This Policy Brief reviews recent developments in the correctional oversight field in the United States, with particular attention to how bipartisan cooperation has shaped the creation of these bodies, and how their design and funding determine their effectiveness. The brief provides profiles of the nine states that have established independent prison oversight bodies since 2018, as well as the Federal Prison Oversight Act, and highlights other notable developments. The analysis reveals that the establishment of an oversight body is a significant first step, but its long-term impact depends on whether lawmakers pair enabling legislation with the resources and support necessary for meaningful implementation.
Sydney Mike-Mayer and Michele Deitch, Policy Brief: “Recent Developments in Prison Oversight in the United States: Building Bipartisan Momentum (2018-2026),” Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, The University of Texas at Austin, 2026.
The Toolkit for Writing an RFP to Contract for Healthcare Services in a Correctional or Detention Institution (Correctional Healthcare RFP Toolkit) is designed to help correctional and detention facilities—along with local governments—create effective, outcome-focused requests for proposals (RFPs) for healthcare services.
The Toolkit guides you through every step of the process, including the following:
Preparing to draft an RFP
Drafting the RFP using the provided template
Issuing the RFP
Evaluating vendor responses
Negotiating a contract based on the RFP
This Toolkit promotes collaboration between agency heads, procurement officials, and vested partners involved in the vendor contracting process.
Policy Research Associates, Inc. (2025). Toolkit for writing an RFP to contract for healthcare services in a correctional or detention institution. prainc.com/resource-library/correctional-healthcare-rfp-toolkit.
To send us any questions, suggested revisions, or to request assistance with the Toolkit, please contact: Ashley Krider, Policy Research Associates, Inc., akrider@prainc.com.
This in-depth article provides comprehensive background information about the nature, value, and history of correctional oversight; documents the shifting landscape and increasing momentum around the oversight issue over the last decade; highlights key distinctions between prison and jail oversight; and provides a comprehensive assessment of the state of prison and jail oversight in the U.S. today. The article includes tables listing and categorizing every correctional oversight body in the United States as of 2020.
Deitch, Michele. “But Who Oversees the Overseers? The Status of Prison and Jail Oversight in the United States.” American Journal of Criminal Law 47, no. 2 (2020): 207–74.
This short piece provides an analytic framework for thinking about prison oversight. Noting the term “oversight” lacks a clear meaning, the authordistinguishes several important functions provided byoversight mechanisms, including regulation, audit,accreditation, investigation, legal, reporting, andmonitoring. “Oversight”is really an umbrella concept that encompasses each ofthese functions, but each of these functions neednot be served by the same oversight body. Instead, the focus should be onensuring that each function is served effectively in everyjurisdiction. The ideal is to have a layered system ofcorrectional oversight in which there is a range ofeffective internal accountability measures and robustexternal oversight mechanisms.
Deitch, Michele. “Distinguishing the Various Functions of Effective Prison Oversight.” Pace Law Review 30, no. 5 (Fall 2010): 1438–45.
American Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section
Passed in 2008, this landmark resolution calls on all levels of government to establish correctional oversight bodies and outlines reasons why correctional institutions should become more transparent and accountable to the public. The Resolution also details what such oversight bodies should look like and sets forth a checklist of the elements necessary to make a correctional oversight body effective. The Resolution is a guiding force in efforts to create oversight bodies around the country, and a touchstone to assess the quality of any oversight structures that do exist.
American Bar Association, Criminal Justice Section. “Key Requirements for the Effective Monitoring of Correctional and Detention Facilities.” Aug. 2008.
This Policy Brief reviews recent developments in the correctional oversight field in the United States, with particular attention to how bipartisan cooperation has shaped the creation of these bodies, and how their design and funding determine their effectiveness. The brief provides profiles of the nine states that have established independent prison oversight bodies since 2018, as well as the Federal Prison Oversight Act, and highlights other notable developments. The analysis reveals that the establishment of an oversight body is a significant first step, but its long-term impact depends on whether lawmakers pair enabling legislation with the resources and support necessary for meaningful implementation.
Sydney Mike-Mayer and Michele Deitch, Policy Brief: “Recent Developments in Prison Oversight in the United States: Building Bipartisan Momentum (2018-2026),” Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, The University of Texas at Austin, 2026.
The Toolkit for Writing an RFP to Contract for Healthcare Services in a Correctional or Detention Institution (Correctional Healthcare RFP Toolkit) is designed to help correctional and detention facilities—along with local governments—create effective, outcome-focused requests for proposals (RFPs) for healthcare services.
The Toolkit guides you through every step of the process, including the following:
Preparing to draft an RFP
Drafting the RFP using the provided template
Issuing the RFP
Evaluating vendor responses
Negotiating a contract based on the RFP
This Toolkit promotes collaboration between agency heads, procurement officials, and vested partners involved in the vendor contracting process.
Policy Research Associates, Inc. (2025). Toolkit for writing an RFP to contract for healthcare services in a correctional or detention institution. prainc.com/resource-library/correctional-healthcare-rfp-toolkit.
To send us any questions, suggested revisions, or to request assistance with the Toolkit, please contact: Ashley Krider, Policy Research Associates, Inc., akrider@prainc.com.
This report provides an econometrics framework for conducting empirical research on the effectiveness of independent prison oversight. The report suggests several approaches for that could be used to measure the impact of oversight and identifies metrics and sources of data that would enable such analyses. These proposed approaches focus on outcomes related to transparency and accountability—the twin goals of independent correctional oversight. Additionally, the report discusses the limitations of focusing solely on empirical analysis to understand the impact of prison oversight and identifies complementary avenues of research. The report was authored by economist Jamein Cunningham, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the School of Law at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with Michele Deitch, J.D., M.Sc., and Alycia Welch, M.P.Aff., M.S.S.W., Director and Associate Director, respectively, at the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab.
Jamein Cunningham, Michele Deitch, and Alycia Welch, “A Framework for Measuring the Value of Correctional Oversight,” Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin, September 2024.
Heather Schoenfeld , Kimberly Rhoten and Michael C. Campbell
Prisons have failed to meet basic standards of care over recent years. This article introduces an accountability framework in order to examine the prisoners’ rights “accountability environment” in the United States. The authors find that the prisoners' rights accountability environment is a network of legal, bureaucratic, professional, and political systems. The article concludes that the effectiveness of prisoners’ rights accountability environments depends on whether political officials make prisoners' rights a priority.
Schoenfeld, Heather, Kimberly Rhoten, and Michael C. Campbell. "Patchwork Protection: The Politics of Prisoners’ Rights Accountability in the United States." Law & Social Inquiry 00 (2024) 1-30.
This report shows that the courts play a vital role in ensuring humane conditions exist inside prisons and jails. Courts can make a difference by limiting overcrowding, imposing fines, and more. When governments fail to uphold the role of incarcerating people humanely, the judicial system can intervene. Report authored by Hernandez D. Stroud for the Brennan Center.
This article explores whether court oversight in institutional reform litigation has made a difference and assesses what courts have accomplished in more than thirty years of efforts to improve prison and jail conditions.
Nathan, Vincent M. “Have the Courts Made a Difference in the Quality of Prison Conditions? What Have We Accomplished to Date?” Pace Law Review 24, no. 2 (Spring 2004): 419–26.
This video of a speech by Anne Owers, the then- Chief Inspector of Prisons for Englandand Wales, focuses on three mainthemes: human rights in a prison context, theimportance of independent prison inspections as ahuman rights mechanism, and reactions to proposed changes to the inspection process. She draws on examples from her own experience with inspections to show how prison environments are inherently dangerous to the fostering of human rights. This speech is useful for anyone interested in understanding how independent inspectors can impact human rights conditions in prisons and how such inspections differ from internal reviews of efficiency or audits to assess adherence to standards.
Owers, Anne. “Rights behind Bars: The Conditions and Treatment of Those in Detention.” LSE Digital Library. LSE Institutional Archives, December 9, 2004. https://lse-atom.arkivum.net/uklse-dl1pl01014116.
This handbook is an important resource forprison staff who wish to implement variousinternational human rights standards into prison operations. The author, a former correctional administrator, helps translatethese standards into practical and workable procedures forcorrectional staff.
Andrew Coyle, A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management: Handbook for Prison Staff (2nd ed.), International Centre for Prison Studies (2010).
This manual provides a “how-to” guide forNGOs and other bodies entitled to conduct monitoringvisits to places of detention. It details how to prepare for a visit, which parts of a facility should be inspected, how to gather information during the visit, what to include in reports, and how to follow-up after the inspection.
Association for the Prevention of Torture. "Monitoring Places of Detention: A Practical Guide." Switzerland: Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, 2004.
Association of Members of Independent Monitoring Boards
Produced for members of U.K. prison monitoring boards,this guide lists over 900 questions for monitors to usewhen examining prison conditions. The book notes that while some questions aredirect, others are more open-ended and thus allow formonitors to exercise their own judgment depending onthe context of the situation.
Association of Members of Independent Monitoring Boards. "Practical Guide to Monitoring Prisons." 4th ed., 2010.
This article identifies and analyzes inconsistencies in how courts apply the provisions of the Prison Litigation Reform Act that require prisoners to exhaust available administrative remedies before filing a federal action challenging prison conditions. The author’s analysis particularly focuses on cases in which prison systems provided little guidance about how specific a grievance must be in order to preserve a prisoner’s right to assert a claim in federal court.
Borchardt, Derek. “The Iron Curtain Redrawn Between Prisoners and the Constitution.” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 43, no. 2 (Spring 2012): 469–520.
This journal article describes international examples of independent monitoring bodies and identifies the features of these bodies that make them most effective.
Van Zyl Smit, Dirk. “Regulation of Prison Conditions.” Crime and Justice: A Review of Research 39 (2010): 503–63.
