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Will Trump Do Time? What It Would Take to Convict the Former President

July 20, 2022
Michele is quoted in the July cover of Newsweek on a⁩ story about what would happen if Trump goes to prison.
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With 78 TX Prison Staff Deaths, COVID Threat 'Far From Over'

Feb. 24, 2022
The National Criminal Justice Association announces the release of PJIL's latest publication, "Canary in the Coal Mine: A Profile of Staff COVID Deaths in the Texas Prison System."
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Texas House and Senate likely headed to closed-door negotiations over bail reform

May 21, 2021
In the final days of the 87th Texas legislative session, as Gov. Abbott’s priority bail reform bill was nearing passage, Capital Tonight interviewed PJIL Associate Director, Alycia Welch, on the potential implications of the bill.
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But Who Oversees the Overseers? The Status of Prison and Jail Oversight in the United States

May 6, 2021
Updating and expanding upon Michele’s 50-state inventory of prison oversight models published in 2010, this article provides background information about the nature, value, and history of correctional oversight; documents the shifting landscape and increasing momentum around the oversight issue over the last decade; and provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of prison and jail oversight in the US today.
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Georgia legislators, citing Reuters report, want every jail death investigated

Jan. 25, 2021
Georgia ranks among 17 state governments with no mechanism for oversight of local jails, according to research by Reuters and Michele Deitch, a corrections specialist at the University of Texas.
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Why 4,998 died in U.S. jails without getting their day in court

Oct. 16, 2020
Seventeen states have no rules or oversight mechanisms for local jails, according to Reuters research and a pending study by Michele Deitch, a corrections specialist at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. In five other low-population states, all detention facilities are run by state corrections agencies. The other 28 have some form of standards, such as assessing inmates’ health on arrival or checking on suicidal inmates at prescribed intervals. Yet those standards often are minimal, and in at least six of the states, the agencies that write them lack enforcement power or the authority to refer substandard jails for investigation.