County jails largely operate without the oversite of the county legislature. A bill currently sits in the state legislature that proposes increased access to jails. Currently only state officials are granted access, this bill would grant access to county legislators and their staff. Jerome Wright is a Director for the HALT Solitary campaign, a prison reform organization.
Speaking at the Partnership for the Public Good’s 2024 agenda rollout Wright said this bill is not only necessary, but also makes sense.
“Ignorance is what happens when we don't allow our officials to go in,” he said. “Who are publicly elected to take care of the entire community, to go in and view those [incarcerated] who are the most vulnerable.”
He cited an experiment done by Stanford University in the 1970’s on the psychological effects of the prison system as to why this legislation is needed:
“Because anytime you give people absolute control over you,” he said. “Absolutely there's some human rights violations that happen and since you can't legislate behavior you can provide oversight which helps manage behavior.”
State Senator Sean Ryan also supports the bill.
“I consider that a gap in the law,” he said. “If state legislators should be allowed to come into prisons at any time then why don't we have that same for the counties.”
The bill sits in both the Senate and the Assembly.