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Shackles and Solitary: Inside Louisiana’s Harshest Juvenile Lockup

March 10, 2022
Michele is interviewed on juvenile systems around the country manage their most challenging youth. “They’re just throwing up their hands and saying: ‘We’ve exhausted our options. We just don’t know what to do," Michele comments.
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Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

Aug. 17, 2021
PJIL Associate Director, Alycia Welch, is quoted in this article about the impact of COVID-19 on women in prisons and jails, with a particular focus on “The Pandemic Gender Gap Behind Bars,” a report Alycia and Michele wrote on this issue.
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Trauma on top of trauma: why more women are dying in jails

July 13, 2021
On the anniversary of Sandra Bland’s death at a Texas jail, PJIL Director, Michele Deitch, comments on the impact of COVID on the ongoing issue of rising incarceration rates and deaths of women inside jail facilities. The article cites the report about this issue that Michele and Alycia co-authored, “The Pandemic Gender Gap Behind Bars.” Advisory Committee Chair, Andrea Armstrong, is also quoted on the situation facing women in rural and small jail facilities.
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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.
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COVID Deaths in Texas Prisons Lead Nation

Nov. 10, 2020
“More people in Texas prisons have contracted COVID than in any other prison system in the United States,” said the report.