Who Counts, Who's Accountable: Independent Scholarship and the Future of Carceral Mortality Oversight

Deaths in jails and prisons are rising, yet the federal government lacks a reliable system to track or prevent them. This essay examines the Department of Justice's failure to implement the Death in Custody Reporting Act and produce accurate and timely data on deaths behind bars. We call for transferring responsibility for carceral mortality monitoring to public health systems with capacity to identify multilevel drivers of death and support interventions that promote prevention and accountability. Shifting this responsibility affirms the value of lives lost and moves surveillance from error-prone, passive recordkeeping to epidemiological systems better equipped to account for how carceral institutions contribute to premature death and population health disparities. Amid political interference and instability in public health, independent scholars must help lead this transition. We outline a path forward focused on strengthening data integrity, improving timely public data access, expanding oversight, and building sustained research infrastructure rooted in public health. Until public health systems are fully empowered, independent scholars, advocates, and journalists remain essential to resisting the erasure of, and holding systems accountable for, preventable deaths behind bars. (Am J Public Health. 2026;116(4):552-560. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308360).