USA TODAY won a lawsuit to get hidden data on prison deaths. Here's what it shows.
USA TODAY won a lawsuit to get hidden data on prison deaths. Here's what it shows.
More than 21,000 people died in local jails and state prisons in four years, according to records the government has hidden from public view since 2021.
edit: added archive https://archive.ph/UbZN3
Just to pull info from the article in case others don't care to read, the vast majority of these deaths are still attributed to "natural causes" like illness, old age, or pre-existing conditions, though these are undoubtedly exacerbated by the conditions of prison life.
The point of concern though is that "unnatural causes" are generally on the rise during this period. Unfortunately, given the fact that some of the data is almost 10 years old at this point, it's hard to say if the situation has gotten any better or worse since then.
My bet would be that it's worse. Turn up some stories about what's happened in the GEO Group prisons alone since the turn of the millennium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEO_Group
Guessing the same, though to add another element into this that you bring up, private prisons are not included in the data that USA Today obtained. It also doesn't appear to include any federal prison data either. Just local jails and state prisons.
I think conditions have improved, but look worse because things have improved. I know that makes no sense.
Many jails have horrible things done to people. But due to the various reforms and court actions, many but not all places have more transparent reporting while having small improvement.