Deaths In Custody Research Articles

Deaths in jail: a retrospective analysis of autopsies performed at the Legal Medicine Unit of Pavia (1999-2022).

The high rate of incarceration, now exceeding 11.5 million people worldwide, has raised concerns about the conditions within penal institutions, such as the consequences of incarceration on the person. This retrospective study aims to investigate the issue of death in custody, exploring the relationship between incarceration, health vulnerabilities, and death from the forensic pathologist's point of view. We analyzed, from a forensic, clinical and toxicological perspective, 86 cases of deaths in detention facilities in North-Western Italy from 1999 to 2022. The analysis has shown that suicide, mainly committed by hanging, plastic bag suffocation and butane intoxication, represents the leading type of violent death (52%), followed by accidental deaths (16%). On the other hand, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of natural deaths (42%), followed by infectious diseases (especially HIV-related). The present study identifies the most frequent and critical situations and risk factors related to death in custody and the profile of the inmate who is at a higher risk of death, allowing to highlight the issues to be addressed from a public health point of view. On the whole, it calls for comprehensive reforms, aligned with international human rights standards, addressing mental and physical care gaps, improving correctional officers' education, and training, and focusing on rehabilitation with well-being and dignity.

Deaths in custody in Senegal from 2017-2019: a retrospective chart review

Deaths in custody in Senegal from 2017-2019: a retrospective chart review

The Transnationalism of the Black Lives Matter Movement: Decolonization and Mapping Black Geographies in Sydney, Australia

This article responds to recent calls to “provincialize” (Hawthorne 2019) and “pluralize” (Bledsoe and Wright 2019a) Black geographies. We do so by adopting a relational, transnational, and multiscalar approach. Drawing on ethnography with Black Lives Matter activists in Sydney, Australia, we adopt a decolonizing framework to argue that Indigenous knowledges, experiences, and actions can extend the epistemologies and cartographies of Black geographies. The mapping of Black geographies in Sydney reveals three multilayered and intersecting ways through which Black agency, place-making, and resistance are made manifest in transnational Black Lives Matter protests: (1) through invoking “stretched out” geographies, forging shared solidarities between African American high-profile cases of policing injustice and Aboriginal deaths in custody; (2) through counterhegemonic attempts to reconfigure Australia Day as Invasion Day, reclaiming colonized histories that subvert the premise of Australia as a “White nation”; and (3) through conjoining transrural cases of violence toward Aboriginal communities living in peripheral places and then strategically amplifying their concerns through place-based activisms in the global city. Finally, we conclude by arguing that further international accounts are crucial to this emerging field.

“Excited delirium”: can the world lose this controversial term, which is accused of covering up deaths in police custody?

“Excited delirium”: can the world lose this controversial term, which is accused of covering up deaths in police custody?

Jail Characteristics and Availability of Opioid Treatment Services: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey.

The current wave of the opioid epidemic has contributed to a record number of drug-related overdoses and a significant proportion of people who experience opioid use disorder are admitted to local jails. These correctional facilities serve as the principal entry point to the criminal justice system as nearly every person who is taken into custody is admitted to a local detention center. Although jails are recognized as primary intervention points for people who may require treatment for opioid use disorder, services in these facilities remain deficient. The absence of jail-based treatment has become a pressing concern as the number of drug-related deaths in custody continues to rise and the risk of post-release overdose also remains high. The present study draws on the opioid-related module of the 2019 Bureau of Justice Statistics' Census of Jails to assess the relationships between the characteristics of 2588 local detention centers and the availability of treatment services. These specific approaches included screening for opioid use disorder, providing medication to manage withdrawal symptoms, administering medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), providing overdose reversal medication at the time of release, and linking people with community-based care following release from the detention center. The results demonstrate facilities located in the Northeast, larger jails, those in urban areas, and detention centers with higher turnover rates are significantly more likely to provide a wider variety of opioid treatment services. These findings have important implications for the prioritization of policies and the allocation of resources to support the adoption of opioid treatment services in local jails.

Behind Bars: Addressing Custodial Deaths in India’s Criminal Justice System

Torture and violence have been common since ancient times. Torture is the deliberate infliction of cruelty by individuals in positions of power on others who lack power and are vulnerable. Custodial torture is torture that takes place in police stations, prisons, or under the authority of government institutions. These actions are a serious infringement of human rights and go against Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. This paper provides an in-depth examination of the legal framework of custodial violence. While the idea has not been clearly defined, different laws deal with the matters of custodial torture and sexual assault. Therefore, the judiciary has taken on the burden of defining this extensive phrase. This study analyzes the judiciary's approach to combating custodial violence by examining judicial rulings to determine the judiciary's position on these matters. The author concludes the analysis by recommending legislative measures that need to be promptly put into effect to address the deficiencies noted by the judiciary.

Death in detention in Dakar prisons: epidemiological and medicolegal aspects

Introduction: The death of a prisoner is a suspicious death requiring systematic medico-legal involvement to determine the circumstances and causes of death. The objective of this study is to determine the profile of people who died in detention in Dakar prisons, to analyze the epidemiological and medicolegal aspects and to propose some preventive measures. Methodology: This is a retrospective study analyzing the causes of death of prisoners in prisons in the Dakar region who were autopsied, from January 2014 to December 2018 in the pathological anatomy and cytology department of the Aristide Le Hospital. Dantec. The data was collected from autopsy reports upon requisition with the aim of determining the circumstances and causes of death of the detainees. Our data was collected using individual collection sheets and subsequently analyzed with Word and Excel software. Results: The average age of the deceased prisoners was 42.4 years. The most represented age group was between 30 and 39 years old with 02 cases/06 or 33.3% with a male predominance. The three penitentiary establishments among the eight (08) recorded cases of death in our study. The Rebeuss Prison recorded 4 cases of death, the Liberty VI Penal Camp and the Special Pavilion each recorded one (01) case of death. Regarding the circumstances of death of detainees, we have identified five (05) cases of natural deaths: three cases of cardiac arrest (myocardial infarction, and or acute pulmonary edema), one suffocation and one case of death of unknown etiology, and a violent death by firearm. Conclusion: Death in a prison environment must be considered suspicious, because people deprived of their liberty have the same right to respect for their life and their dignity as any other person. Our research shows that most deaths in custody are due to natural causes, untreated medical problems or violent deaths. To limit deaths in prison, authorities must take preventive measures to eradicate the causes.

Alarming Increase Death in Custodial Death in India: Legal Analysis

Custodial death is not a new concept, especially in India, where it has become a phenomenon since India's rule at the hands of the British. Police brutality and violence has increased exponentially in the last four to five years. This situation shows that there is no law in our country's judicial system to punish officials by "fulfilling their duties" for committing acts of violence and torture. Police violence often results in serious injury to defendants, and police must be informed to use appropriate force to prevent such incidents. The media's perception of the defendants is also a factor in monitoring the violence. The death of George Floyd due to police brutality in the USA sparked a new "Black Lives Matter" movement. The custodial deaths of Jayaraj and Bennix in Tamil Nadu have outraged the public, with calls for adequate measures to prevent police brutality. These incidents highlighted the lack of anti-torture laws in India and called for action to prevent such incidents.

Criminalisation or prohibition: A death in custody prompts drugs law debate

Criminalisation or prohibition: A death in custody prompts drugs law debate

The death of Veronica Nelson: Reconsidering the criminalisation of opiate use

This article considers the preventable death of Veronica Nelson, an Aboriginal woman who had been denied bail and then suffered a terrible death in custody, which was the subject of recent bail reforms and a Coroner's Report that has recommended sweeping reforms to the management of people in custody. This article considers a reform that the Coroner and the Parliament did not, removing the criminal prohibition on opiate use.

A Critical Analysis of Inquisitorial and Adversarial Approaches in Cases of Custodial Deaths

A Critical Analysis of Inquisitorial and Adversarial Approaches in Cases of Custodial Deaths

“Never Settler Enough”

In this article, the authors examine the systemic nature of state violence and racial terror in the context of the Australian settler state and Indigenous deaths in custody. Drawing on Steve Martinot and Jared Sexton’s (2003) concept of a “double economy of terror,” the authors contend that police violence and Aboriginal deaths in custody must be read in terms of the standard operating procedures of a double economy of terror that ensures the institutional reproduction of the Australian settler colonial state. Death in police custody, Perera and Pugliese argue, is coextensive with the larger governmental and administrative apparatuses of the colonial state. In the face of the settler state’s systemic ignorability of the ongoing racialized violence against Indigenous peoples, the authors conclude their paper opposing such a state with an Indigenous voice that refuses tacit acquiescence and that howls with rage at the mounting Aboriginal deaths in custody and rates of Indigenous imprisonment.

Custodial Deaths and Role of Judiciary: A Critical Analysis

Custodial Deaths and Role of Judiciary: A Critical Analysis

The right to life? How a human rights lens might prevent deaths in custody

The right to life? How a human rights lens might prevent deaths in custody

The Nelson inquest: Relevance of the Victorian Charter to the coronial function of preventing deaths in custody

The 2023 coronial inquest findings into the death of Aboriginal woman, Ms Veronica Nelson, in a Victorian prison represents a high-water mark for the relevance and application of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 to inquests into deaths in custody. The reliance on the Victorian Charter in the inquest was particularly significant because of the detailed findings and recommendations, directed at a wide variety of criminal justice system agencies, intended to prevent future deaths in custody. The outcome of the inquest clearly demonstrates that Human Rights Acts can enhance the preventive function of coroners in Australia.

Everyday sovereign exclusion: conceptualising police violence and deaths in custody as a racial production of homo sacer

ABSTRACT Although Giorgio Agamben figures prominently in research examining sovereign state-based exclusion, his theories are marked by two commonly identified limitations. The absolute nature of Agamben's conceptualization of exclusion diminishes meaningful minority resistance, and his disembedded account of excised peoples as homo sacer hides the common racial basis of sovereign violence. Consequently, this article draws on the work of Achille Mbembé and Alexander G. Weheliye to reframe Agamben's sovereign exclusion as an everyday and contested process that is inseparable from the racial production of minorities. This reconceptualised framework is used to demonstrate how police violence towards Black Americans in the United States of America and the death of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in custody in Australia is orientated towards the production of political communities. I argue that these cases of racial exclusion treat Bla(c)k people as homo sacer to define the colonial sovereign-state polities of the US and Australia in covert racial terms.

Specific protocols for conducting medicolegal autopsies in cases of death in custody or following a violation of human rights: Indian perspective

Specific protocols for conducting medicolegal autopsies in cases of death in custody or following a violation of human rights: Indian perspective

"Dying in Prison: End-of-Life Care Services in a State Correctional Facility" (by Brooke Colley Webb, Mollee K. Steely Smith, and Tusty ten Bensel): Review 2

"Dying in Prison: End-of-Life Care Services in a State Correctional Facility" (by Brooke Colley Webb, Mollee K. Steely Smith, and Tusty ten Bensel): Review 2

"Dying in Prison: End-of-Life Care Services in a State Correctional Facility" (by Brooke Colley Webb, Mollee K. Steely Smith, and Tusty ten Bensel): Review 3

"Dying in Prison: End-of-Life Care Services in a State Correctional Facility" (by Brooke Colley Webb, Mollee K. Steely Smith, and Tusty ten Bensel): Review 3

"Dying in Prison: End-of-Life Care Services in a State Correctional Facility" (by Brooke Colley Webb, Mollee K. Steely Smith, and Tusty ten Bensel): Review 1

"Dying in Prison: End-of-Life Care Services in a State Correctional Facility" (by Brooke Colley Webb, Mollee K. Steely Smith, and Tusty ten Bensel): Review 1