The Virginia legislature approved state requirements in 2024 for reporting annual deaths in custody numbers. It’s a backstop for a federal law called the Death in Custody Reporting Act.
Del. Cia Price (D-Newport News) sponsored the state bill, and the Department of Criminal Justices Services released its first report under the statute in July. In total, 194 deaths were reported across the commonwealth.
While that number is intended to be comprehensive and the DCJS report found its data collection process was performing well, 16% of law enforcement agencies did not provide full data.
“I don't have any biological kids of my own, but I have tons of godkids,” Price said. “And just looking at these mothers that look like me, crying over these kids that look like my godkids…. I could not imagine losing a loved one — and then losing a loved one with no information.”
An issue that predates Price’s legislation is that between 2020 and 2023, Virginia didn’t report deaths in custody data to the federal government twice. The only other localities that neglected to offer numbers during that same period were Puerto Rico and American Samoa.
One more problem: This year’s data is pegged to the calendar year, while earlier reports used the fiscal year — making comparisons difficult.
In response to emails seeking the missing deaths-in-custody numbers, a DCJS spokesperson said the department has data from jails, but not prisons, for those years and cited a Washington Post database as a source for additional information.
Almost half of the reported deaths last year occurred while people were in custody of the state Department of Corrections. Eighty-five percent of those were reported as “Natural Causes” or “Unavailable, Pending Investigation.”
“If you launder it in the natural death classification, then it doesn't really tell you anything,” said Terence Keel, a UCLA professor studying deaths in custody who takes issue with how frequently those categories are used. “And you can just simply say, ‘Oh, this person was in bad health because people in jail tend to be in bad health.’ And that actually isn't statistically true. Americans, in general, are in bad health. And it's even worse when Americans in bad health end up in jail facilities that exacerbate pre-existing health conditions.”
Keel said medical examiners more accurately reporting how people died in custody would create better data and enable public officials to propose better safety policy.
Price’s legislation required recommendations are made to reduce the number of deaths in custody. A report on local jails included several, but a panel of former and current law enforcement and prison officials said the data they reviewed on state custody wasn’t sufficient to make any.
That didn't sit well with Price.
“It's so twisted,” she said, pausing for a moment. ”I don't even know that I have the words.”
This summer, Aubrey McKay and Henry Gorham Jr. died while incarcerated at different VADOC facilities. The state medical examiner’s office is working to determine McKay’s cause of death, but the Virginia prisons ombudsman isn’t going to investigate either case. The office looks into grievances filed by incarcerated people after they’ve exhausted their ability to file complaints within the facility where they’re held.
Ekong Esheit was previously incarcerated at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison, but was transferred earlier this year to a facility in Indiana. The move followed his self-harming and a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility.
He recently offered his view on how corrections officers respond to medical requests from incarcerated people.
“They don't take people seriously when they say they need medical treatment,” he said over the phone. “They just think they're trying to get out the cell, so they just keep it going. They don't notify medical to come back there or nothing."
Price said a single death in custody should spark recommendations for change. She suggested that agencies’ funding could be used as a lever to better enforce reporting — though that hasn’t been successful in the past.
Read more at Red Onion Resources.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.