Locked Out, Looking In: How Correctional Oversight Agencies are Adapting During the COVID Crisis

The COVID pandemic is creating significant challenges for independent correctional oversight bodies that typically rely on physical access to prisons and jails in order to assess conditions of confinement and protect the safety of incarcerated people. And yet there has never been a greater need for increased transparency of prisons and jails, since COVID has created such serious risks for people in custody. This report highlights the creative strategies that oversight bodies have been using to gather information about what is happening behind bars, even when their access to prisons and jails is limited or restricted. The report is intended to serve as a resource document for independent correctional oversight bodies and other organizations that want to increase the transparency and accountability of prisons and jails.