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Gas Axe's avatar

I'm wondering if American prisoners are have the same death rate?

Andrew Free's avatar

It’s hard to compare because the contexts for detention (civil confinement vs criminal punishment) are different and involve different conditions required, lengths of stay, and ability to control the fact of confinement (through “voluntary” deportation). However, the rates of morbidity and mortality in ICE facilities are generally speaking lower than in US prisons and jails. That wasn’t always true. Back in 2004, when we knew nearly nothing about deaths, when ICE had basically no real civil detention standards, and when ice didn’t even disclose when deaths happened, the mortality rate was twice as high as its highest recent level, and exceeded that of BOP. Things changed because people changed them, and the death rate went down.

Grammy’s House's avatar

Wow 🤯! Thats a lot of info to break down. For the deaths in custody occurring the first week or first 60 days I would be interested to see if they were diabetic or had high blood pressure. Also if any suicides are a cause of death. I highly doubt they would report it but due to the amount of detainees and the conditions I would guess it will occur if it hasn’t already. Thank you for your diligence

Andrew Free's avatar

Great idea. These trends are actually going to be featured in the year-end report and compared against data from other custodial settings. Appreciate your engagement and support!