How Journalists Can Investigate Deaths in Prisons and Jails

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Deaths that happen both when an individual is within the custody of regulation enforcement or housed in a correctional facility are largely underreported. That’s as a result of reporting necessities will not be enforced federally or in most states. With out correct information, circumstances resulting in unnatural deaths can proceed unchecked, together with situations of medical negligence and extreme use-of-force. Many researchers, lawmakers and advocates view this problem as a public well being emergency.

The Marshall Mission has a workforce of reporters who’ve lined deaths in custody, together with workers writers Brittany Hailer and Mark Puente on our Cleveland information workforce and our senior information reporter Anna Flagg. Their experience has knowledgeable this reporting toolkit. Right here is steering and context primarily based on their years of expertise shedding mild on this darkish nook of our felony justice system.

Together with utilizing the following tips, you may schedule a session to debate particular reporting hurdles in your jurisdiction or get basic recommendation on navigating the felony justice beat. Count on that an investigation of this nature might take you or your newsroom months relatively than weeks.

Particular information you may request

When an individual dies in custody, getting information isn’t all the time straightforward. However there are lots of paperwork you may request from businesses inside and out of doors of the system. Under is an inventory of the varied “receipts” that may allow you to confirm the tough collection of occasions that in the end led to a dying behind bars.

What to do for those who don’t have the identify of the deceased

First: With no identify you may nonetheless attain out to the county medical expert, forensic pathologist or coroner to clarify what you are attempting to seek out.

Subsequent: Share any particulars you’ve got, such because the age of the deceased or the date and site of their dying.

Lastly: Ask for any dying information that match these circumstances. In most states, their identify, dying date, age at time of dying, explanation for dying and method of dying must be public data.

Get the post-mortem and extra out of your medical expert or coroner

First: Examine this database maintained by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to see if post-mortem or coroners’ reviews can be found in your state.

Subsequent: Request the post-mortem or coroner’s report from the state or county medical expert’s workplace, if an post-mortem was carried out.

At all times: Ask for supplemental notes to the post-mortem past the toxicology report, which can be known as coroner’s notes, medical expert’s notes, or investigator’s notes. These notes are actually the place you’re going to get the knowledge that’s most pertinent to your investigation.

Be aware: The reason of the circumstances surrounding the dying is necessary, however the stage of element will range from report back to report primarily based on the reviewing pathologist. Some autopsies don’t even inform you that the particular person was in jail after they died, whereas different autopsies are extremely detailed and stroll you thru the entire collection of occasions. With extra thorough accounts, chances are you’ll be taught particulars comparable to if the particular person was launched again to jail from the hospital or in the event that they later died on the hospital.

Lastly: Ask for supplementary paperwork, photographs, and video, however even when the reviews are thought of open information, this stuff might not be out there, particularly if the post-mortem is being utilized by regulation enforcement for an ongoing investigation.

Acquire their reserving information from the native jail

First: After getting a reputation, you may go to your native jail, sheriff or county spokesperson and request a bunch of information. You’ll be able to ask for the next paperwork:

Reserving data, which incorporates reserving or consumption information
Consumption survey
Documentation of the non-public objects that they had upon getting into the ability

Be aware: Some state legal guidelines mandate that surveillance and physique cam footage are all public file. If you already know when somebody was booked, however you don’t know after they died, you may ask for footage of their reserving to assist paint an image of how nicely or unwell the particular person was as they entered the ability. Remember that a whole lot of states don’t supply entry to this footage and a few states make it costly to amass.

Get the arrest report out of your native police division

First: Request the arrest file for the deceased particular person from the police division, sheriff’s workplace, clerk of courts or Justice of the Peace. It will allow you to decide in the event that they have been harmed or injured earlier than they entered the jail and the place they have been earlier than they entered the jail. For instance, somebody might undergo an damage as a result of extreme use-of-force throughout their arrest after which die in jail quickly after from a ruptured spleen.

Be aware: Particulars in regards to the location and circumstance of the arrest will help inform what their bodily and psychological state would have been upon getting into the jail. For instance, chances are you’ll need to know if somebody was beforehand within the hospital for a medical emergency earlier than being arrested.

Data from contained in the jail

First: A number of information are produced after somebody is booked into jail. You’ll be able to request:

Housing information, together with transfers or actions by way of the jail
Grievances they’ve filed, comparable to in the event that they complained of any medical points
Disciplinary information or unfavorable contacts with workers, which is able to present you any self-discipline that was administered, together with if the particular person was put in solitary confinement for any purpose or if that they had a suspension of visits
Classification notes, which is able to present how the jail has categorized the incarcerated particular person associated to their cost and the place they’re housed
Any mail or books they obtained
Commissary information, comparable to receipts of things they’ve bought
Data of their leisure time
Discharge and launch information

At all times: Ask for the jail’s insurance policies and procedures for when a dying happens in your native jail. When there’s a dying in jail, commonplace working procedures range by facility. You might need to ask:

What’s the coverage for notifying the household?
What are the usual working procedures for notifying the state or another oversight company?

Working with the household will open extra doorways

In case you are in contact with cooperative relations, they’ll request medical information for his or her beloved one, though many jails will deny these requests.

First: Ask the household to request Emergency Medical Service (EMS) information if the particular person died at a hospital. They’ll additionally ask the hospital for information.

Be aware: The EMTs who reply to deaths on the jail ask questions and take notes to allow them to replace the physician. Their notes may give a story sense of what occurred from the time the EMT entered the jail and eliminated the physique, although there can be a niche in data relating to what occurred between the emergency and the dying.

Does your jail have an oversight entity?

It’s necessary to find out how your jail works. Who oversees the jail? Does your state have an oversight company for the jail? What sorts of information do they maintain? What sorts of investigations do they handle?

First: Examine this graphic from the Nationwide Useful resource Middle for Correctional Oversight to see in case your state has exterior oversight businesses for his or her prisons. The oversight of jails and prisons just isn’t uniform nationwide, and whereas inner oversight businesses are frequent, many states don’t but have exterior oversight by events exterior of their correctional company.

Subsequent: In case your state has an oversight company, you may request all essential incidents to your county in a given yr. States have totally different names for these information. For instance, Ohio makes use of the time period “essential incidents” whereas Pennsylvania makes use of the time period “extraordinary prevalence reviews.” You must get a dataset monitoring occasions like suicides, fires, assaults and deaths. The state could also be quicker at offering information than the county, and state paperwork will help you fact-check what the county is telling you.

Be aware: For those who determine fascinating information factors, you may ask for supporting paperwork to assist make clear what the investigation entailed, any conclusions that have been drawn, if there was a corrective motion plan and different particulars.

Lastly: We think about there are lots of phrases throughout totally different states for these kinds of incident reviews. In case your state makes use of a unique time period, please tell us.

Widespread obstacles chances are you’ll encounter

Most frequently, denials for information requests will reference HIPAA or the paperwork can be so redacted that they’re basically ineffective. Small errors, comparable to incorrect dates or misspellings, can sluggish issues down or be grounds for denial. So, triple-check your request earlier than submitting.

Be aware: Think about broadening your information request to make it unclear precisely what incident or problem you’re wanting into. For instance, if you already know there was one dying in January 2024, you possibly can ask for information associated to all deaths from January 2021 by way of January 2025. Be mindful, nevertheless, that in case your request is just too broad, an company can deny it for being overly burdensome.

At all times: Do not forget that public officers can say no matter they need and it’s essential to:

Get documentation to verify the validity of what you’re being instructed
Assume there can be delays with information requests, which would require you to observe up typically, and brainstorm artistic avenues to entry the knowledge you want
Be looking out for false or incorrect information by double-checking what you’re listening to or studying towards different data sources

For extra details about frequent roadblocks, take a look at this behind-the-scenes take a look at a Marshall Mission investigation of the Cuyahoga County Jail from workers writers Brittany Hailer and Mark Puente.

Request your state’s Dying in Custody Reporting Act information yearly

First: Each state has a reporting company for the Dying in Custody Reporting Act, or DCRA. These businesses are required to ship quarterly reviews to the federal authorities to be able to adhere to DCRA. You will discover your state’s company right here.

At all times: Request data out of your state’s reporting company initially of the brand new yr. You’ll be able to request these reviews for the earlier yr, which give a way of how many individuals died in custody within the state throughout that time-frame.

Be aware: The report received’t present an correct quantity since many sheriffs and wardens don’t report each dying of their facility; nevertheless, the reviews can at the least make you conscious of deaths that your native jail didn’t report back to the press.

What to learn about DCRA

When investigating deaths in native jails and prisons, you’ll encounter the Dying in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA). Enacted in 2000, the DCRA mandates that the federal authorities gather information from native jurisdictions on deaths in prisons and jails. This contains arrest-related deaths comparable to police shootings and use-of-force incidents, in addition to different deaths that happen throughout arrest.

It’s necessary to know that the Division of Justice is legally obligated to gather this data. If an area jurisdiction claims they aren’t required to report deaths of their jail or jail, that assertion is fake; nevertheless, as a result of the Division of Justice can’t compel businesses to report information or report it appropriately, this information nonetheless might not be out there or might not be correct.

To be taught extra about DCRA obtain our tipsheet.

Use this illustration

You’re welcome to republish the offered illustration inside any tales derived from the supplies on this toolkit, together with any associated social media and e-newsletter promotion of these tales. Juan Bernabeu have to be credited in all makes use of. The illustration shouldn’t be revealed in unrelated tales. The illustrations shouldn’t be cropped or altered in any approach. Please electronic mail us with any questions and be taught extra in regards to the artist right here.

Juan Bernabeu for The Marshall Mission

Get recommendation from our reporters

There are a couple of extra methods chances are you’ll need to deploy. To be taught extra, schedule a session by way of this type so we will diagnose your state of affairs and supply tailor-made steering on methods to proceed.

Professional sources

The next specialists have offered essential insights for information protection on deaths in custody and facility oversight. We’ve indicated their areas of experience beneath.

Andrea Armstrong, Loyola College New Orleans, Dr. Norman C. Francis Distinguished Professor of Regulation: Armstrong is a 2023 MacArthur Fellow and incarceration regulation scholar who runs the Incarceration Transparency database. Armstrong works with regulation college students to file information requests and doc jail and jail deaths in Louisiana and South Carolina.

Jay D. Aronson, Middle for Human Rights Science at Carnegie Mellon College, founder and director: Aronson is a professor of science, expertise and society at Carnegie Mellon and co-author of Dying in Custody: How America Ignores the Fact and What We Can Do about It.

Michele Deitch, The College of Texas at Austin College of Regulation, distinguished senior lecturer: Deitch directs the Jail and Jail Innovation Lab on the College of Texas and runs the Nationwide Useful resource Middle for Correctional Oversight.

Terence Keel, College of California, Los Angeles Lab for BioCritical Research, founding director: Keel is a UCLA professor of human biology and society, and African American Research. He runs the In-Custody Dying Mission, which produces reviews on individuals who misplaced their lives whereas in state custody. This challenge is the premise for Keel’s forthcoming e-book The Coroner’s Silence: Dying Data and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence (Beacon Press, 2025).

Dr. Roger A. Mitchell, Jr., Howard College Faculty of Drugs, professor and chair of pathology: Mitchell is board licensed in anatomic and forensic pathology, a previous chief medical expert for Washington, D.C., and co-author of Dying in Custody: How America Ignores the Fact and What We Can Do about It.

Orion Taylor, Public Security Lab, New York College, lead information scientist: Taylor oversees the Jail Information Initiative, which scrapes “day by day county jail rosters in over 1,300 counties.” Take a look at their dashboard to see in case your jail is included.

Dr. Homer Venters, Group Oriented Correctional Well being Providers, senior well being and justice fellow: Venters is the writer of Life and Dying in Rikers Island, which pulls on his earlier expertise because the chief medical officer for the New York Metropolis jail system.

Fashion and requirements

Listed below are two thorny points that might come up in the course of the reporting course of and steering on resolve them. For a extra basic overview of our kinds and requirements, please evaluation our assets web page.

Medical histories

When a supply’s medical historical past is related to the story, you’ll want to verify or confirm any data included within the story. For tales that embrace necessary medical particulars a few deceased particular person that you simply obtained from a member of the family, be certain that the member of the family is allowed to talk on their beloved one’s behalf. You’ll nonetheless have to confirm their data with a secondary supply.

Individuals-first language

You’ll discover all through this toolkit that the phrases “inmates,” “prisoners,” “convicts” and “felons” will not be used to explain the individuals who have died whereas in custody.

As a substitute, we use “people-first” language — comparable to “incarcerated folks,” “folks behind bars,” “folks convicted of felonies” or “previously incarcerated folks.” These phrases keep away from stigmatizing euphemisms and emphasize accuracy and readability.

We make an exception for “prisoner” or “prisoners” in headlines, for brevity’s sake, and since it’s much less fraught with stigma.

Share your work

Thanks for utilizing this toolkit to create your individual native felony justice reporting! Please assist us monitor your work and doubtlessly share it in our e-newsletter by emailing us a hyperlink to your reporting.