Data Collection and Impact on Deaths in Custody

On today’s episode, we talk to Josh Vaughn and Brittany Hailer, journalists working to expose the deadly toll of Pennsylvania’s jails. Josh tells us about his efforts to track disparities in the deaths that jails in the state report and the number that actually occur. Brittany tells us how she has shown that the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh has one of the highest known death rates in the country. They also talk about their recent grant from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting to build a database of jail deaths in the state in the face of official ignorance from government at all levels.