there's analysis, so that there's an evidence-based set of best practices that inform the recommendations,” she said while discussing the reports. Recommendations across the system largely focused on medical services being provided to incarcerated people and the regular cleaning of facilities. Deitch added that the ombudsman’s office overseeing Virginia prisons is still new, it’s still developing its approach and that staff is relatively small.

“Routine aspects of prison operations just really don’t consider the distinct needs of women, and particularly not of pregnant women,” said Alycia Welch, the associate director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Welch researches carceral conditions and oversight with a focus on women’s experiences.

Nine states have created corrections ombudsman positions since 2018, while another two have created quasi-oversight bodies, according to Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas, which runs the National Resource Center for Correctional Oversight. “It’s greater recognition of deaths in custody, of the violence going on inside, of poor conditions,” Deitch said. “A lot of those are coming to light through journalistic accounts and through advocates’ reports and from people who have been incarcerated, but it’s also the fact that legislators are recognizing that what we’re doing now isn’t working. There are high recidivism rates, and we’re spending a lot of money on prisons and not knowing if they’re getting anything of real value from it, given the high recidivism rates and the poor conditions.”

“They are really operating on skeletal crews in many of the facilities. So, they've used many strategies to try to increase the workforce,” said Michele Deitch, a researcher and lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs.  “And about 15 or so years ago, they started literally recruiting people from abroad to come and work here.”

“It’s just another reminder that they have no autonomy over themselves, over their bodies, over their lives,” said Alycia Welch, the associate director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin.

Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas in Austin, said people in prison “have a constitutional right to receive medical care for their serious medical needs. And dialysis is certainly an example of that.”

Michele Deitch y Alycia Welch, directoras del Laboratorio de Innovación en Prisiones y Cárceles de la Universidad de Texas, se definieron como “un puente” entre la investigación académica, la formulación de políticas y las prácticas correccionales. Lo primero que advirtieron es que el sistema penitenciario uruguayo está “extremadamente hacinado” y, por lo tanto, poner el foco en las mujeres privadas de libertad podría reducir la tasa de prisionización. Lo que han aprendido en su investigación en Estados Unidos es que “muchísimas mujeres que están privadas de libertad no deberían estarlo”, enfatizó Deitch. “Terminan involucradas con el sistema penal por haber pasado por experiencias traumáticas en sus vidas, ya sea porque tienen necesidades no abordadas como la vivienda, la salud mental, o porque son víctimas de violencia doméstica”, ejemplificó.

Al país en el que casi la mitad de los presos están en condiciones “inhumanas, crueles y degradantes”, llegaron Michele Deitch y Alycia Welch, dos expertas de Texas (Estados Unidos) que han dedicado su vida a estudiar cómo pueden hacer las cárceles más seguras y humanas para los reclusos. Proponen la implementación de un programa de viviendas de transición para mujeres.