UCLA Researchers Say More Than Half of 'Natural' LA Jail Deaths Show Evidence Of Physical Harm

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://laist.com/news/criminal-justice/ucla-la-jail-deaths-sheriff-autopsy-police-coroner

UCLA researchers analyzed the autopsies of people who died in L.A. County jails over 10 years, and found that more than half of deaths classified as “natural” had evidence of physical harm on the bodies.

The researchers with UCLA’s Carceral Ecologies Lab and the BioCritical Studies Lab looked at 59 autopsies out of 292 jail deaths between 2009 and 2019.

UCLA associate professor Terence Keel said at a media briefing on Wednesday that more than half of the 26 people officially classified as dying from issues like cardiac disease, respiratory illness, or even flu, “have evidence of hematomas, bone fractures, and lacerations,” he said.

“If we think about these deaths, and we think about the end of the life course, it seemed to us that these forms of physical violence should be thought through as factors that contribute to the actual death, and not merely described as a natural death itself,” Keel said.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Kick. Prisons don't keep people safe.