Chapter 20

Accountability: Voting, Standards, and Oversight

Chapter Overview

This chapter presents materials on the political disempowerment of prisoners, and examines non-litigation oversight of prisons and jails. Materials examine the voting rights of people in custody, the principles of effective external jail and prison oversight, and examples of oversight documentation.

Featured Opinions

Jones v. Governor of Florida, 975 F.3d 1016 (11th Cir. 2020) (en banc)

Excerpted Sources & Supplemental Documents

ABA Criminal Justice Standards (3d ed.), Treatment of Prisoners (2011)
- Introduction: Commentary on the Purpose of Standards
- Part III: Conditions of Confinement
- Part XI: Accountability and Oversight
American Correctional Association, Performance-Based Expected Practices for Adult Correctional Institutions, 5th ed. (2020)
Joanna Carns, Director, [Washington State] Office of the Corrections Ombuds, Annual Report 2019 (Nov. 1, 2019)
Michele Deitch, Distinguishing the Various Functions of Effective Prison Oversight, 30 Pace L. Rev. 1438 (2010)
Aaron Littman, Free-World Law Behind Bars, 131 Yale L.J. 1385 (2022)
Nicole D. Porter, Voting in Jails, The Sentencing Project (May 7, 2022)
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Evaluation of Issues Surrounding Inmate Deaths in Federal Bureau of Prisons Institute Report No. 24-041 (Feb. 2024)

Lived Experiences

Additional Reading

General

Aleks Kajstura, If the Census Bureau Truly Values Accuracy, it Should Count Incarcerated People at Home, Prison Policy Initiative (Oct. 2024)

Voting

Brennan Center for Justice, Criminal Disenfranchisement Laws Across the United States (Updated May. 13, 2025)
Sam Levine, Inmates Are Getting Registered To Vote In One Of The Country’s Biggest Jails, Huffington Post (Aug. 2, 2019)
Jeff Manza, Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy (2006)
Kevin Muhitch & Nazgol Ghandnoosh, The Sentencing Project, Expanding Voting Rights to All Citizens in the Era of Mass Incarceration (Mar. 2, 2021)
Michael B. Mushlin, Rights of Prisoners, § 16:11: Voting Rights Generally (2019 ed.)
Penal Reform Int’l, The Right of Prisoners to Vote: A Global Overview (Mar. 2016)
Prison Policy Initiative, Prison Gerrymandering Project
- Quick-reference chart: State reforms ending prison gerrymandering
Brianna Remster and Rory Kramer, Shifting Power: The Impact of Incarceration on Political Representation, 15 Du Bois Rev. 417 (2019)
The Sentencing Project, Six Million Lost Voters: State-Level Estimates of Felony Disenfranchisement, 2016 (Oct. 2016)
The Sentencing Project, Expanding the Vote: Two Decades of Felony Disenfranchisement Reform (2018)
Christopher Uggen et al., The Sentencing Project, Locked Out 2024: Estimates of People Denied Voting Rights Due to a Felony Conviction (Oct. 10, 2024)

Media and Public Access

Heather Thompson, What is Hidden Behind the Walls of America’s Prisons, The Conversation (Jun. 4, 2017)

Standards

American Correctional Association (ACA), Performance-Based Standards for Adult Local Detention Facilities (4th ed. 2004)
National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), Standards for Health Services in Prisons and Jails (2025)
American Public Health Association (APHA), Standards for Health Services in Correctional Institutions (3d ed. 2003)
American Psychiatric Association (APA), Psychiatric Services in Correctional Facilities (3d ed. 2016)
American Bar Association (ABA), Standards for Criminal Justice: Treatment of Prisoners (3d ed. 2011)

Oversight

Giovanna Shay, Ad Law Incarcerated, 14 Berkeley J. Crim. L. 329 (2009)
Office of the Indep. Juvenile Ombudsperson, Ill. Dep’t of Juvenile Justice, “How Are the Children?” 2018 Annual Report (2019)
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Civilian Oversight Commission, homepage

Reports

U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Reports—Federal Bureau of Prisons