Feds Record Highest Deaths in Custody Since 2016
Federal law enforcement agencies reported 614 deaths in custody in 2020, while arrest-related deaths were higher than the averages of the three previous years.
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According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2020 saw the highest level of deaths in custody since 2016.
In addition, federal law enforcement agencies reported more arrest-related deaths and deaths in custody in 2020 than the average from 2016 to 2019, the latest years for which statistics were available.
The agencies reported 65 arrest-related deaths and 614 deaths in custody in Fiscal Year 2020. The average three years prior was 53 arrest-related deaths and 449 deaths in custody.
The study defined a death in custody as “death that occurs while the decedent is detained or incarcerated for violating federal criminal or administrative law and housed in any facility designed to detain or incarcerate such individuals for longer than 72 hours.”
An arrest-related death is defined as “a death that occurs when the event causing the death (e.g., gunshot wound, self-inflicted injury, cardiac arrest, fall from a height, or drowning) while the decedent’s freedom to leave is restricted by federal law enforcement personnel acting in an official capacity.”
Data collection began in 2016 in response to the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DICRA) of 2013, which requires federal law enforcement agencies to report information about the death of any person who dies while detained, under arrest, being arrested or in the custody of federal law enforcement officers.
Homicides accounted for 47 percent of the 65 arrest-related deaths in 2020; suicides accounted for 26 percent, and deaths from natural causes or accidents each accounted for 13 percent, the report found.
In 60 percent of arrest-related deaths in 2020, law enforcement had attempted to serve a warrant when they made initial contact with the decedent.
According to the report, a total of 33 deaths occurred as a consequence of an officer-involved shooting during an arrest in 2020.
As for deaths in custody, 491 deaths (84.1 percent) emerged from illnesses or natural causes.
Suicide resulted in 53 deaths (9.1 percent), and homicides amounted to 16 deaths (2.7 percent).
The report was the third in the publication series.
Additional Reading: Exiting Bureau of Prisons Director Claims Ignorance of Agency Misconduct, The Crime Report July 27, 2022.
The full report and tables can be found here.
