Missourians expect their prisons to keep the public safe and to prepare incarcerated people to successfully re-enter society. They also expect lawmakers to lower taxpayer burdens and ensure government operates efficiently. Currently, Missouri prisons are falling short on both of these priorities. More transparency and public accountability are needed to help solve these issues.
As we are seeing with Elon Musk and his DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) project, it is critical that each and every government expense is carefully reviewed and scrutinized – especially the biggest expenses. However, the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC), which received over $858 million in general revenue in the FY 2024 budget (a nearly 9% increase from the year prior), somehow operates without independent checks and balances.
We have no way of knowing if they are using the public’s resources in the best and most efficient way possible. And, given the many reports from correctional staff and Missouri families of deep problems at the MDOC, we have every reason to believe that they are not.
One damning example? Earlier this year, the MDOC renegotiated their existing contract with Centurion Health – the private company responsible for providing medical services to 19 prison facilities. Despite multiple reports of people being denied medical care, and numerous lawsuits, Centurion will soon start collecting an additional $20 million per year in taxpayer dollars.
At the same time, Missourians have been footing the bill for a litany of lawsuits alleging dangerous conditions, employer misconduct, abuse, and other issues in MDOC facilities. Since 2020, the state has been forced to pay an estimated $68 million to settle such claims.
MDOC is also struggling to address a profound crisis that implicates both public and facility safety: understaffing. In 2022, almost 1 in 4 positions were unfilled. Missouri has reduced the correctional staff age eligibility to 18 years old with no prior work experience required. This is a serious, multi-faceted job that should require experience, extensive training, and good pay. These are law enforcement officers that deserve the same honor, dignity, and respect that we fight to provide for those patrolling our communities.
Understaffing harms everyone involved in our prison system – including corrections officers, those incarcerated, and their respective families and communities. When understaffed, corrections officers are at higher risk of assaults and violence, experience more burnout, and bring these stressors home to their spouses and children.
And when facilities are understaffed, the focus becomes simply security, not rehabilitation and redemption. In some cases, staffing shortages are so severe that the urgent medical needs of those incarcerated are ignored. Drugs and other contraband become easier to smuggle into facilities. And violence and deaths can increase.
Improved transparency and accountability are urgently needed. Luckily, we already have a blueprint: In 2024, the entire Missouri Congressional delegation voted to support passage of the bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act, which addresses similar issues to those faced by the MDOC at the federal level. And many other states have also enacted their own versions of independent prison oversight.
Legislation to address this issue has already been introduced in Missouri. Republican Representatives Bill Allen’s House Bill No. 774 and Bill Lucas’s House Bill No. 603, along with Kimberly Ann Collins House Bill No. 729 would create an ombudsman’s office and a corrections oversight committee. In this model, the committee would select and appoint the ombudsman and hold regular public hearings to review and discuss data, reports, and findings.
The ombudsman’s office would serve two primary purposes: monitoring and inspecting prison facilities, and investigating unresolved complaints from incarcerated people, their families, and corrections staff regarding prison conditions. The office would increase transparency and accountability and provide both the legislature and the MDOC with important information they need to improve outcomes.
Missourians depend on our justice system to hold people accountable when they break the law and harm others. But who is holding the MDOC accountable when it falls short of ensuring safety and rehabilitation within its facilities and the efficient and effective deployment of public resources?
Without an ombudsman office, or other meaningful form of independent prison oversight, Missouri lawmakers and the public are essentially being asked to keep throwing money blindly at a huge government bureaucracy that is, by many measures, failing.
Instead, we should promote good governance, efficient spending, and positive working and living conditions for correctional staff and imprisoned Missourians who will return home one day. Our safety demands it.
Director, CPAC’s Nolan Center for Justice
