Welcome to the September 2023 Bureau of Justice Assistance Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) training series.
This training will discuss how to report prison-based deaths. This is the third installment in a training series of videos designed to help states comply with DCRA; Public Law 113-242.
This training will focus on what is a state prison, reporting requirements, how to correctly report public and private state prisons, how to correctly code manner of death, non-reportable deaths, and brief circumstances. A link to the slides can be found in the video description below.
A state prison is any correctional facility operated by a state corrections agency, including those that are jointly operated with local counties. This includes privately operated facilities under contract with the state, state-run boot camps, juvenile correctional facilities that are operated by the state, and any other facility under operational control of the state correction agency. This also includes work-release centers and halfway houses, operated by or under contract with the State Department of Corrections.
SAAs should work closely with local and state agencies to obtain the information they are required to submit to BJA, which includes a decedent's demographic information, the date, time, and location of death, the name of the department or agency that had custody of the deceased, and a brief description of the circumstances surrounding the death. BJA recommends that states implement policies and procedures as well as agreements with state and local agencies to ensure complete decedent records are reported to the SAA in a timely manner. State prisons and privately-operated facilities under contract with the state should be reported as either state prison, state-run boot camp prison, or contracted boot camp prison for Question 3D.
For example, South Bay Correctional Facility is a private state prison in South Bay, Florida. Decedent records should indicate "State Prison" for Question 3D. Other local or correctional facilities, to include any juvenile facility, should only be selected if the decedent was in custody of a juvenile facility, work-release center, halfway house, or treatment facility, operated by or under contract with the state. In prison-based scenarios, the most common manner of deaths selected by SAAs is "Natural Causes." For deaths resulting from COVID-19, medical examiners will often rule these deaths as natural causes. However, for the purpose of the DCRA data collection, "Other" should be selected with "COVID-19" indicated in the open text response. For deaths resulted from an overdose, medical examiners will often rule these deaths as "Accident." However, for the purpose of the DCRA data collection, "Other" should be selected with "Overdose" indicated in the open-text response.
Please take some time to review the other scenarios and corresponding manner of deaths in the table. Deaths that do not need to be reported to BJA include those that occur whilst an individual is on parole or probation, except when the manner of death is use of force by law enforcement or the individual has been paroled to finish their sentence in a halfway house, contracted by the state and the death occurs within the facility; medical parole or compassionate release, except when an individual's on medical furlough but had been expected to return to custody following treatment; work-release except when the death occurs within a work-release center under state contract.
Please note, deaths of individuals who are under supervision who die while outside of the confines of their location of custody, are not reportable. For example, if the death occurs while the individual is outside of the facility on work-release assignment, it is not reportable. Other deaths that do not need to be reported to BJA includes those that occur whilst an individual is on an ankle monitor or another GPS device or in a halfway house, not under state contract; except, if the death occurs during the process of arrest. Deaths of police officers and corrections officers are also not reportable to DCRA.
For more information on non-reportable deaths, please review the DCRA Reporting Guidance and Frequently Asked Questions available via the BJA Death and Custody Reporting Act webpage.
Performance measure Question 6 asks SAAs to provide a brief description of the circumstances leading to the death. If the death occurred outside the prison, for example, at a hospital during prison or transport or escape, please provide the exact location of death in Question 3C and the prison facility name the decedent was in custody of in Question 4. SAAs may also include the prison facility name in the brief circumstances. In this example, we show how to answer Question 3C, Question 4 and Question 6 for John Doe, who had a medical emergency in the day room of the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison and later died at Emory University Hospital.
Insufficient brief circumstances provide no detail or very few details regarding the death in custody. As a result, BJA is unable to confirm whether the death is reportable. For example, any record that repeats the manner of death or says "Unknown," "Not Available" or "Not Applicable." The only exception is when an SAA indicated the manner of death as "Unavailable, investigation pending." Sufficient brief circumstances provide clear details regarding the death in custody. As a result, BJA can confirm the death is reportable.
When writing brief circumstances, BJA asks that you provide as much detail as possible, specifically the who, what, when, where, and why. BJA should be able to discern that the death is prison-based by reading the details provided in the brief circumstances.
The following are some examples of insufficient and sufficient brief circumstances. As you can see with the examples presented, the sufficient brief circumstances provide details that allow BJA to clearly determine that the death occurred while the decedent was in custody of a prison and provides clear context leading up to the death. The sufficient circumstances also support the selected manner of death. For example, when looking at "Accident," the sufficient brief circumstances indicate that the decedent fell from the top bunk in his cell at Wilcox State Prison and suffered a neck fracture. He was taken to the medical unit for treatment and observation. However, his health began to rapidly decline and was pronounced dead at 1:05 a.m. on January 5th, 2023. In comparison, the insufficient brief circumstances indicate "Accidental death while in custody."
Here are several additional insufficient and sufficient brief circumstances examples. Again, these examples provide details about who was involved with the decedent prior to his or her death, as well as if any life-saving measures were taken. When possible, the brief circumstances should provide a more specific manner of death. In the first example, the manner of death is homicide. However, the sufficient brief circumstances allow BJA to see that the decedent was stabbed by another incarcerated individual in the dining hall at Indiana State Prison. He was transported to the local hospital; however, he died after several surgeries and multiple organ system failures. When in doubt, it is better to provide more detail than you may think is necessary.
Thank you for viewing our training on how to report prison-based deaths.
If you have any questions, please contact the BJA PMT Helpdesk. Our office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, except federal holidays.
For general questions about DCRA, please contact James Steyee at [email protected]. We also offer no-cost training and technical assistance through our DCRA TTA provider, Justice Information Resource Network.
BJA thanks SAAs for their hard work and dedication to complete and accurate DCRA reporting.
