BY: Michael B. Mushlin, Professor of Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, Scholar, and Renowned Expert on Prisoners’ Rights.

The tragic and shocking shocking death of Terrill Thomas reminds us — as if we need reminding — that prisons and jails are places that need careful oversight. Without oversight, as Kafka warned over a century ago horrors will inevitably occur. Yet in America, sadly, there is little meaningful oversight of our penal institutions. That has to change or there will be more and more needless and cruel deaths to mourn.

Related Readings:

• Zach Cartwright, Man Dies of Thirst in Jail Run by Pro_Trump Sheriff After Being Denied Water for 6 Days, U.S. Uncut (Sept. 20, 2016).
• Ryan J. Reilly, An Inmate Died of Thirst in a Jail Run by a Loudly Pro-Trump Sheriff, The Huffington Post (Sept. 19, 2016).
• Michael B. Mushlin, What’s Going on in Our Prisons?, N.Y. Times (Jan. 4, 2016), at A19.
• Michael B. Mushlin, Written Testimony on Correctional Oversight of the NYS DOCCS, Hearing Before the State Assembly Standing Committee on Correction (Dec. 2, 2015).
• Michael B. Mushlin, “I Am Opposed to This Procedure”: How Kafka’s In the Penal Colony Illuminates the Current Debate About Solitary Confinement and Oversight of American Prisons,93 Or. L. Rev. 571 (2015).