BJS: Bureau of Justice Statistics

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The Death in Custody Reporting Act does not apply to federal law enforcement agencies or the Federal Bureau of Prisons. However, BJS has collected annual counts of deaths in federal prisons, by cause of death, as part of the National Prisoners Statistics program since the 1970s. While the cause of death categories are slightly different than those used for the DCRP collections from state prisons and local jails, these data may be useful for comparative purposes.

Deaths of prisoners under federal jurisdiction, by cause of death, 1999-2008
 
Year Number of federal prisoner deaths, by cause Federal prisoner count, yearend
All
causes		 Illness* AIDS-
related		 Suicide Accidental
self-injury		 Execution Caused by
another		 Unspecified
cause
2008 399 345 13 21 6 0 13   1 173,896
2007 368 313 10 18 0 0 12  15 174,106
2006 328  294  12  12  2  0  8  0  170,581
2005 388  327  27  13  6  0  15     0  166,462
2004 333  295  18  11  6  0  3  0  159,897
2003 347  315  14    6  4  1  5  2  152,750
2002 335  289  17  17  5  0  3  4  144,540
2001 303  247  22  18  6  2  8  0  137,116
2000 285  242  21  13  4  0  5  0  130,683
1999 268  235  16  12  0  0  5  0  121,854
* Excludes AIDS-related deaths.
Source: National Prisoners Statistics program, Bureau of Justice Statistics,
U.S. Department of Justice.

 

 

 

Mortality rate per 100,000 federal prisoners, by cause of death, 1999-2008
 
Year Mortality rate per 100,000 federal prisoners, by cause
All
causes		 Illness* AIDS-
related		 Suicide Accidental
self-injury		 Execution Caused by
another		 Unspecified
cause
2008 229 198 7 12 3 0 7 1
2007 211 180 6 10 0 0 7 9
2006 192 172 7 7  1  0  5  0
2005 233 196 16 8  4  0  9  0
2004 208 184 11 7  4  0  2  0
2003 227 206 9 4  3  1  3  1
2002 232 200 12 12  3  0  2  3
2001 221 180 16 13  4  1  6  0
2000 218 185 16 10  3  0  4  0
1999 220 193 13 10  0  0  4  0
Note: Detail may not add to total rate due to rounding. Mortality rates are per 100,000 prisoners held under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at yearend
* Excludes AIDS-related deaths.
Source: National Prisoners Statistics program, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice

 

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