Projects
PJIL’s projects meet the needs of policy makers, criminal justice officials, state and local agencies, advocates, and the media who are looking for guidance on corrections issues. Our current projects include the following initiatives:
Current Projects
National Resource Center on Correctional Oversight
Launched in November 2023, the National Resource Center for Correctional Oversight (NRCCO) is the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab's signature project. The NRCCO serves as a comprehensive website for offering research insights, state-specific data, interactive maps, detailed profiles of oversight bodies, background information, legislative developments, and news updates. We are continually adding more resources to this dynamic platform.
Deaths in Custody
We are researching deaths in custody in the following areas:
- Natural deaths in custody
- How deaths in custody are investigated
- How families are notified of deaths in custody
Correctional Oversight
We advise policymakers, advocates, and oversight practitioners on ways to develop and strengthen correctional oversight mechanisms to better ensure the protection of people in prisons and jails. We have also established a Peer Learning Community for directors of prison oversight bodies to enable the sharing of best practices and to create a vibrant network of experts in the correctional oversight field.
Aging Behind Bars
We are collaborating with the ACLU’s National Prison Project to produce a comprehensive report on the problem of aging behind bars, including a data analysis of the elderly population in prison.
Jail Standards
Building on our work developing jail standards for Louisiana, we are developing a set of jail standards based on best practices that are applicable to jails across the United States.
Humanizing Living Conditions in Prison
We emphasize our common humanity with people in custody and identify ways conditions can be improved to promote health, safety, and dignity in the categories of sleep, hygiene, and clothing. We are also developing a database of innovative initiatives in prisons across the country that help change the culture of the facilities.
Women in Custody
We produce resource materials on best practices for developing a gender-responsive approach to supervising women in custody.
Completed Projects
Deaths in Custody Conference 2024
We were excited to host a symposium on “Deaths in Custody" which took place at the University of Texas in Austin November 14-16, 2024. The convening offered an opportunity for collective reflection by the country’s leading experts on prison and jail conditions on one of the most critical, challenging, and urgent issues in our field.
We assembled an incredible group of speakers to lead our discussion of these issues, and there was tremendous expertise among our audience participants as well. Our speakers and participants included: oversight practitioners; medical professionals; researchers; people with lived experience; journalists; advocates; corrections officials; academics; litigators; and more.
Cruel and Not Unusual: Can America’s Prisons and Jails Change, and, If So, How?
In February of 2023, we hosted a two-day symposium to discuss what can be done to address the seemingly intractable horrific conditions in certain correctional systems, and debated whether meaningful reform of America’s prisons and jails is truly possible.
Speakers and audience participants included people with lived experience; journalists; litigators; oversight practitioners; advocates; corrections officials; academics; and more.
Louisiana Jail Standards Project
Pursuant to a directive from the Louisiana Legislature, PJIL worked with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and the Louisiana Sheriffs Association to help evaluate and develop more comprehensive jail standards and a more effective jail oversight structure for the state.
COVID, Corrections, and Oversight
We produced resource materials on ways that corrections officials, oversight practitioners, and policy makers could manage COVID-related challenges in prisons and jails, and analyzed the impact of COVID on incarcerated people and staff.