Michele Deitch is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer in criminal justice policy at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds a joint appointment at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and at the School of Law. She also directs the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL), a new policy resource center at the LBJ School focused on efforts to improve conditions of confinement and expand independent oversight of prisons and jails. Professor Deitch is widely recognized as one of the leading experts in the U.S. on the issue of correctional oversight and prison reform, and has written and published extensively on these topics. She also advises policymakers and agencies around the U.S. on prison and jail safety issues and on the development of independent correctional oversight bodies. In 2019, the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) awarded her the Flame Award for her contributions to the field of law enforcement oversight.

 

Professor Deitch recently co-authored several reports on the impact of COVID on people who live and work in prisons and jails, including The Pandemic Gender Gap Behind Bars, a report about the way COVID is affecting women in custody and how correctional agencies should adjust their approach to better meet women’s needs. She also served as Chair of the Sheriff’s Advisory Committee on the Travis County (Texas) Women’s Jail. Deitch co-chairs the American Bar Association’s subcommittee on correctional oversight and served as the original drafter of the ABA’s Standards on the Treatment of Prisoners. Prior to entering academia, she served as a court-appointed monitor of prison conditions in Texas.

 

Professor Deitch holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.Sc. from Oxford University, and a B.A. from Amherst College.

Alycia Welch, M.P.Aff., M.S.S.W., is the Associate Director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab (PJIL) at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where her research focuses on the safe and humane treatment of people in custody. She also co-instructs graduate-level policy research courses on prison and jail conditions alongside Michele Deitch, PJIL’s director and one of the leading experts in the U.S. on correctional oversight and prison reform. Alycia has spent 20 years leading criminal justice reforms in the U.S.—she directed a transitional housing program for women exiting prison or jail, developed an alternative to incarceration program for young adults, oversaw a multistate, federally funded initiative providing training and technical assistance on behavioral health and criminal justice issues, designed multiple studies assessing the impact of community-based programs on those who are justice-involved, and as an analyst in the Texas legislature, helped establish changes to the criminal legal and behavioral health systems. Currently, she advises policymakers and agencies on prison and jail conditions.

 

The recipient of several national policy research awards, Alycia has authored numerous reports on these issues, including several on the impact of COVID on people who live and work in prisons and jails. She is the lead author on The Pandemic Gender Gap Behind Bars, a report about the way COVID is affecting women in custody and how correctional agencies should adjust their approach to better meet women’s needs. She also served on the Sheriff’s Advisory Committee on the Travis County (Texas) Women’s Jail and co-authored a roadmap for the county, which officials across the country have used to guide similar changes in other jurisdictions.

 

Alycia holds a M.P.Aff. from the LBJ School and an M.S.S.W. from the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin as well as two B.A.s from the University of Michigan.