California Deaths Behind Bars - Sources
- Carceral Ecologies at UCLA – We are a collective group that draw upon our institutional training and knowledge in order to supplement and expand on the formalized documentation of violences that occur within carceral systems. We work on a variety of projects researching the injustices of the prison industrial complex as they intersect with environmental injustices. All of these projects are community engaged or community led with a wide variety of partners, ranging from currently incarcerated individuals in the deep south to local LA groups like Dignity and Power Now and Stop LAPD Spying. Our Death in Custody work focuses on Los Angeles County Jails. Our first report analyzing and correcting autopsies of those deaths 2009-2019 is here.
- Prison Pandemic – This project, based at UC-Irvine, created a digital archive to preserve the stories of people who are incarcerated in California prisons and jails, their family members and loved ones, and the staff who work in these facilities. This living archive tracks people’s stories across time (with retrospective accounts from the start of the pandemic and moving forward) and place (across state prisons, county jails, federal prisons, and immigration detention facilities).
- UCLA Law Behind Bars Data Project – This project collects and analyzes public information about carceral mortality in prisons, jails, youth facilities, and immigration detention centers across the United States. The project’s centralized source of data enables greater oversight of and accountability for carceral institutions. This project, started in March 2020, initially focused on the impact of COVID behind bars and February 2023 announced a new phase for the project expanding the scope to deaths from all causes. California specific data is available here.