| Last month, The Republic published an investigation that found that the Maricopa County Jail system has one of the highest death rates in the country. |
| This week, I spoke to Criminal Justice Reporter Jimmy Jenkins , who authored the investigation. He talked to me about the scale of the Maricopa County Sheriffâs Office incarcerated population, what tipped him off about the shocking amount of deaths and how MCSO has reacted after we published the report. |
| With that, hereâs what Jimmy had to say. |
Why we investigated jail deaths
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| You cover the criminal justice system for The Arizona Republic, including the carceral system, where youâve reported on various jail deaths. At the end of last year, you wrote about a man who died in a Pima County jail cell in 2022 after corrections officers repeatedly tased him while he was restrained. Your latest investigation focuses on Maricopa County and the deaths that have occurred in the jail system. What led you to investigate Maricopa County jails? |
| Jimmy: The Maricopa County Sheriffâs Office is part of my beat as a Criminal Justice reporter at The Arizona Republic. It is one of the largest sheriffâs offices in the nation, with upward of 3,000 employees, including deputies, jail guards and civilians. |
| The office patrols unincorporated areas of the county and municipalities without a designated police force. It also serves Superior Court orders and warrants, collects delinquent taxes, coordinates search and rescue missions and oversees the countyâs five jails. |
| The jails house around 6,000 people each day. Such a powerful agency that is responsible for the lives of so many people and commands a budget of more than $500 million annually deserves our scrutiny. I think itâs important to report on the conditions of incarceration in our nationâs jails and prisons, because they are very expensive facilities that our tax dollars are paying for. |
âWe were able to confirm deaths had been underreportedâ
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| How did you find out about the deaths? Who were your sources and how did you find them? |
| Jimmy: Over the past few years, I noticed an increase in the number of deaths in the Maricopa County jails. The officially reported numbers were bad. But after talking to the families of the deceased, as well as attorneys who work on jail litigation, and current and former employees in the jails, I got the sense that things might be even worse. |
| Families told me their loved ones had died in the jail, but the Sheriffâs Office had not made any public announcement of the death. Attorneys would tell me they were representing clients whose family member had died in the jail, but their names were not on the lists of in-custody jail deaths provided by the Sheriffâs Office. |
| We were able to confirm deaths had been underreported after comparing information from the Sheriffâs Office with public records from the Maricopa County Medical Examinerâs Office. |
Feedback from the community
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| Has there been a reaction from the county following your reporting? |
| Jimmy: After we found that Sheriffâs Office had been underreporting jail deaths, the agency revised the number of in-custody deaths it had submitted to the federal government for the past several years. The state agency in-charge of recording in-custody death statistics updated their records and website with the new information from the Maricopa County Sheriffâs Office. |
| The County acknowledged the increase in deaths in recent years, and the sheriff committed to continue efforts to address the rising number of in-custody deaths. |
| We have received many comments and a lot of feedback from community members who are outraged by the number of deaths in the jails, as well as calls from political leaders for the jails to do more to prevent in custody deaths, which we will be publishing in a forthcoming story. |
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