My dissertation project explores the unique experience of government-led, human rights-oriented prison reforms in the Dominican Republic. Over the past fifteen years, the Dominican Republic has created a new kind of prison (new facilities, programs, and staff) in about half its prison facilities — the Nuevo Modelo de Gestión Penitenciaria. The other facilities, which are managed by police and military officers, has also undergone changes. My research uses surveys and interviews to explore how incarcerated people experience and perceive differences and changes in conditions, programs, and prison culture — in the new model and the traditional model, and across facilities and individual trajectories. My study aims to shed light on what elements of daily life in prison matter most to incarcerated people’s sense of humane treatment, dignity, autonomy, and respect, and how the recent reforms have affected these perceptions. The Dominican model is a reference point for the Americas, as other countries are addressing serious challenges in their prison and judicial systems, and I set my analysis in this regional context. This research also contributes to theoretical debates about punishment, human rights, and institutional change processes, through providing a case study of a prison system in transition in the Global South. Thanks in part to the CLACLS travel fellowship, I am conducting research in and sharing my findings with relevant organizations in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Central America.