Undercounted: The hidden deaths in America’s jails

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

News

4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over a four-year period between 2019 and 2023, about 1,000 people died annually in U.S. jails. Nearly one-third of those deaths don't have a cause of death, according to an analysis of federal data by The Marshall Project. To kick off our series "Undercounted: The hidden deaths in America’s jail," Here & Now’s Peter O’Dowd speaks with Jay Aronson, co-author of the book "Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do About It."

And, this year, jail officials in Philadelphia started putting digital wristbands on inmates that measure vital signs. They can alert staff when a medical emergency is happening. O’Dowd goes inside the city's jail complex with the Marshall Project’s Ilica Majahan to learn more.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com.
0:17.5	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:21.6	This isn't a problem that someone else has
0:25.6	or someone else has to deal with.
0:27.6	We all are at risk for dying in custody,
0:31.6	and we're all at risk for dying in jails.
0:34.6	For too many people, jail time can be a death sentence.
0:51.7	This is here and now anytime from NPR and WVR Boston. I'm Chris Bentley, and I'm here with
0:56.9	Peter O'Dowd, who has been traveling the country talking to people about a deadly problem with the
1:02.3	American justice system. We're talking about the hidden deaths in America's jails. That is,
1:08.4	people who often haven't been convicted of the crime they're accused of
1:11.5	dying in custody. It happens to hundreds of people every year, probably more. The full toll isn't
1:17.6	known for reasons we'll hear about later in the show. But Peter, you worked with the Marshall
1:22.8	Project to find out why so many people are dying in American jails.
1:28.0	What did you find?
1:29.7	Well, the Marshall Project, you know, this great news organization that focuses on criminal justice,
1:35.3	and they're really good at the data.
1:38.4	And they found a database that was published inadvertently on a federal website
1:43.6	that showed just how many people died
1:47.1	over the course of a four-year period between 2019 and 2023.
1:51.4	This was data that the public wasn't necessarily supposed to have, but the reporters there
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.