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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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Correction Department cries out for oversight

Dec. 1, 2021
The Editorial Board discusses the need for correctional oversight, and quotes Michele on the increasing momentum across the country supporting the establishment of external correctional oversight bodies.
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Weekly Roundup of News and Views on Solitary Confinement

Nov. 10, 2021
Independent Oversight Is Essential for a Safe and Healthy Prison System,” Michele’s essay published in the Brennan Center for Justice’s series on punitive excess, was featured in Solitary Watch’s Weekly Roundup of News and Views on Solitary Confinement.
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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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Report from UT Austin show how hard COVID hit TX prisons

Nov. 17, 2020
A new report from researchers at the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs paints a clear picture of how the virus has been ravaging inmate populations in the states prison and jail systems. “What we found was just stunning to us,” said Alycia Welch.
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Hundreds have died from COVID-19 in Texas jails and prisons — some while awaiting trial

Nov. 16, 2020
Author of new report on prison death rates calls on state to release inmates who pose no risk to safety
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At Least 231 People In Texas Jails And Prisons Have Died From COVID-19, Study Finds

Nov. 15, 2020
At least 231 people in Texas prisons and jails have died from COVID-19, including 27 staff members, 14 people in jail and 190 people in prison, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin.
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More than 200 incarcerated people and staff at Texas prisons and jails have died from coronavirus, report shows

Nov. 13, 2020
Hundreds of incarcerated people and staff at jails and prisons in Texas have died from coronavirus, according to a new report by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin.
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80 percent of those who died of Covid-19 in Texas county jails were never convicted of a crime

Nov. 12, 2020
The “devastating human toll” of Covid-19 in Texas’s correctional facilities is revealed in a new report by University of Texas at Austin researchers.
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Prisons and jails have become a ‘public health threat’ during the pandemic, advocates say

Nov. 11, 2020
A recent overview by the Covid, Corrections, and Oversight Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that the death curve in Texas prisons remains “stubbornly high”; in one East Texas prison, the Duncan Unit, nearly 6 percent of inmates have died.