The ultimate lesson of the COVID crisis in our prisons and jails is this: Addressing the issues it has surfaced is not just a good idea, it is a moral imperative. We need to have the vision and courage to correct corrections and work toward a system that is more worthy of our values and ideals—one that uses a public health lens to help build resiliency. For that is the true underpinning of a safer community.

At the onset of the pandemic, Michele drafted this rapid response paper detailing strategies that sheriffs could implement in order to prevent and respond to the spread of COVID-19 in jails.

This essay explains what is meant by the term “oversight” and frames it as an umbrella concept encompassing many distinct functions, including regulation, audit, accreditation, investigation, legal, reporting, and inspection/monitoring. The piece calls for a robust system of correctional oversight that is multi-faceted and multi-layered.