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
October 14, 2025
S.C. corrections union warns of ‘disaster upon disaster’ as BOP workers go unpaid during shutdown
In October, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced that it would no longer recognize the master agreement between the agency and the Council of Prison Locals, the union that represents more than 30,000 employees in prisons around the country.
Now, those corrections officers are no longer being paid. “It’s a perfect storm,” said Brandy Moore White, president of Council of Prison Locals 33, a union that represents federal prison employees.
Read ArticleOctober 13, 2025
Colorado’s prisons and jails are overflowing. What’s being done to address it?
There aren’t enough prison beds. There aren’t enough staff. Stricter parole policies are keeping more people inside.
Together, those pressures led Colorado on Aug. 16 to activate its prison population management plan, created in 2018. It helps the Department of Corrections manage capacity when prisons are operating at more than 97% capacity for 30 straight days.
But, under the plan, when the prisons run out of room, Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams says the overflow lands in county jails.
Read ArticleOctober 8, 2025
The New York Prison System Is Facing a Potential Disaster “Unprecedented Since Attica”
The failure of the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to recruit an adequate amount of staff is based upon a misunderstanding of how the job is viewed by most of society. Is correctional officer the job someone applies for when they have made all the right life choices? No. Usually, it’s the job someone applies for in an act of desperation when lack of education or ambition has limited their employment opportunities. Prisons are the most wretched and miserable, roach-infested, mice-ridden places in this country. They’re packed with mental health patients, addicts, and people convicted of every crime, some of whom are innocent. Many facilities are sweltering hot in the summer, and sometimes blistering cold in the winter. Warehouses of human suffering. No one wants to work inside prisons much more than the people locked inside want to live in them.
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