Representatives Cohen, Kamlager-Dove and Scott Introduce the Death in Custody Reporting Reform Act

WASHINGTON – Representatives Steve Cohen (TN-9), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) and Bobby Scott (VA-3) have introduced the Death in Custody Reporting Reform Act (DCRRA) to correct deficient and incomplete reporting of deaths on law enforcement custody despite prior efforts to assure accurate reporting in the Death in Custody Reporting acts of 2000 and 2013. The bill eliminates the vagueness of what law enforcement agencies are required to report deaths in custody, including deaths in healthcare settings, temporary detention centers and immigration detention centers, shifts data collection back to a statistical agency, requires the addition of a checkbox to death certificates to indicate a death in custody, and directs the National Institute of Justice to study aggregate deaths in custody and recommend policy improvements. 

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

“The United States houses nearly 25 percent of the world’s prison population yet the U.S. government does not know how many people die in law enforcement custody despite previous efforts to correct this deficiency. Our bill will finally make clear who and how law enforcement agencies report these deaths, including of those in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. These reforms will help inform policy on how to reduce and hopefully eliminate all deaths in custody. These changes are long overdue and will assure proper accountability.”

Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove made the following statement:

“It is shameful that our systems still fail to provide families with critical information when a loved one dies in custody. This legislation tackles long‑standing gaps in death‑in‑custody reporting by setting clear definitions, expanding which facilities must report deaths, and strengthening accountability for federal and immigration enforcement agencies. We have a responsibility to improve safety within the system and end the uncertainty and inconsistency that has kept families in the dark when a loved one dies in custody.”

Congressman Scott made the following statement:

“Accurate and timely information on deaths of individuals detained or arrested by law enforcement is critical to determining how we can reduce avoidable deaths in our criminal justice system. When I helped enact the Death in Custody Reporting Act, the goal was to collect reliable data to better understand and prevent these deaths, and gathering data was only intended to be the first step. Frustratingly, multiple Administrations have failed to fully implement the law. This legislation strengthens the law with additional reporting requirements to ensure Congress receives an accurate picture of who is dying in custody.” 

Endorsing organization statements:

“Behind every death in custody is a person, a family, and a community burdened with unanswered questions. For too long, failures in our reporting systems have allowed deaths to go uncounted and unexplained. This bill would bring the transparency and accountability necessary to understand why and how people are dying while in custody, hold states and local governments accountable, and prevent future tragedies.” -- Aiden Cotter, director of federal advocacy, the Vera Institute of Justice

“If people were inexplicably dying in your community, the obvious first questions would be: Why? How many? How can we protect others? This bill is a critical step to begin answering those questions so that we can reduce needless deaths in custody and support both patients and correctional staff.” -- William Weber, MD, MPH, Medical Director of the Medical Justice Alliance

Specifically, DCRRA will provide:

• Definitional additions eliminate ambiguity about what entities need to report, and what details are necessary.
• Expanding death reporting to include healthcare settings, temporary law enforcement detention centers, and immigration detention centers.
• Ensuring all deaths at immigration facilities, both privately and government-run, are reported. 
• Shifting data collection responsibility back to the Bureau of Justice Statistics from the Bureau of Justice Assistance
• Requiring the Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics to submit demographic and cause and manner of death data on deaths in custody to Congress annually, as well as to publish this data on a publicly accessible website.
• Establishing a 6-member review panel of experts to assess barriers to compliance and accurate reporting.
• Directs the National Institute of Justice to study reported death in custody data and recommend policy improvements.
• Requires the Director of the National Center for Health Statistics to add a checkbox to the United States standard certificate of death to indicate the death occurred in custody.
• Authorizing $6 million to be appropriated every fiscal year until FY 2037 for data collection, report drafting, and database publishing purposes, up from $0.
• Altering the Byrne JAG penalty to allow for more targeted compliance prior to penalty enforcement.

Original cosponsors of the measure are Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12), Danny K. Davis (IL-07), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Shri Thanedar (MI-13), Jonathan Jackson (IL-01), and Summer Lee (PA-12)

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