Deaths in Custody: Accountability in Pennsylvania Jails

Each year an untold number of people die in jails across Pennsylvania. In 2023, PennLive and the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism built Pennsylvania’s first-ever database of in-custody deaths. Together, they navigated a patchwork of inconsistent systems and records and identified at least 65 deaths in custody, only about 40 of which were reported as required.
Pulitzer Center grantees Brittany Hailer and Joshua Vaughn discussed their reporting methodology on Monday, June 17, 2024. They were joined by UCLA Professor Terence Keel to discuss how they navigated obtaining public records and worked with families to build the database.