“Washington is very much in the minority here” in its lack of oversight of jails, said Michele Deitch, an incarceration oversight expert who directs the University of Texas Prison and Jail Innovation Lab.

“It’s really missing the point of these investigations … which is to find out what happened inside this very closed environment,” said Michele Deitch, who directs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs. “What was going on there that this person died?”

The 2025 “Prison Journalist of the Year” says Black history is the foundation her work is built upon.

JW: Yes, we plan on pursuing this. When we spoke to an expert at the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab from the University of Texas who said three deaths at any correctional facility is alarming, and three homicides in alarming in that period of time.

“Kudos to the jail commission for doing the right thing,” said Michele Deitch, a University of Texas law professor who served as an expert consultant on the Sandra Bland Act. “But if they hadn’t done so, the public would be in the dark regarding these deaths.”

Over the nearly two decades spanning 2001 to 2019, Kentucky recorded just six homicides in its state-run prisons, according to federal data.

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.