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 2, 2025
Argall bill to fight corrections officer shortage passes Senate
Legislation introduced by state Sen. Dave Argall, R-29, Rush Twp., at the request of the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association was passed by the Senate with bipartisan support to address the staffing crisis facing the state’s correctional institutions.
Senate Bill 111 permits qualified candidates across state lines to help fill critical vacancies in Pennsylvania’s correctional facilities, while ensuring Pennsylvania residents continue to receive hiring preference.
Read ArticleOctober 30, 2025
What we know about Tarrant County’s new strategy with a staffing company to fill vacant jail jobs
Recruiting people to work in jails and prisons is not easy, said Brian Dawe, the national director for the corrections officer organization One Voice United. People don't go into corrections because it's a dream job, he said. Usually, it's because of economic necessity. "And when you have a situation where the pay does not equal what you have to go through, then you start to see a decline in the number of people that are on the job," he said.
Dawe started his career in Massachusetts prisons in the 1980s. Working in that setting can be physically and psychologically dangerous, he said. A focus on "turning keys and counting heads," with no involvement in rehabilitation or reentry programs, can feel meaningless. And long overtime hours strain officers and their families.“After you've done three sixteen-hour shifts in a row, you could care less about the dishes or the clothes or the kids going to soccer,” Dawe said. “You just need sleep."
Daniel Landsman is the vice president of policy for the prison reform group Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM). While the Recana contract might help Tarrant County, it won't be a solution everywhere, he said. "It's not something I could see working at a national level, because we only have so many correctional officers to pull from," Landsman said. “And the issue that we’re facing is we simply don’t have enough.”
Landsman, whose work focuses on the prison system, said the “flip side” of the understaffing problem is the population problem. One solution to understaffing is to reevaluate who needs to be incarcerated, he argued. FAMM advocates for identifying people in prisons who might not need to be incarcerated anymore, like people over 55 or those dealing with serious medical conditions.
Read ArticleOctober 20, 2025
Inside Oregon’s oldest prison: 114-degree cells and $13M annual repairs
Leaders of the Oregon Department of Corrections this year floated for the first time the idea of eventually replacing Oregon State Penitentiary, Oregon’s oldest and second largest, citing sweltering summer heat, an outdated design dating to the 1860s and the spiraling costs of maintentance.
The storied prison — the site of dozens of executions, notorious escapes and a historic riot — houses about 1,900 prisoners, including the state’s most severely mentally ill prisoners who bunk in windowless cells deep within the prison walls.
Officials rattle off environmental hazards found throughout the prison, including asbestos woven into ceilings and concrete, lead paint and buildings that are literally crumbling.
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