Teresa Henderson’s son, Steven Kidd Jr., died on Sept. 12 inside Jackson Correctional Establishment in Malone, Florida. A jail chaplain known as on a Saturday to inform the household of his loss of life, Henderson recalled. She mentioned the chaplain informed them that Kidd had died alone in his cell in the midst of the night time and that the case was beneath investigation.
Henderson was shocked by the information. Kidd died simply 9 days earlier than he was set to be launched, she famous. He had known as her a couple of days earlier than his loss of life, imagining the life ready for him on the skin.
“After calling there so many occasions and them telling me it was beneath investigation and never telling me any particulars of what was happening,” she mentioned, “I felt suspicious.”
Henderson needed a second opinion on how Kidd died, however she couldn’t afford one within the time she needed to resolve. When a funeral dwelling lastly known as to say Kidd’s physique was being launched and requested if she needed to proceed with cremation, she mentioned sure.
“I used to be simply distraught,” she mentioned. “I mentioned, ‘At this level, I do not actually have a alternative.’”
Every year, 1000’s of individuals die in U.S. prisons and jails. During the last six months, The Marshall Mission has heard from dozens of households throughout the nation about their experiences bringing family members dwelling after dying behind bars. In case after case, they informed The Marshall Mission they felt as if their family members remained beneath lock and key, even in loss of life.
To know the hurdles households should clear, The Marshall Mission requested the insurance policies and procedures for responding to deaths in custody from each state jail system and the federal Bureau of Prisons. Thirty-four departments responded.
Within the best-case state of affairs, households can face open-ended wait occasions whereas officers examine how their family members died. In a minimum of 18 states, that course of contains locking down the world and treating it as a possible crime scene if the loss of life is suspicious or unexplained. Many states don’t set deadlines for wrapping up the investigation, forcing households to dwell with uncertainty and compounding grief. In these circumstances, belongings may be withheld till an investigation closes, a course of that may stretch for months.
Within the worst circumstances, when deaths are sudden or sudden, state insurance policies make it tough for households to get an out of doors opinion on what occurred — limiting their skill to query the state’s account or maintain the amenities accountable for a doable wrongful loss of life.
Typically, the subsequent of kin has to make choices about what to do with the physique or danger having their beloved one labeled as “unclaimed.” Not less than 29 states spell out what occurs in these circumstances. In roughly 10 states, that window to behave can vary from 48 hours to 10 days. When households can’t act rapidly or afford funeral prices, the state can transfer ahead by itself — typically cremating or burying the physique on jail grounds.
Consultants say the insurance policies are written to defend establishments from legal responsibility. Households are sometimes thought to be potential issues who may sue, go to the press or file complaints, mentioned Paul Parker, a veteran loss of life investigator who has labored in health worker workplaces in three states. Parker has participated in a whole bunch of evaluations of in-custody deaths.
“It’s the human perspective that’s lacking right here,” he mentioned. “It’s the truth that [incarcerated] persons are people, and the households that they’re forsaking are human and deserve solutions it doesn’t matter what.”
For Donald Prutting, one holdup after one other slowed the discharge of his brother’s physique. In February, his youthful brother, Kenneth, died of mind swelling brought on by leukemia whereas in federal custody in southern California. Kenneth spent the ultimate weeks of his life in a hospital. His loss of life was reported to the coroner, however Prutting mentioned the coroner declined to carry out an post-mortem as a result of Kenneth had been beneath a health care provider’s care. The jail ordered one anyway, including two extra weeks till the physique could possibly be despatched to his household, Prutting mentioned.
Then got here one other delay: The Bureau of Prisons required formal identification earlier than launch — {a photograph} and fingerprints — which took somewhat over every week, in response to Prutting. Hoping to keep away from additional delays, he requested if jail officers would enable his brother to be cremated in California so solely his ashes would want to journey. However the request was denied, Prutting mentioned.
By the point Kenneth’s physique was cleared to be despatched to Connecticut, practically three weeks had handed. A paperwork error between the funeral properties in control of the journey logistics left Kenneth’s physique sitting at Bradley Worldwide Airport close to Hartford for 2 days, Prutting mentioned.
Other than the preliminary notification name, Prutting mentioned nobody from the jail reached out. The one one who stored him knowledgeable was a funeral director.
“The system is damaged,” Prutting mentioned. “The households shouldn’t be punished. We did nothing.”
Months later, Kenneth’s remaining possessions — a “substantial” account stability, as he was informed, and a number of other pairs of sneakers — had nonetheless not been returned. In June, Prutting pleaded with the federal jail system through electronic mail: “We had been informed to be affected person, however I feel 5 months is past being affected person.” He by no means heard again.
“You’d assume that [Kenneth’s] sentence ends at loss of life, however that’s not true,” Prutting mentioned.
The Bureau of Prisons didn’t reply to a request for remark, sending as a substitute a kind electronic mail stating that it was not obtainable to reply due to the federal government shutdown.
The delays that households expertise — whether or not in getting info, stays or property again — typically may be traced again to coverage gaps, mentioned Alycia Welch, affiliate director of the Jail and Jail Innovation Lab on the College of Texas at Austin. Welch helped lead a 50-state assessment of jail loss of life insurance policies and located that many businesses don’t clearly define when households needs to be notified, what info may be shared, or who’s liable for doing it. With out these particulars, she famous, the default is for businesses to withhold info.
“Households really feel like they change into the folks which might be being punished as a result of their beloved one was somebody who was incarcerated,” she mentioned. “They’re simply attempting to…honor their beloved one.”
After her father died from coronary heart illness, diabetes and problems from an an infection at Nevada’s Excessive Desert State Jail in March, Courtney Crosby found that his private belongings had been being handled as proof. At first, jail officers informed her to signal a launch kind so she may gather her father’s property, she mentioned. However three months later, when nothing had been returned, Crosby realized via her lawyer that the gadgets had been “beneath investigation.” The stock she acquired listed what the jail nonetheless had: a pair of footwear, socks, sweatpants, authorized mail, letters and lotion. Crosby’s authorized workforce lastly acquired these gadgets virtually 4 months after her father’s loss of life.
However a number of issues had been lacking, she mentioned — a pocket book with a Michael Jordan quote her father preferred, blue Warby Parker glasses, and a replica of “Shoe Canine,” the memoir by Nike founder Phil Knight — and different gadgets Crosby had despatched her father throughout his brief incarceration.
“It makes me really feel like they threw his stuff out, like he’s trash,” she mentioned.
The Nevada Division of Corrections didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
After an sudden or unnatural loss of life, employees seal and doc the scene: photographing, logging and amassing potential proof earlier than inner and/or exterior investigators arrive. As a result of an individual’s belongings are handled as a part of that proof, they are often held for weeks or months. Insurance policies in a minimum of 13 jail programs enable property to be withheld till an investigation closes. And infrequently do the departments spell out what households can do if gadgets are lacking, incorrect or by no means returned in any respect.
Subsequent, separate however parallel investigations start: one by the health worker or coroner, one inner assessment by corrections, and a felony investigation that may contain exterior regulation enforcement. Every runs by itself timeline, and investigations can last as long as a yr, specialists mentioned.
When a loss of life in the neighborhood happens, households often meet straight with medical experts, alternate contact info and be taught subsequent steps. In custody, households typically should undergo corrections officers for updates, which might gradual direct communication with the health worker. Miscommunication or an lack of ability to set clear expectations with households are sometimes the principle reason behind frustration, mentioned Dr. Deland Weyrauch, a deputy health worker in Montana. Even brief waits may be upsetting when nobody explains what’s taking place, he added.
As soon as our bodies are launched after an post-mortem, the monetary burden for remaining preparations falls closely on households. In a minimum of 24 jail programs, subsequent of kin are liable for paying burial or transport prices. A number of exceptions exist — for instance, Minnesota pays a set quantity towards burial or cremation, and some states enable households to make use of their beloved one’s jail account or apply for state or county help — however these circumstances are restricted.
Crosby was shocked to be taught her household could be billed greater than $4,000 for the transport, embalming, flights, and paperwork wanted to ship her father’s physique dwelling to New Jersey — a cost her mom placed on a bank card. Beneath Nevada coverage, the division might cowl transport if it prices lower than cremation; in any other case, when a household claims the physique, the prices are theirs, and in the event that they don’t declare it, the state pays just for cremation.
Tight timelines and sudden bills fall hardest on poor and working-class households — the identical folks most definitely to be caught up within the felony justice system. An unbiased post-mortem can price a number of thousand {dollars}, mentioned UCLA professor Terence Keel, who runs the Coroner Report Mission, which examines how loss of life investigators and the programs overseeing them form what households and the general public study in-custody deaths. Households typically have to decide on between utilizing the “cash on an post-mortem or… to bury their family members,” he added.
“By weaponizing each time and weaponizing the cash in opposition to them, it is one other technique to be sure that the state covers its again when a majority of these tragedies occur,” Keel mentioned.
Quick deadlines create extra stress. In New York, Texas and California, households have as little as 48 hours to assert their beloved one’s physique; in Utah and Pennsylvania, 5 days; in North Carolina, 10 days. Not less than two states impose brief deadlines on the state as a substitute of on the households, requiring a minimal ready interval — 48 and 96 hours — earlier than the state can cremate an unclaimed physique.
For Henderson, whose son died in a Florida jail, your complete course of, from studying of his loss of life to receiving his stays, unfolded over roughly 9 days.
Troubled by his sudden loss of life and the lack of expertise from jail officers, Henderson seemed into getting a second opinion on how her son died.
An unbiased post-mortem would have price 1000’s in preparation, transport and testing charges. Henderson thought of a number of choices for assist masking the price. She checked whether or not she may withdraw from her 401(ok) however hadn’t constructed up sufficient, tried to lift the cash via a GoFundMe, and thought of taking out a mortgage in opposition to her automobile. None of these choices may ship the cash in time, she mentioned.
“We ran out of time as a result of they held his physique so lengthy, and I didn’t know what was happening, as a result of they might by no means give me any solutions,” Henderson mentioned. “So it got here all the way down to there was no time to do the rest however have my son cremated.”
Florida Division of Corrections coverage, as of 2020, requires an individual’s physique to stay in state custody till the district health worker approves its launch. As soon as accredited, the physique may be launched to anybody who “makes a legitimate declare” to it and agrees to tackle the price of remaining preparations. The physique could also be held for what the division calls a “medically acceptable” interval whereas officers wait to see if anybody comes ahead. If nobody does, the state arranges burial or cremation. Workers are instructed to inform the household “at any time when doable and sensible” when cremation is chosen.
The Florida Division of Corrections didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
Unlike incarcerated folks, households don’t have any constitutional protections dictating how they’re to be handled by the jail programs. As soon as a beloved one dies inside, there’s usually no acknowledged proper for family to be stored knowledgeable. After an incarcerated individual’s loss of life, it’s tough for households to carry a jail system liable for a way the jail responds, mentioned Sarah Grady, a civil rights lawyer who represents households in deaths-in-custody circumstances.
“Prisons simply haven’t got practices in place to maintain [families] in thoughts, and infrequently the alternative,” Grady mentioned. “They’re designed to attempt to enact as many limitations as doable.”
Federal lawmakers are actually attempting to remove some limitations by bettering communication between the prisons and the subsequent of kin. In April, Sens. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, and John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, launched the Household Notification of Loss of life, Damage or Sickness in Custody Act. It could require federal prisons to comply with new Justice Division requirements for notifying households, and direct the U.S. Legal professional Common to share mannequin insurance policies with states to encourage related reforms nationwide.
Households and specialists say reform has to start out with three fundamental rules: compassion, transparency and clear timelines. Prisons may give family shorter timeframes for notification and clearer communication throughout investigations, for instance, or clearly designate who’s liable for calling households, what info have to be shared, and when. To present property again in a well timed style, gadgets could possibly be documented, photographed and launched.
A number of states provide glimpses of what a family-centered course of may appear like: Virginia and West Virginia’s corrections departments provide households and buddies with bereavement guides that define employees roles, clarify upcoming investigative steps and the way households can request info.
The place jail programs provide no clear path, households have discovered their very own methods to revive some dignity. After Prutting’s brother was cremated, he stored the ashes close to the tv till the New York Knicks’ 2025 playoff collection ended — a workforce Kenneth beloved since childhood.
Crosby’s household purchased empty plots on both facet of her father’s gravesite so he wouldn’t be “cramped” in opposition to strangers, the way in which he had been in jail. “We needed him to only have area round him,” she mentioned.
Henderson didn’t get the identical likelihood.
She and her daughter had deliberate to be collectively when Kidd’s stays lastly arrived. As a substitute, a medium-sized U.S. Postal Service Precedence Mail Categorical field marked “cremated stays” arrived a day early whereas her daughter was dwelling alone.
“I felt like, ‘Right here you go, we’re carried out doing no matter we’re gonna do, and here is your son,” she mentioned. ‘“That is the way you’re gonna get him.’”
