Dying in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison

Abstract

This report, published by the Promise of Justice Initiative, details the deaths of 25 men in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison due to unconstitutional conditions of confinement. Focusing on data from 2012 to 2016, the report notes that inadequate medical and mental healthcare and insufficient staff training has left to a mortality rate among prisoners that is several times higher than the national average. Suggested recommendations made by this report include increased funding for prisoner health services, better training by all custodial staff, and greater transparency so that the public has more awareness of the jail’s conditions and of injuries and deaths that occur there.

Keywords: constitutional law, prisons, prisoners, penology