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.

Published as part of the Brennan Center for Justice’s series on punitive excess, Michele identifies independent correctional oversight as a critical but often overlooked tool that provides a window into one of our most opaque public institutions, one that denies elected officials the option of remaining purposefully ignorant about correctional conditions.

In this article about the ways agencies are continuing to shield data about the impact of COVID-19 in prisons, Michele responds to TDCJ’s claim that it waits for autopsy results before reporting deaths in custody due to COVID. The article also highlights findings from, “Hidden Figures,” our report detailing a lack of data transparency regarding the impact of COVID-19 in state prisons, local jails and state-run juvenile facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.