Welcome to the September 2023 Bureau of Justice Assistance Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) training series.
This training will discuss how to report jail-based death. This is the fourth 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 municipal or county jail, reporting requirements, how to correctly report municipal and county jails, 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 municipal or county jail is a jail or lockup, operated by a county, city, village, or township. Jails confine persons before or after adjudication, and are usually operated by local law enforcement authorities such as a sheriff, a police chief, or a county or city administrator. Persons confined in jail facility following a criminal conviction are usually sentenced to an incarceration sentence of one year or less.
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 a 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.
Municipal and county jails, including privately operated jails, contracted out by the state should be reported as "municipal or county jail" for Question 3D. For example, Hempstead County Jail and Detention Center is operated by the Hempstead County Sheriff's Office in Hempstead, Arkansas. Decedent records should indicate "municipal or county jail" for Question 3D.
In jail-based scenarios, the most common manner of deaths selected by SAAs is "Natural Causes." For deaths resulted 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 note "Execution" should never be selected for jail-based deaths. 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 is on medical furlough that has 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 include 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 correction 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 measures, Question 6 asks SAAs to provide a brief description of the circumstances leading to the death. If the death occurred outside the jail, for example, at a hospital during prisoner transport or escape, please provide the exact location of death in Question 3C, and the jail facility named the decedent was in custody of in Question 4. SAAs may also include the jail 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 got into a physical altercation with one of his cellmates at the City of Las Vegas Detention Center and was transported to the University Medical Center, where he later died.
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 as 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 jail-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 jail 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 had a seizure while sitting at a table in the dayroom of Elmore County Jail, fell backwards, and hit her head on the concrete floor. She was taken to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, where she later passed away at 5:44 p.m. In comparison, the insufficient brief circumstances indicate "Accident." 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 lifesaving 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 "Natural Causes." However, the sufficient brief circumstances allow BJA to see that the decedent was found unresponsive in her cell at the Pinellas County Jail. Medical personnel began lifesaving measures but was unsuccessful and declared her dead at the scene. The decedent had a history of hypertensive heart disease. 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 jail-based death. 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.
