For roughly a year, beginning in March 2005, the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons explored violence and abuse in America's prisons and jails and how to make correctional facilities safer for prisoners and staff and more effective in promoting public safety and public health. The Commission examined dangerous conditions of confinement – violence, poor medical and mental health care, and inappropriate segregation — that can also endanger the public; the challenges facing labor and management; weak oversight of correctional facilities; and serious flaws in available data about violence and abuse in prisons and jails. The Commission's findings and a set of 30 practical recommendations for operating correctional facilities that reflect America's values and serve our best interests are captured in the report, Confronting Confinement.

The Commission is co-chaired by former United States Attorney General Nicholas de B. Katzenbach and the Honorable John Gibbons, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The 20-member panel includes Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, those who run correctional systems and those who litigate on behalf of prisoners, scholars, and individuals with a long history of public service and deep experience in the administration of justice. The Commission is staffed by and funded through the Vera Institute of Justice.