EVENTS REPORT   Mission Press Support Staff Contact
On June 8 2006, after a year-long inquiry, the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons released Confronting Confinement, a report of the Commission's findings and recommendations.
Read about and download the report.
On any given day, 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and over the course of a year, many millions spend time in prison or jail. 750,000 men and women work in correctional facilities. The annual cost: more than 60 billion dollars. Yet within three years, 67 percent of former prisoners will be rearrested and 52 percent will be re-incarcerated. At this moment, the effectiveness of America's approach to corrections has the attention of policy makers at all levels of government and in both political parties. The Commission and its report, Confronting Confinement, make a unique contribution to this timely national discussion by connecting the most serious problems and abuses inside jails and prisons with the health and safety of our communities.
“For the vast majority of inmates prison is a temporary, not a final, destination. The experiences inmates have in prison — whether violent or redemptive — do not stay within prison walls, but spill over into the rest of society. Federal, state, and local governments must address the problems faced by their respective institutions and develop tangible and attainable solutions.”
—Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Chair of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation
“Most of us in Congress and most Americans do not spend a lot of time thinking about the conditions of the prisons across our nation, but we should. We should, because, in the words of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, ‘What happens inside jails and prisons does not stay inside jails and prisons.’ And, as the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky once reflected, ‘The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.’”
—Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation Subcommittee
“As a former prosecutor, I believe strongly in securing tough and appropriate prison sentences for people who break our laws. But it is also important that we do everything we can to ensure that, when these people get out of prison, they enter our communities as productive members of society, so we can start to reverse the dangerous cycles of recidivism and violence. The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons has today proposed a set of recommendations to make the country’s prisons operate more effectively for the good of the country’s prison employees, the prisoners who will be reentering society, and the cities and towns they will be rejoining.”
—Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and Member of the Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation
“The Commission’s report, released today, provides a valuable and candid look at the current state of our nation’s jails and prisons, identifying a variety of structural and administrative problems within our corrections system…[and] innovative yet viable recommendations for prison reform that Congress should seriously consider. The comprehensive findings and recommendations in this report are due in large part to the accomplished professionals who make up the Commission itself, and I commend them for their dedication.”
—Senator Russell D. Feingold (D-WI), Member of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation


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Learn about the Commission and the issues, and get a glimpse of some of the most moving testimony from the hearings in this short film.
 
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Washington University Journal of Law and Policy Confronting Confinement reprint and related articles Washington University (Vol. 22, 2006)
Read the journal


04.23.07
PA Legislators Examine State's Prison Conditions and Possible Reforms — Read the Press Release

06.12.06
USA Today publishes editorial in support of the Commission's finding and recommendations — Read this and other press coverage

06.08.06
Commission Releases Report, Testifies about Findings and Recommendations Before the U.S. Senate — Read the Press Release.
Download the Report.

02.24.06
Complete Transcript of the Commission's Fourth Hearing Now Available — Download the transcript in whole or by witness panel.

02.08.06
Fourth and Final Hearing Begins — Commissioners and witnesses gather in Los Angeles, CA, Feb 8-9. Read the Press Release.

12.01.05
Complete Transcript of the Commission's Third Hearing Now Available — Download the transcript in whole or by witness panel. Download a brief summary of the hearing.

11.01.05
Third Hearing Begins — Commissioners and witnesses gather in St. Louis, MO, November 1-2. Read the Press Release.

08.31.05
Complete Transcript of the Commission's Second Hearing Now Available — Download the transcript in whole or by witness panel

07.31.05
Commission Responds to BJS Prison Rape Statistics — Read a Statement by Commission Executive Director Alexander Busansky.

07.19.05
Second Hearing Begins — Commissioners and witnesses gather in Newark, NJ, July 19-20.

04.19.05
First Hearing Begins — Commissioners and witnesses gather in Tampa, Florida, April 19-20. Read the Press Release.

03.01.05
Commission launch — Co-chairs Nicholas de B. Katzenbach and John J. Gibbons brief members of the press. Read the Press Release.
  What's known about safety failures and abuse; violence and uses of force
 APRIL 19-20 - TAMPA, FL
  The systemic and institutional drivers of abuse and lack of safety
 JUL. 19-20 - NEWARK, NJ
  A look at the problems from the perspective of corrections officers
 NOV. 1-2 - ST. LOUIS, MO
  Oversight, accountability, and other issues
 FEB. 8-9 - LOS ANGELES