Inmate deaths in state prisons, local jails still rising, data show

The number of inmate deaths in both state prisons and local jails increased for the third consecutive year, according to new data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released on Tuesday.

The report found that 4,446 inmates died in 2013, an increase of 131 deaths over 2012, making it the year with the most reported deaths since 2007. Of those killed, BJS found that 85 percent were white and 40 percent were in custody for less than seven days.

{mosads}More than a third, 34 percent, of all local jail deaths in 2013 were the result of suicide, the leading cause of death in jails since 2000. BJS said in the last five years the suicide rate in jails has increased by 12 percent.

In state prisons, the report said about 90 percent of deaths were due to illness, with cancer accounting for 31 percent of deaths and heart disease accounting for 26 percent.

The Pretrial Justice Institute, which advocates for judicial reforms, said the increased deaths are why the U.S. should stop arresting people for non-violent offenses, stop detaining people who are not threats to public safety and eliminate cash bail.

“Jail can be a dangerous and damaging place and we are seeing the consequences of cash bail systems that needlessly detain people based on money, not risk,” said the institute’s Executive Director Cherise Fanno Burdeen. “Cash bail keeps individuals who need help behind bars and unable to access the treatment they deserve. The last thing we should be doing is confining people who pose no danger to the community because they’re too poor to buy their way out.”