Michele Deitch is an attorney with over 30 years of experience working on criminal justice policy issues with state and local government officials, corrections officials, judges, and advocates. She holds a joint appointment as a Senior Lecturer at the LBJ School and at the Law School, where she teaches graduate courses in criminal justice policy, juvenile justice policy, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Deitch 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, juvenile justice reform, and juveniles in the adult criminal justice system. 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. Most of Prof. Deitch's current research focuses on two issues: independent prison oversight, and the management of juvenile offenders. Her work on both subjects has been recognized nationally. The author of numerous articles about correctional oversight, including a 50-state inventory of prison oversight models, she helped coordinate and edit a landmark publication of the Pace Law Review in 2010 called a "Sourcebook on Prison Oversight." 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. The Texas Legislature also honored her with a resolution for her research and work on this topic. She currently co-chairs (with Prof. Michael Mushlin from Pace Law School) the American Bar Association?s committee on independent correctional oversight. Previously, she served as Reporter (draftsperson) to the American Bar Association Task Force that wrote recently adopted national standards on the treatment of prisoners.