Lawmaker Calls Justice Department’s Undercount of Prison Deaths ‘Shocking Gap’

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 20, 2021. Evelyn Hockstein-Pool/Getty Images

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) has called the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s failure to count nearly 1,000 prison deaths a “shocking gap.”

The report (pdf) on a 10-month bi-partisan investigation was revealed on Sept. 20 at a Senate hearing. The investigation focused on whether the DOJ has complied with the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA) of 2013.

“What we’ve found are shocking gaps in federal oversight,” Ossoff, who led the probe, said in an interview with Fox News Digital last week.

“For example, in 2021 alone, the Department of Justice failed to count nearly 1,000 deaths in jails and prisons nationwide.”

According to the Georgia lawmaker, the probe revealed that even when deaths were counted, reports on “more than a third of them ... failed to document the circumstances of death.”

Deaths Include Many Pre-trial Detainees

Ossoff further stressed that many of those who died were pre-trial detainees. “They’re in custody, they’ve not yet been tried or convicted of any crime,” he said.

The congressman pointed to testimony from Americans who are victims of the misconduct to prove this point.

“Folks like Ms. [Belinda] Maley, whose son, Matthew [Loflin], died of congestive heart failure—preventable— while he was awaiting trial, having been convicted of no crime,” Ossoff said.

“We played the audio of the last phone call that they shared, where the young man behind bars said he was going to die, said he was in pain,” the senator added. “But his mother couldn’t help him, and he didn’t get any help while he was inside.”

In his opinion, those deaths can be prevented if accurate information is made known. “We need to understand who’s dying, why they are dying, where they are dying, so that we can reduce deaths in custody across the country,” Ossoff said.

Ossoff stressed that the oath he took as a lawmaker, “to protect and defend the rights of all Americans,” includes the incarcerated.

‘Humanitarian Crisis Behind Bars’

The hearing last week by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which Ossoff chairs, looked for an explanation from the DOJ for its “failure to oversee prisons and jails.”

The DOJ itself conceded in a recent report (pdf) that it had failed to count some deaths in state prisons, and pledged to continue administering DCRA “with an emphasis on providing technical support, resources, and assistance to improve state reporting.”

Ossoff commented that the DOJ’s failure “undermines efforts to address the urgent humanitarian crisis ongoing behind bars across the country.”

It is not clear if the DOJ will face any consequences for failing to comply with the reporting mandate.

Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.