PJIL Director Michele Deitch calls for oversight in Alabama prisons in story of prison labor strike.

Michele calls attention to how a family's grief of an incarcerated loved one's death can be made worse by the way the news is delivered. She advocates for death notifications to be as quick and empathetic as possible.

Michele was interviewed on camera and featured in this piece that is a finalist in the "Multimedia" category for the 2022 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts from the American Bar Association. These awards recognize outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system, and are the ABA’s highest honor in recognition of this purpose.

Michele played a key role in this publications that is the sole finalize for the 2022 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts from the American Bar Association. These awards recognize outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understanding of law and the legal system, and are the ABA’s highest honor in recognition of this purpose. Michele contributed to this chapter on correctional oversight.

Michele provides significant contributions to the Brennan Center team in this essay that explores the land­scape of prison and jail over­sight reform since 2018.

Michele comments on the mismanaged state of the nation's juvenile justice facilities.

In coverage on Massachusetts' new bill to establish independent civilian oversight of the state's correctional facilities and Michele comments on the increasing momentum of prison oversight bodies.

Asked about the U.S. Department of Justice launching a civil rights investigation into the abuse of children housed at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department’s state secure facilities, Michele explains that it will be important for the DOJ to assess how much the location and size of the facilities and the severe understaffing may have contributed to the problems that were identified.

This article chronicles the work of Andrea Armstrong, Loyola University School of Law professor and PJIL’s Advisory Committee Chair, in her effort to document the loss of life inside jails and prisons in Louisiana, the state with the highest in-custody mortality rate. Michele is quoted describing the opacity of local jails, relative to state and federal prisons.

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.