We are in the midst of a profound crisis in our nation’s correctional system.
Across the country, our nation’s prisons are dangerously understaffed and overcrowded.
Policymakers must act now to protect the health and safety of correctional staff, incarcerated people, and the public at large.
Prisons across the country are dangerously understaffed, overcrowded, and plagued by rapidly deteriorating conditions.
One Voice United (OVU) and FAMM, two leading organizations representing correctional staff (OVU) and incarcerated people and their families (FAMM), have joined together to form the Safer Prisons, Safer Communities campaign.
For too long, our constituencies have been pitted against one another while the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues, friends, and loved ones has suffered. While it may be surprising to some people that we would work together to draw attention to this crisis, we know our fates are intertwined and we have a shared goal of ensuring the health and safety of everyone who works and lives in prison.
EndorseFor too long, our constituencies have been pitted against one another while the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues, friends, and loved ones has suffered. While it may be surprising to some people that we would work together to draw attention to this crisis, we know our fates are intertwined and we have a shared goal of ensuring the health and safety of everyone who works and lives in prison.
SAFER PRISONS SAFER COMMUNITIES
In The News
November 21, 2025
“We’re Broken”: As Federal Prisons Run Low on Food and Toilet Paper, Corrections Officers Are Leaving in Droves for ICE
After years of struggling to find enough workers for some of the nation’s toughest lockups, the Federal Bureau of Prisons is facing a new challenge: Corrections officers are jumping ship for more lucrative jobs at Immigration and Customs Enforcement. After retirements and other attrition, by the start of November the agency had lost at least 1,400 more staff this year than it had hired, according to internal prison data shared with ProPublica.
The exodus comes amid shortages of critical supplies, from food to personal hygiene items, and threatens to make the already grim conditions in federal prisons even worse. Fewer corrections officers means more lockdowns, less programming and fewer health care services for inmates, along with more risks to staff and more grueling hours of mandatory overtime. Prison teachers and medical staff are being forced to step in as corrections officers on a regular basis.
Read ArticleNovember 20, 2025
Va. prison system ‘dangerously understaffed’ before correctional officer’s death
The union that represents correctional officers is blaming the recent death of a colleague on what they say are chronic short-staffing issues at the Virginia Department of Corrections.
In a statement released on Wednesday evening, the union said that they were shocked, but not surprised, by the death of Jeremy Hall on Monday and a fatal inmate attack at Greensville earlier this month.
Read ArticleNovember 19, 2025
How much has prison staffing slumped across New York State?
A new report from the department overseeing the New York State prison system shows that as staffing has slumped over the past two decades, prison violence has been on the rise.
The numbers illustrate a heightened risk of violence, mostly to other inmates, under the responsibility of a dwindling number of officers. The prison system has suffered a staffing crisis after Gov. Hochul ordered the firing of striking guards earlier this year. The retaliatory slashing of jobs, which the state replaced with the National Guard, furthered a decline that’s been underway for the past two decades.
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