WBUR believes it is one of the first to air an in-depth series revealing the hidden causes of death in these county jails. Using a database built from thousands of jail, legal and state documents as well as dozens of interviews and months of reporting, WBUR’s investigative unit paints a vivid picture of inadequate medical care, negligence and secrecy that led to the deaths of dozens of inmates and left their families in the dark.
Elected sheriffs and their outsourced medical providers closely guard the records around jail deaths, under the guise of protecting inmates’ privacy but with the effect of shielding themselves from responsibility. WBUR sought to cut through the secrecy, building a database of inmates who died based on records from the jails, and additional reporting to fill in the many redactions from sheriffs. The series reported for the first time that 195 people had died in custody from 2008 through 2018 — two-thirds of those for medical reasons (and the rest by suicide). The team also found 37 more fatalities than sheriffs had reported to the Department of Justice.
Through interviews and documents, WBUR was able to describe in detail the previously mysterious deaths of numerous prisoners, many of whom had been awaiting trial and were not yet convicted of a crime.
One man, ignored by medical staff, died of a painful bowel obstruction; his family had never been able to learn what happened to him. Another died after shouting for help in a transport van, where guards ignored his pleas. Yet another died of meningitis, despite reporting headaches, slurred speech and partial paralysis. One woman lost a late pregnancy.
The series revealed that in at least one-third of cases where inmates died for medical reasons, jail or health staff had ignored symptoms, assumed inmates were lying or failed to recognize their dire conditions. It also reported on the arcane contracts between jails and medical providers, discovering financial incentives in those contracts to limit medical care, including penalties for too many trips to the hospitals, and bonuses for keeping costs down.
Most families fail to break through the fog and bureaucracy when a relative dies in jail. It takes resources and often a lawyer to pursue records, and the bar to win significant lawsuits is high. Another finding of the series was that sheriffs have paid millions of dollars in secret settlements with families who did manage to sue, payments that are little known by taxpayers.
Finally, when COVID-19 shut down WBUR’s physical newsroom in early March, the team of reporters, editors and production crew pressed on – remotely. Instead of being in a studio, reporters recorded their radio tracks in the cramped bureau of the nearly empty State House.