Inmate deaths in US police custody rise for third year: Report
The number of inmates who died in police custody in the United States has risen for the third consecutive year, according to a new report.
The Justice Department revealed on Tuesday that 4,446 inmates died in police custody in both local and state prisons in 2013.
The report compiled by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that the increase of 131 deaths from the year 2012, marked the year 2013, the deadliest year the agency has reported since 2007.
The report says suicide has been the leading cause of deaths, specifically in local jails. The number of suicides increased from 300 in 2012 to 327 in 2013, accounting for 34 percent of all jail deaths.
For several years, the number of deaths in custody was on a downward trend, decreasing by an annual average of two percent until it stopped in 2010, according to the data.
A total of 967 inmates died in local jails at the last reporting in 2013, a nine-death increase from the year before.
According to the report, while the number of inmates who died from natural causes went down, cases of deaths due to liver disease decreased by 35 percent - the number of unnatural causes actually went up.
It reveals that while every state department of corrections reported at least one death in 2013, 80 percent of local jails did not report any deaths. Twenty-three percent of all local jail deaths occurred in California and Texas alone.
The report comes after a series of high-profile cases shed light on the number of black people who died in police custody.
Last month, the death of 28-year-old Sandra Bland in police custody sparked national protest. Bland was found hanged in a Texas jail cell from an apparent suicide three days after her July 10 arrest, authorities said.
A police dashboard video that recorded the incident shows how a routine traffic stop escalated into a verbal and physical confrontation between Texas state trooper Brian Encinia and Bland after she refused his request to extinguish her cigarette.
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