Michele Deitch is an attorney with over 23 years of experience working on criminal justice policy issues with state and local government officials, corrections officials, judges, and advocates. She teaches criminal justice and juvenile justice policy at the LBJ School and at the Law School. She was awarded a 2005-06 Soros Senior Justice Fellowship by the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation, one of the most prestigious prizes for individuals working on criminal justice policy reform. Her areas of specialty include independent oversight of correctional institutions, institutional reform litigation, prison conditions and management, prison and jail overcrowding, prison privatization, and juveniles in adult court. She holds a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School, an M.Sc. in psychology (with a specialization in criminology) from Oxford University (Balliol College), and a B.A. with honors from Amherst College.
Since 1993, Deitch has served as an independent consultant to state and local policy-makers and agency officials around the country on a wide range of corrections and sentencing issues. She recently served for three years as Reporter to the American Bar Association Task Force that drafted proposed national standards on the treatment of prisoners. She also served on the Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Texas Youth Commission, a panel appointed to recommend changes to the Texas juvenile justice system in the wake of high-profile scandals involving the statewide juvenile corrections agency. Previously, she held some key positions with the Texas Legislature, including serving as General Counsel to the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee and as the Policy Director of the Texas Punishment Standards Commission. Working in those posts, she was involved with virtually every major criminal justice policy initiative considered by state officials in Texas in the early 1990s. During the late 1980s, Deitch was appointed by Judge William Wayne Justice as a monitor of conditions in the Texas prison system, as part of the landmark Ruiz prison reform lawsuit.
Most of Deitch’s current research focuses on two issues: independent prison oversight, and the management of juvenile offenders. She was invited to provide lead testimony on the prison oversight issue before the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, and she organized a major international conference entitled "Opening Up a Closed World: What Constitutes Effective Prison Oversight?", held at the LBJ School in April 2006. She has lectured on criminal justice subjects both nationally and internationally, provides invited legislative testimony, has organized academic conferences, is a frequent commentator in the media, and has a host of publications in the field. She has also served on several boards, including serving as a member of the Amherst College Board of Trustees.
Michele Deitch’s recent publications include: “From Time Out to Hard Time: Young Children in the Adult Criminal Justice System” (LBJ School, 2009); “Keeping Our Children at Home: Expanding Community-Based Facilities for Adjudicated Youth in Texas” (Texas Public Policy Foundation, 2009);“Correctional Health Care and Special Populations: Legal Considerations and Context,” in Managing Special Populations in Jails and Prisons, Stan Stojkovic, ed. (Civic Research Institute, 2005); and “Independent Correctional Oversight Mechanisms: A 50-State Study” (Pace Law Review, forthcoming 2010).
Crime and Criminal Justice
