National Resource Center for Correctional Oversight

When Critical Research Goes Unheard

The University of Texas at Austin’s Prison & Jail Innovation Lab created the National Resource Center for Correctional Oversight (NRCCO) as its signature project to advance prison reform. But they faced a critical problem: years of valuable research sat largely inaccessible, shared primarily through one-on-one conversations with legislators and advocates. Without a centralized digital resource, their work had limited reach and impact.

“We wanted our site to complement our work on this project by providing oversight practitioners, policymakers, and advocates with the critical information they need to establish or strengthen oversight entities in their jurisdiction. This was an extraordinary challenge given the amount of content needed to achieve that goal as well as the complex functionality our ideas required.”

— NRCCO Team

The team needed to solve two key issues:

1. Research Distribution: A growing body of internal research that was difficult to share efficiently with policymakers
2. Oversight Mapping: No centralized, visual repository for state-by-state correctional oversight bodies with comparative data

For policy advocates working on prison reform, finding information about oversight structures across different states was nearly impossible. This gap was slowing NRCCO’s work and limiting the impact of its published resources.

Building a National Resource for Prison Reform

Content Architecture

The foundation of this project was creating an information architecture that could handle extensive content without becoming overwhelming. Working alongside Hopp Creative, we organized the site into three distinct content hubs:

• Oversight Bodies: Interactive maps showing where correctional oversight bodies exist nationwide, with detailed profiles of each entity. Maps are organized by oversight type: prison oversight, statewide jail oversight, and local jail oversight.
• Oversight Resources: A comprehensive resource library including correctional oversight fundamentals, sample legislation for policy advocates, and expert publications.
• Developments: Current news stories and recent legislation related to correctional oversight across the country.

Custom Interactive Mapping System

The centerpiece of the project was developing dynamic, interactive SVG maps that visualize correctional oversight bodies across all 50 states. This required:

• Custom WordPress Content Type: Each oversight body is stored as a dedicated post type with structured data fields
• Dynamic SVG Generation: Maps dynamically populate from the WordPress database, ensuring updates appear instantly
• Visual Differentiation: Each oversight body can be designated as “partial” or “full” oversight, with distinct visual indicators on the map
• Detailed Profiles: Clicking any state reveals comprehensive information about that jurisdiction’s oversight structure

This system transformed scattered, hard-to-compare data into an accessible, visual resource that policymakers can explore intuitively.

User-Centered CMS Design

Understanding that the NRCCO team had no website development experience, we designed the content management system with their needs in mind:

• Intuitive Editing Interface: Custom fields and editing screens designed for ease of use
• Automated Content Enhancement: Development posts pull featured images from news outlet URLs via OpenGraph scraping
• Comprehensive Training: Detailed written training guide and hands-on sessions
• Mobile-Responsive Design: Ensuring content editors can access back-end tools on any device

The Impact

The National Resource Center for Correctional Oversight now serves as an indispensable tool for prison reform advocates, policymakers, and oversight practitioners across the country.

“The site has been extremely well-received—many of our colleagues in the field have remarked that they had been looking for this type of resource for years and that it would be immeasurably helpful in their work. They have introduced the site to several policymakers, and it has already been referred to as an ‘indispensable’ resource for anyone interested in correctional oversight.”

— NRCCO Team

Policy makers and lobbyists now have unprecedented access to comparative oversight data, fundamentally changing how they approach prison reform legislation.