National survey sheds light on death in jails
A nationwide survey from Spark Training experts reveals new trends in jail deaths from 2019 to 2024. The report, published by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care (NCCHC), contains the most robust and up-to-date statistics on jail deaths since 2019 Bureau of Justice Statistics reports.
This data shows that incomplete records, inconsistent classifications, and lack of standardized reporting present major logistical, legal, and ethical concerns for correctional facilities. While systemic solutions take time, there are immediate steps jails can take to start improving outcomes and legal defensibility now.
Train on documentation
Survey data highlighted major legal exposure for counties where jails did not adhere to federal or state laws regarding documentation. Legal mandates, such as the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA), outline specific steps officers need to follow when documenting in or out of custody deaths; however, officers may not be consistently educated on these federal and state guidelines.
We analyzed the most commonly missed pieces of death in custody reporting and developed a series of short, role-specific trainings to help facilities who want to improve documentation. Click here for death in custody documentation training for:
Site-specific documentation is a skill that should be reinforced through ongoing training. Incorporate practice into drills. For example, ask officers and health staff to fill out an incident report following a man down drill. Then, review the reports as group. Talk about any inconsistencies or confusion. Staff should be able to:
· Find and fill out facility-specific forms
· Record observations clearly, accurately, and objectively
· Use electronic or paper systems consistently
Remember: If you didn’t document it, you didn’t do it! Train on documentation for quality improvement and legal defensibility.
Explore legal protections
While good documentation is the first step, report findings also showed that jails cannot meaningfully assess overall performance without certain legal protections. Simply put, jails may not be tracking detailed data due to fear that the information could land them in hot water.
It’s not just jails facing this problem; hospitals use Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) to collect and analyze health care information under federal protections for this very reason. PSOs can confidentially track health care data and offer solutions to problems. At the time of this blog, Sentinel PSO is the only correctional-specific PSO that operates nationally for jails and prisons. Explore legal protections from a federally recognized PSO to conduct meaningful quality improvement.
Click here to read more about death in jail and PSOs in correctional health care.
For more information, please contact training@sparktraining.us.
Disclaimer
All materials have been prepared for general information purposes only. The information presented should be treated as guidelines, not rules. The information presented is not intended to establish a standard of medical care and is not a substitute for common sense. The information presented is not legal advice, is not to be acted on as such, may not be current, and is subject to change without notice. Each situation should be addressed on a case-by-case basis. When in doubt, send them out!®
