To better monitor the public health conditions behind bars, the project began gathering data on all-cause deaths in U.S. prisons in June 2020. Because prison agencies report different records on deaths in custody, the project has attempted to standardize records into similar variables so the public can compare what information agencies make available and study the data they do release.
This repository is intended to function as a tool for the public and researchers to better understand the drivers of deaths in custody and assist policymakers in developing strategies to reduce their occurrence. In particular, the Data Project maintains this database as a way to support the full implementation of the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) (link to bill). Our data is designed to supplement the 'Mortality in Correctional Institutions' reports produced by the U.S. Department of Justice pursuant to DCRA up until 2019. We seek the data necessary to deepen our collective understanding of how carceral facility management practices may contribute to deaths in custody, and more broadly how to reduce the number of deaths in custody.
As of January 5, 2026, this repository incorporates custodial mortality data through 2024.
National aggregate data by state (2019–2024): prison_agency_counts.csv
Individual-level death records by state: Raw Deaths folder
These datasets expand upon prior 2019–2021 data, adding standardized counts and individual records for 2022, 2023, and 2024. Data from the Bureau of Prisons and all 50 state prison systems have been integrated where available.
- Start in Data/ if you are looking for the actual death records and counts.
- Use Data/Raw/ to view individual-level files received from states or agencies. Missingness varies across states.
- Check Data/Aggregated_by_State/ for state-level totals that are ready to use.
- Look in Data/External/ for supporting datasets used for validation or context.
- Open Crosswalks/ to see how facility names and IDs were standardized across states.
- Go to Documents/ for state-by-state source guides and example records.
- Each state folder in Documents/ includes a short source guide and example files showing what the data looks like.
Data on prison demographics and in-custody deaths come from a variety of sources. Where prison death data is listed publicly on an agency website or where another organization has already collected and processed records on deaths in custody for a particular agency, the project has gathered, standardized, and reproduced those records here.
Examples of U.S. prison agencies that publicly list records on deaths in custody include the Arizona Department of Corrections (link to source) and the Florida Department of Corrections (link to source). The Data Project has reproduced records from the Texas Justice Initiative for deaths in Texas state prisons, Incarceration Transparency at Loyola University New Orleans, College of Law for deaths in Louisiana state prisons, and the NPR Investigations team for deaths in Bureau of Prisons facilities.
Where information on deaths in prisons was not publicly available through an agency or another organization, or was not provided at the individual or facility-level, the Project used public records requests to gather records on deaths in custody. We then standardized these records into a uniform database. For each request, the Project asked for records from 2015 to 2020 and for the following pieces of information for each death:
- Name of individual;
- Age, race, and sex of individual;
- Date of death;
- Facility to which individual was assigned;
- Location of death (e.g., cell number or hospital name);
- Type of death (e.g., suicide, homicide, accident, drugs/alcohol, illness, other);
- Additional details about death including circumstances, cause of death, and/or details of illness (if illness is listed as type of death).
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
State |
State prison system |
Year |
Year of death(s) |
Month |
Month of death(s) |
Death.Date |
Date of death(s) |
Facility |
Facility of death(s) |
CMP.ID |
Facility ID in project data COVID Data |
Full.Name |
Full name of decedent |
Last.Name |
Last name of decedent |
First.Name |
First name of decedent |
ID.No |
Agency-assigned ID number of decedent |
Sex |
Sex of decedent |
Gender |
Gender of decedent |
Race |
Race of decedent |
Ethnicity |
Agency-listed ethnicity |
DoB |
Date of birth of decedent |
DoB.Year |
Year of birth of decedent |
Death.Age |
Age at death of decedent |
Circumstance.General |
General circumstances of death (N.B. not necessarily cause of death) |
Circumstance.Specific |
Specific circumstances of death (N.B. not necessarily cause of death) |
Circumstance.Other |
Other circumstances of death (N.B. not necessarily cause of death) |
Location |
Specific/other listed location of death |
Total.Deaths |
For aggregated categories, the total number of deaths |
The Data Project only reproduces records provided to it and other projects. The Data Project does not correct or investigate records for accuracy aside from data validation efforts to ensure total counts of deaths match or are similar to reporting for that agency produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. As such, there may be errors or issues with information contained within these variables. In particular, circumstances of death were reported differently across prison agencies and do not always reflect actual causes of death. Many death records are labeled as 'Natural' and 'Undetermined,' which provide little detail on the circumstances of death. For more context on issues with custodial death investigations, please see the following resources.
Nick Shapiro, Terrence Keel. Natural Causes? 58 Autopsies Prove Otherwise. UCLA Carceral Ecologies Lab, https://ucla.app.box.com/s/sv54jmxhmq19kqifpakh4jfu3vnmhbqt/file/974263270262
Roger Mitchell Jr., Jay Aronson. Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do About It. Johns Hopkins University Press, https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/12925/death-custody
This folder contains documentation for how the Project obtained data for each state prison system. Sub-folders for each state contain a R Markdown file describing how it obtained the data, what variables are present in the data, and how to load and compare annual aggregates from the data with past MCI reports from BJS.
Example folders contain raw unprocessed versions of the documents / data sources used to create the datasets in the Raw folder.
| Dataset | Source | Description |
|---|---|---|
msfp0119stt14.csv |
BJS, MCI Reports (2000-2019) | Totals of deaths of state and federal prisoners (unprocessed) |
p20stt09.csv |
BJS, NPS Reports (2019-2020) | Releases of state and federal sentenced prisoners (unprocessed) |
p21stt09.csv |
BJS, NPS Reports (2020-2021) | Releases of state and federal sentenced prisoners (unprocessed) |
p23stt09.csv |
BJS, NPS Reports (2022-2023) | Releases of state and federal sentenced prisoners (unprocessed) |
vera_pjp_s2021_appendix.csv |
Vera, People in Prisons and Jails Spr 2021 | Counts of state and federal prisoners |
hifld_prison_boundaries_2022.csv |
DHS, HIFLD Prison Boundaries Data | DHS ensus of carceral facilities conducted |
For most states, data in this repository were obtained directly from state Departments of Corrections (DOCs) through public records requests or direct agency sharing. In some cases, states publish custodial death data publicly or through legislative, oversight, or research organizations; in those instances, publicly available data were used and standardized for inclusion here.
Because several states and federal agencies require attribution when their data are reused, users must also cite the original source listed below when using data from those jurisdictions.
or most states, data in this repository were obtained directly from state Departments of Corrections (DOCs) through public records requests or direct agency sharing.
In some cases, states publish custodial death data publicly or through legislative, oversight, or research organizations; in those instances, publicly available data were used and standardized for inclusion here.
For some states and years, where state-reported custodial death or population data were unavailable, incomplete, or not comparable across years, the project relied on federal data produced by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). These federal data were used for aggregate-level validation and gap-filling only and do not replace individual-level state records where those records exist.
The following states relied on BJS National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) data for the years listed below:
- Mississippi: 2021, 2022, 2023
- New Hampshire: 2022, 2023
- Ohio: 2023
In addition, BJS Mortality in Correctional Institutions (MCI) data were used for select states and years through 2019 as historical context and for cross-checking aggregate mortality counts.
Because several states and federal agencies require attribution when their data are reused, users must also cite the original source(s) listed below when using data from those jurisdictions.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2000–2019). Mortality in Correctional Institutions [Data files and reports]. U.S. Department of Justice.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2020–2023). National Prisoner Statistics [Data files]. U.S. Department of Justice.
Alabama Department of Corrections. (2021). Code of Alabama §14-1-24—Monthly reports (Fiscal Year 2021). Research and Planning Division, Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee.
https://doc.alabama.gov/statreports.aspx
Alabama Department of Corrections. (2022–2025). Code of Alabama §14-1-24—Quarterly reports (Fiscal Years 2022–2025). Research and Planning Division, Joint Legislative Prison Oversight Committee.
https://doc.alabama.gov/statreports.aspx
Florida Department of Corrections. (2025). Inmate mortality statistics.
https://www.fdc.myflorida.com/statistics-and-publications/inmate-mortality#mortality_graph
Hawaii Correctional System Oversight Commission. (2025). Hawaii correctional system mortality data (2019–2024). Honolulu, HI.
Armstrong, A., Mitchell, J., Navalance, E., & Farris, S. (n.d.). Incarceration transparency: Louisiana deaths behind bars. Loyola University New Orleans, College of Law.
https://www.incarcerationtransparency.org/
Minnesota Department of Corrections. (2022). Health & safety in correctional facilities.
https://mn.gov/doc/assets/2022%20Health%20and%20Safety%20in%20Correctional%20Facilities_tcm1089-565603.pdf
Minnesota Department of Corrections. (2023). Health & safety in correctional facilities.
https://mn.gov/doc/assets/2023%20Health%20and%20Safety%20in%20Correctional%20Facilities_tcm1089-609949.pdf
Minnesota Department of Corrections. (2024). Health & safety in correctional facilities.
https://www.lrl.mn.gov/docs/2025/mandated/250306.pdf
Scott, I. (2025, December 12). Missouri prison system comprehensive death data release: How to access the state prison death dataset. The Marshall Project.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/12/12/missouri-state-prison-death-data-access
Correctional Association of New York. (2025). Deaths in custody dashboard.
https://www.correctionalassociation.org/data/dashboard-deaths-in-custody
Harland, A. (2022). Ohio deaths in custody – 2022. Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services.
https://ocjs.ohio.gov
Tennessee Department of Correction. (2021). Statistical abstracts: Fiscal Year 2020–2021.
https://www.tn.gov/correction/statistics/annual-reports.html
Tennessee Department of Correction. (2022). Statistical abstracts: Fiscal Year 2021–2022.
https://www.tn.gov/correction/statistics/annual-reports.html
Texas Justice Initiative. (2022–2024). Deaths in custody dataset [Data set].
https://www.texasjusticeinitiative.org
Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. (2025). Virginia civilian deaths in custody in 2024. Commonwealth of Virginia.
https://www.dcjs.virginia.gov
Washington State Department of Corrections. (2025). Death statistics for DOC incarcerated individuals.
https://doc.wa.gov/corrections/services/health-services
If you use any prison population data in this repository from the Vera Institute of Justice, please also cite:
Kang-Brown, J., Montagnet, C., & Heiss, J. (2021). People in jail and prison in spring 2021. Vera Institute of Justice.
https://www.vera.org/publications/people-in-jail-and-prison-in-spring-2021
If you use any execution data in this repository from the Death Penalty Information Center, please also cite:
Death Penalty Information Center. (n.d.). Execution database.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/execution-database
Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware and the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee assisted with the collection of death records in state prisons.
- American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware. (n.d.). https://www.aclu-de.org/
- American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. (n.d.). https://www.aclu-tn.org/
-
New Jersey (NJ): People who died in the Special Treatment Unit (STU) were excluded.
These individuals are considered civilly committed rather than incarcerated under DOC custody. -
Wisconsin (WI): One individual listed as having died in "Other State" in 2024 was excluded,
as no context was provided to identify which state this referred to.
Our data is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. That means that you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use our work for commercial purposes, which means anything primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or monetary compensation.
For questions or feedback about the data, please reach out to bbdp.data@law.ucla.edu{.email}.