A death in custody is a death of a person in the custody of the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

or other authorities or while in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

. In the 21st century, death in custody remains a controversial subject, with the authorities often being accused of abuse, neglect and cover-ups of the causes of these deaths.

By country

Algeria

Argentina

Australia

In Australia, deaths in custody automatically trigger an

inquest An inquest is a judicial inquiry in common law jurisdictions, particularly one held to determine the cause of a person's death. Conducted by a judge, jury, or government official, an inquest may or may not require an autopsy carried out by a cor ...

Bangladesh

At least 32 people have died in "

Operation Clean Heart Operation Clean Heart was an anti-crime operation jointly carried out by Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy, Bangladesh Rifles, Bangladesh Police and Bangladesh Ansar members in Bangladesh. The operation was carried by the government of Bangla ...

" by the government of Bangladesh.

Burma

Chad

China

Congo

Cuba

Egypt

Germany

* Oury Jalloh *

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...

India

In the

financial year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

2021–22, the

National Human Rights Commission A human rights commission, also known as a human relations commission, is a body set up to investigate, promote or protect human rights. The term may refer to international, national or subnational bodies set up for this purpose, such as nationa ...

reported 2152 deaths in judicial custody and 155 deaths in

police custody Police custody may refer to: * Arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken in ...

Indonesia

Iran

Ireland

Italy

Jamaica

"At least 650 people have been killed by police officers in Jamaica since 1999. Many of these have been blatantly unlawful killings, yet not one officer has been convicted since then." Piers Bannister,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

's Jamaica researcher.

Japan

Laos

Libya

Malaysia

* Kugan Ananthan * Teoh Beng Hock * Gunasegaran Rajasundram

Mexico

Morocco

The Netherlands

On the 27th of June 2015, Mitch Henriquez was arrested at the Malieveld in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

after he claimed to have a weapon. During the arrest he suffocated due to the chokehold of two police officers. They were put on trial and served sentences for manslaughter. After his death, there were several weeks of riots throughout the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

North Korea

Norway

About 40 people have died in police custody over a period of 20 years following 1990. Additionally there's been 45 suicides in custody over a 10-year period from 2008.

Pakistan

Russia

See

Sergei Magnitsky Sergei Leonidovich Magnitsky (, ; ; 8 April 1972 – 16 November 2009) was a Russian tax advisor responsible for exposing corruption and misconduct by Russian government officials while representing client Hermitage Capital Management. His ...

; Salman Raduyev; Maxim Martsinkevich.

Saudi Arabia

Somalia

South Africa

South Africa has an unusually high level of deaths in custody. For example, in April to June 1997, there were 56 deaths in custody. * Neil Aggett * Richard Turner *

Steve Biko Bantu Stephen Biko Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG (18 December 1946 – 12 September 1977) was a South African internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist. Ideologically an African nationalism, African nationalist and ...

Sudan

Syria

Turkey

UAE

United Kingdom

United States

Definition of custody

The term "in custody" has been debated in both ''California v. Beheler'' (in regards to what constitutes custody in the requirement to read

Miranda rights In the United States, the ''Miranda'' warning is a type of notification customarily given by police to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial interrogation) advising them of their right to silence and, in effect, protection ...

) but also in other federal court cases related to Miranda law and definition of custody. Although Miranda law has roughly defined custody as the "formal arrest or restraint on freedom of movement," colloquial language may be less restrictive in the use of custody and is thus sometimes difficult to distinguish from the process of

arrest An arrest is the act of apprehending and taking a person into custody (legal protection or control), usually because the person has been suspected of or observed committing a crime. After being taken into custody, the person can be question ...

. In addition to collecting data on those who have died in custody, the

Bureau of Justice Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and the operation of c ...

also tracks all deaths related to arrest. This aids in collecting data from the fringes of custody or attempts to arrest an individual.

Causes of death

The causes for death in police custody may range from suspected

homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...

by members of the police, killings by other inmates, death due to

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

physical abuse Physical abuse is any intentional act causing injury or trauma to another person or animal by way of bodily contact. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse, but adults can also be victims, as in cases of domestic violence or ...

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

, to

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

, accidental death, or

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distinc ...

. The

United States Bureau of Justice Statistics The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) of the U.S. Department of Justice is the principal federal agency responsible for measuring crime, criminal victimization, criminal offenders, victims of crime, correlates of crime, and the operation of c ...

collects data regarding both the cause of death, as well as medical and criminal records of those that die in police custody (restricted to those in federal prison and local jails).

Estimates

The

estimates that 17,358 individuals in custody died during the period from 2007 to 2010. Other publications focus on the rate per 100,000. US jails report deaths that total a

mortality rate Mortality rate, or death rate, is a measure of the number of deaths (in general, or due to a specific cause) in a particular Statistical population, population, scaled to the size of that population, per unit of time. Mortality rate is typically ...

of 128, and prisons at 264 per 100,000. There are differences in methodology used to obtain these statistics, as some jurisdictions include deaths during attempted arrests, while others do not. Other research has focused on specific states, such as

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

and the rate of death by identity (gender, race, age). Based on some findings, African-American males appear to be over-represented as victims of sudden custody deaths. Further research with larger sample sizes is necessary.

Watchdog organizations

The Marshall Project collects and produces reports on police killings as well as maintaining a curated list of links to articles and publications related to death in police custody in the United States.

Selected persons who have died in custody

* Sandra Bland (woman found hanging in her

Waller County, Texas Waller County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 56,794. Its county seat is Hempstead. The county was named for Edwin Waller, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and first mayor ...

jail cell due to apparent suicide) * Henry "Peg" Gilbert, shot in police custody in 1947 in

Harris County, Georgia Harris County is a county located in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia; its western border with the state of Alabama is formed by the Chattahoochee River. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,668. The county seat ...

; the sheriff claimed self-defense, but Gilbert, a prosperous farmer, was found to have been severely beaten before being shot * Freddie Gray (suffered injuries while being transported by police in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, that led to a coma and his death) * Stephen Kovacs (died by suicide in New Jersey prison cell) * Michael Tyree (a mentally ill inmate held in a California county jail was beaten to death by three guards, who were convicted in June 2017 of his death)CBS/Associated Press (AP), "3 Calif. jail guards found guilty in death of mentally ill inmate"
CBS News, 01 June 2017; accessed 20 October 2018 * Elliott Williams (died in his

Tulsa County, Oklahoma Tulsa County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 669,279, making it the second-most populous county in the state, behind only Oklahoma County. Its county seat and largest city is Tulsa ...

jail cell due to complications from multiple injuries) * Missouri State Penitentiary riot (death of four inmates) * New Mexico State Penitentiary riot (33 inmate deaths and over 200 injuries) * Darren Rainey (scalded to death in shower at Dade Correctional Institution in 2012) *

Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...

died August 10, 2019, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York due to alleged suicide, although this has been subject to

conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...

. * Ruby Evans(blunt force trama)Lee Arrendale State Prison

Foreign custody by American agents (police, military, etc.)

= International custody law

= There are numerous laws and international treaties regarding treatment of foreigners, especially during wartime, of which the

Geneva Convention upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864 The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...

is the most widely recognized and internationally ratified. It contains provisions that classify and define both prisoners of war (as well as civilians and the wounded or infirm) and the manner in which they are to be treated. These include but are not limited to: murder, mutilation, hostage taking, and outrages upon personal dignity. These ratified documents are the base of US international custody law and can be seen to be misapplied in some of the proceeding cases.

= Examples of persons who have died in custody

= * Jamal Naseer (Afghan soldier allegedly beaten to death by US forces) * Nagem Hatab (Iraqi killed by elements and possible heart attack) * Manadel al-Jamadi (suspected terrorist tortured and killed)