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Making prisoner deaths visible: Towards a new epistemological approach
Philippa Tomczak1, Róisín Mulgrew2
1Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Incarceration : an International Journal of Imprisonment, Detention and Coercive Confinement
|April 27, 2026
Summary
Prisoner deaths are a significant human rights concern, with higher mortality rates than the general population. This study proposes improved data methods to accurately count and categorize prisoner deaths for better prevention strategies.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Human Rights Law
- Criminology
Background:
- States have a heightened duty to protect the right to life for individuals in custodial settings.
- Prisoner deaths are a global concern, with mortality rates up to 50% higher than non-imprisoned populations.
- Existing scholarly attention on prisoner deaths is fragmented, despite the scale of the issue.
Purpose of the Study:
- To problematize current epistemologies of prisoner death data.
- To highlight limitations in existing datasets, including poor definitions and reductive statistics.
- To propose a new epistemological approach for better visibility and prevention of prisoner deaths.
Main Methods:
- Critically analyzing existing datasets and medico-legal categorizations of prisoner deaths.
- Advocating for a shift in focus from 'deaths in prison' to 'prisoners who die'.
- Proposing the disaggregation of prisoner death data using rights-informed dimensions and explicitly defined, mutually exclusive categorizations.
Main Results:
- Current data collection and categorization methods obscure the true scale and characteristics of prisoner deaths.
- Existing statistical and medico-legal approaches are insufficient for understanding and addressing the issue.
- A new epistemological framework is needed to accurately represent prisoner mortality.
Conclusions:
- Accurate counting and disaggregation of prisoner death data are crucial for human rights and health equity.
- Implementing rights-informed dimensions and clear categorizations will enhance the visibility of prisoner deaths.
- This approach facilitates more effective prevention strategies to protect the right to life for incarcerated individuals.
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