The Tucson Sentinel, with support from the Fund, has published a series of reports on inmate deaths in the Pima County, Arizona, jail. Last year, lead reporter Natalie Robb uncovered the case of a man who died at the jail – and whose family was never notified of his death. That story led Robb and others at the Sentinel to spend a year reviewing other cases at the jail. They found that the rate of deaths in the jail was higher than that of New York’s Rikers Island, and that drugs played a role in many of the cases. The investigation identified a lack of training and treatment, as well as staff shortages, for the chronic problems – which the Sentinel found persisted after a new sheriff was elected and after high-profile claims about reforming the local justice system.
Grantee’s yearlong series examines high rate of jail deaths in Pima County, Arizona
