I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2718
To establish Federal policies and procedures to notify the next-of-kin or
other emergency contact upon the death, or serious illness or serious
injury, of an individual in Federal custody, to provide model policies
for States, units of local government, and Indian Tribes to implement
and enforce similar policies and procedures, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL8, 2025
Ms. K
AMLAGER-DOVE(for herself, Mr. MOOREof Alabama, Mr. RUTHER-
FORD, Mr. IVEY, Ms. NORTON, and Mrs. MCIVER) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To establish Federal policies and procedures to notify the
next-of-kin or other emergency contact upon the death,
or serious illness or serious injury, of an individual in
Federal custody, to provide model policies for States,
units of local government, and Indian Tribes to imple-
ment and enforce similar policies and procedures, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Family Notification 2
of Death, Injury, or Illness in Custody Act of 2025’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds the following: 5
(1) In the event an individual dies or becomes 6
seriously ill or injured while being detained, ar-7
rested, or while in law enforcement custody, their 8
family members deserve to be notified in a timely 9
and compassionate manner. Such notification is nec-10
essary to uphold the basic human dignity of incar-11
cerated people, a concept rooted in the Eighteenth 12
Amendment and Due Process Clause of the Four-13
teenth Amendment. 14
(2) The lack of a national standard governing 15
notification of death, illness, and injury that occur 16
in prisons, jails and police custody can lead to inhu-17
mane treatment of incarcerated people and their 18
loved ones. Poor communication regarding the death 19
of a loved one may exacerbate the grief and other 20
physical and psychological reactions of surviving rel-21
atives. 22
(3) On Easter Sunday of 2016, Wakiesha Wil-23
son was found dead in her cell in the Los Angeles 24
Police Department’s Metropolitan Detention Center. 25
Her mother called the police to determine Ms. Wil-26
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son’s whereabouts but was not initially given any in-1
formation. It was not until March 30, 3 days later, 2
when Ms. Wilson’s mother was told to call the cor-3
oner that she learned her daughter had died. 4
(4) In Georgia, Jennifer Bradley testified before 5
the General Assembly in September 2021 that she is 6
still waiting for answers about the stabbing death of 7
her 23-year-old son at Macon State Prison in March 8
2020. She told the committee that it was an incar-9
cerated person, not a prison official, who first noti-10
fied her of her son’s death. As of the hearing, she 11
had not yet received his belongings. 12
(5) Jordan Fisher found out about the death of 13
her father, Thomas Willis, at Valdosta State Prison 14
in Georgia when a letter she had sent her father was 15
returned back to her stamped: ‘‘Return to sender: 16
inmate dead’’. She was unable to obtain further in-17
formation about her father’s death from prison offi-18
cials. What information she uncovered came from 19
letters from her father’s cellmate. 20
(6) Sara Roth did not receive notice from the 21
Clayton County Jail in Georgia that her mother, Re-22
gina Salman, had fallen and suffered serious inju-23
ries, including a collapsed lung that required hos-24
pitalization. When her mother’s longtime boyfriend 25
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went to visit the jail, he was told Ms. Salman was 1
no longer there but was not provided additional in-2
formation. More than a month later, the hospital 3
called Ms. Roth and informed her that her mother 4
was on a ventilator and dying of a severe brain 5
tumor. Her mother was taken off the ventilator 3 6
days later without ever regaining consciousness. 7
(7) The failure to release autopsy results can 8
prevent families and loved ones from seeking justice 9
for wrongful deaths. After Harvey Hill was arrested 10
for trespassing and booked into jail in Canton, Mis-11
sissippi, guards beat him severely and kicked him re-12
peatedly in the head. Mr. Hill died in an isolation 13
cell. The State medical examiner’s report recorded 14
his death as a homicide, but it was not released until 15
25 months after his death and 13 months after the 16
statute of limitations expired for assault. 17
(8) In recent years, deaths in custody have 18
reached the highest levels on record. In 2018, two 19
years prior to the rapid spread of COVID–19 behind 20
bars, at least 1,120 people died while detained in 21
local jails and 4,513 people died in the custody of 22
State and Federal prisons. This represented an all- 23
time high in the number of deaths in both local jails 24
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and State prisons since the Bureau of Justice Sta-1
tistics (BJS) started collecting mortality data. 2
(9) The spread of COVID–19 behind bars sig-3
nificantly increased the death toll of people in cus-4
tody. At least 2,700 people are estimated to have 5
died of COVID–19 in prisons, jails and detention 6
centers, and the COVID–19 death rate in State and 7
Federal prisons between April 2020 and April 2021 8
was more than double that of the general population. 9
This is likely a significant undercount, given uneven 10
and inconsistent reporting. In some instances, people 11
are released from local jails to die in hospitals, 12
whether of COVID–19 or other causes, and their 13
deaths are not recorded as a death in custody. 14
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 15
In this Act: 16
(1) C
USTODIAL RECORD.—The term ‘‘custodial 17
record’’ means the central file of an individual in 18
custody. 19
(2) D
ETENTION AGENCY.—The term ‘‘detention 20
agency’’ means any government agency, including a 21
law enforcement agency or correctional agency, that 22
has the authority to detain people for violations or 23
alleged violations of criminal or civil law. 24
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(3) IN CUSTODY OF A DETENTION AGENCY .— 1
The term ‘‘in the custody of a detention agency’’ in-2
cludes, but is not limited to, a person who is de-3
tained, under arrest, or is in the process of being ar-4
rested, is en route to be incarcerated, or is incarcer-5
ated at a jail, prison, boot camp prison, contract cor-6
rectional facility, community correctional facility, or 7
other correctional facility (including any juvenile de-8
tention facility). 9
(4) T
AKING CUSTODY.—The term ‘‘taking cus-10
tody’’ means the point at which the detention agency 11
takes custody or control of an individual, including 12
during or prior to booking or intake screening as a 13
new commitment, in transfer from another institu-14
tion, as a court return, as a return from a writ, or 15
as a holdover. 16
SEC. 4. EMERGENCY CONTACT NOTIFICATION POLICIES 17
AND PROCEDURES. 18
(a) E
MERGENCYCONTACTNOTIFICATIONPOLICIES 19
ANDPROCEDURES.—Not later than 1 year after the date 20
of enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall, con-21
sistent with the requirements in this section— 22
(1) implement policies and procedures for the 23
detention agencies of the Department of Justice to 24
notify the next-of-kin or other emergency contact in 25
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the event of the death, or serious illness or serious 1
injury, of an individual in the custody of a detention 2
agency of the Department of Justice; and 3
(2) develop and distribute model policies and 4
procedures for detention agencies of States, terri-5
tories of the United States, Tribes, and units of 6
local government to notify the next-of-kin or other 7
emergency contact in the event of the death, or seri-8
ous illness or serious injury, of an individual in the 9
custody of that detention agency, and provide assist-10
ance to such detention agencies so that the agencies 11
may implement such procedures or substantially 12
similar processes. 13
(b) C
ONTENTS OFEMERGENCYCONTACTNOTIFICA-14
TIONPOLICIES ANDPROCEDURES.— 15
(1) E
MERGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION .—The 16
policies and procedures described in subsection (a) 17
shall address the collection and use of emergency 18
contact information for individuals in custody, in-19
cluding the following: 20
(A) E
MERGENCY CONTACT INFORMATION 21
REQUESTED UPON TAKING CUSTODY .—In the 22
case of an individual taken into the custody of 23
a detention agency, the agency shall, at the 24
time of taking custody, ask the individual— 25
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(i) for the name, last known address, 1
telephone number, and email of any person 2
or persons who shall be notified in the 3
event of the individual in custody’s death 4
or serious illness or serious injury, and 5
who are authorized to receive the individ-6
ual’s body; 7
(ii) the order in which the individual 8
in custody prefers the emergency contacts 9
described in clause (i) to be notified; 10
(iii) whether the individual in custody 11
would like a faith leader to participate in 12
such notification process and, if so, of 13
what denomination; and 14
(iv) whether the individual has in 15
place a medical proxy decision maker or 16
medical power of attorney, advanced direc-17
tive, or do not resuscitate order. 18
(B) E
MERGENCY CONTACT LIST MODIFICA -19
TION.—The detention agency shall permit an 20
individual in custody to modify their emergency 21
contact information at any time and provide a 22
periodic opportunity, but not less than annually, 23
for individuals in custody to update their emer-24
gency contact information and to fill out a med-25
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ical power of attorney, health care proxy, ad-1
vanced directive, a do not resuscitate order, or 2
any other similar document that complies with 3
the State law in the location of detention. 4
(C) D
ISCLOSURE OF PURPOSE AND PER -5
MISSIBLE USES OF EMERGENCY CONTACT IN -6
FORMATION.—The detention agency shall pro-7
vide the individual in custody information about 8
the purpose and permissible uses of the emer-9
gency contact information provided pursuant to 10
this section. 11
(D) S
TANDARDIZED EMERGENCY CONTACT 12
FORM.—The policies and procedures described 13
in subsection (a) shall include a template form 14
for recording the individual in custody’s next-of- 15
kin or other emergency contact and other infor-16
mation under subsection (b)(1)(A). 17
(E) C
USTODIAL RECORD .—The detention 18
agency shall record the individual’s next-of-kin 19
or other emergency contact information on the 20
form described in subparagraph (D) and in-21
clude that form in the individual’s custodial 22
record. 23
(2) N
OTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR DEATH , 24
SERIOUS ILLNESS, AND SERIOUS INJURY WHILE IN 25
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CUSTODY.—The policies and procedures described in 1
subsection (a) shall describe the notification require-2
ments in the event an individual dies, is seriously in-3
jured or becomes seriously ill while in the custody of 4
a detention agency, including the following: 5
(A) N
OTIFICATION TIMEFRAME .— 6
(i) N
OTIFICATION OF DEATH .—In the 7
event an individual dies while in the cus-8
tody of the detention agency, the detention 9
agency shall notify the individual’s emer-10
gency contact not later than 12 hours after 11
the declaration of death and between the 12
hours of 6:00 a.m. and to midnight local 13
time. 14
(ii) N
OTIFICATION OF SERIOUS ILL -15
NESS OR SERIOUS INJURY .—Notice to the 16
next-of-kin or other emergency contact 17
shall be made as soon as practicable after 18
the serious injury or serious illness occurs, 19
but in any event not later than 48 hours 20
from such determination and between the 21
hours of 6:00 a.m. and to midnight local 22
time. The notification should occur prior to 23
any required medical procedure, where 24
practical and if such timeframe will not 25
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delay treatment, but in any event, not later 1
than any medical discharge or clearance. 2
(B) D
EATH NOTIFICATION INFORMATION 3
REQUIRED.— 4
(i) I
N GENERAL.—Such notification 5
shall include all pertinent circumstances 6
surrounding the death, including— 7
(I) the official time of death; 8
(II) the cause of death (if deter-9
mined); and 10
(III) whether the individual’s 11
death is under investigation and the 12
reason for opening an investigation. 13
(ii) N
O CAUSE OF DEATH DETER -14
MINED.—If the cause of death has not 15
been determined at the time of the notifi-16
cation, the detention agency shall follow up 17
with the individual’s emergency contact 18
once such a determination has been made 19
to provide that information within 24 20
hours of such determination. 21
(C) S
ERIOUS ILLNESS OR SERIOUS INJURY 22
NOTIFICATION INFORMATION REQUIRED .—Such 23
notification shall include pertinent details of the 24
serious injury or serious illness, including— 25
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(i) the cause and nature of the serious 1
injury or serious illness event; 2
(ii) whether the individual is incapaci-3
tated, unconscious, or unable to speak; 4
(iii) whether any medical procedures 5
or lifesaving measures were, or will be, per-6
formed in response to the incident; and 7
(iv) contact information of the facility 8
and provider that is providing medical 9
treatment. 10
(D) D
EFINITION OF SERIOUS ILLNESS OR 11
SERIOUS INJURY.—The policies and procedures 12
described in subsection (a) shall define when a 13
medical event, episode, condition, accident, or 14
other incident constitutes a serious illness or se-15
rious injury. In defining such term, the Attor-16
ney General shall require notification at least in 17
cases in which— 18
(i) without immediate treatment for 19
the condition, death is imminent; 20
(ii) admission to a hospital is re-21
quired; 22
(iii) an individual is unconscious or in-23
capacitated such that they are incapable of 24
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providing consent for medical treatment; 1
and 2
(iv) an individual has been diagnosed 3
with a terminal illness. 4
(E) A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS RELATED 5
TO NOTIFICATION.—The policies and proce-6
dures described in subsection (a) shall include 7
the following: 8
(i) C
OMPASSIONATE AND PROFES -9
SIONAL NOTIFICATION .—Standards for 10
providing notification in a compassionate 11
and professional manner to minimize con-12
fusion and trauma suffered by the next-of- 13
kin or other emergency contact, includ-14
ing— 15
(I) a description of what informa-16
tion cannot be included in a voicemail, 17
such as notification of death or seri-18
ous illness; 19
(II) an offer for an in-person or 20
virtual face-to-face meeting in the 21
event a notification of a death in cus-22
tody is provided to the emergency con-23
tact during a live conversation over 24
the phone; and 25
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(III) a requirement that notifica-1
tions are provided in a private setting 2
and, when practicable, in person and 3
by a mental health professional, des-4
ignated case worker, or chaplain 5
trained in notification best practices. 6
(3) N
OTIFICATION OPT OUT.—Standards to en-7
sure that notifications should not occur where the 8
individual is advised of their right to notification and 9
instructs the agency not to do so, or where they re-10
quest the opportunity to provide such notification 11
personally, in which case the detention agency shall 12
provide an opportunity for the individual to deliver 13
such notification within the time period identified 14
above. 15
(4) B
ELONGINGS AND REMAINS .—Standards 16
for handling the belongings and remains of an indi-17
vidual who died in custody, including— 18
(A) returning the individual’s belongings 19
and remains, if desired, to the next-of-kin or 20
other emergency contact and providing at least 21
7 days for the emergency contact to make a de-22
cision as to the disposition of the belongings 23
and remains; 24
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(B) following up with the individual’s next- 1
of-kin or other emergency contact in the event 2
of a death in custody with the outcome of any 3
critical incident review or other internal inves-4
tigations not available at the time of the initial 5
notification; and 6
(C) documenting and maintaining within 7
the individual’s custodial record any incident of 8
unclaimed or a rejected claim for the body or 9
property of the deceased, including a detailed 10
description of where any unclaimed body and 11
property have been disposed. 12
(5) D
OCUMENTATION OF ATTEMPTS .—Require-13
ments that each notification attempt shall be docu-14
mented and maintained within the custodial record, 15
including— 16
(A) the staff name and corresponding 17
agency or department contact information for 18
each individual responsible for carrying out the 19
notification; 20
(B) the date and time of each successful 21
and unsuccessful contact; and 22
(C) the name and contact information to 23
which each attempt was made, and any reason 24
for failed or unsuccessful contact. 25
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(6) ADDITIONAL PROCEDURES IN THE EVENT 1
OF SERIOUS ILLNESS OR INJURY .—Standards to en-2
sure that detention agencies— 3
(A) implement medical proxy decision 4
maker or medical power of attorney, advanced 5
directive, or ‘‘do not resuscitate’’ orders; 6
(B) provide meaningful opportunity for 7
communication between the emergency contact 8
and medical staff caring for an individual in 9
custody; 10
(C) ensure emergency contacts are given 11
the meaningful opportunity to visit with a seri-12
ously ill or seriously injured individual in cus-13
tody, with the opportunity for in-person visita-14
tion when practicable; and 15
(D) provide information about an individ-16
ual’s emergency contact to an outside hospital 17
facility, and allow the hospital to follow its es-18
tablished bylaws concerning communication 19
with next-of-kin or other emergency contacts. 20
(7) A
UTOPSY NOTIFICATIONS .—Requirements 21
that, in the event an autopsy is performed following 22
a death in custody— 23
(A) the next-of-kin or other emergency 24
contact shall be informed not later than 12 25
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hours after any determination that an autopsy 1
shall be performed and given the option to re-2
ceive the results of the autopsy described in 3
subparagraph (B). Such notification shall in-4
clude the reason that the autopsy is being per-5
formed and the procedures by which the next- 6
of-kin or other emergency contact can obtain 7
the autopsy report; and 8
(B) pursuant to subparagraph (A), a copy 9
of the autopsy report and results shall be made 10
available to the next-of-kin or emergency con-11
tact upon completion. 12
(c) W
RITTENNOTIFICATIONPLAN.—The policies 13
and procedures described in subsection (a) shall instruct 14
detention agencies to develop a written notification plan, 15
or revise an existing written notification plan, that pro-16
vides for notification of a death, serious illness, or serious 17
injury of an individual in custody that conforms with the 18
policies described in subsection (b). Such written notifica-19
tion plans shall be published on the detention agency’s 20
website and made accessible to individuals in the agency’s 21
custody through inclusion in any intake information, 22
manuals, or other materials distributed or made available 23
to individuals upon being taken into custody. 24
(d) A
DDITIONALREQUIREMENTS.— 25
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(1) DOJ SUPPORT OF STATE AND LOCAL IM -1
PLEMENTATION OF MODEL POLICIES .—To support 2
implementation of the model policies and procedures 3
described in subsection (a)(2), the Attorney General 4
shall provide ongoing online training and directed 5
outreach to law enforcement, prosecution and de-6
fense agencies through national and State member-7
ship associations and by other means. 8
(2) P
UBLICATION OF EMERGENCY CONTACT 9
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES .—The Attorney Gen-10
eral, acting through the Assistant Attorney General 11
of the Office of Justice Programs, shall publish the 12
policies and procedures described in subsection (b) 13
on its website and shall include a copy of the proce-14
dures described subsection (b)(1) in any intake in-15
formation, manuals, or other materials distributed 16
or made available to individuals upon being taken 17
into custody of a detention agency of the Depart-18
ment of Justice. 19
(3) I
NTERGOVERNMENTAL SERVICE CON -20
TRACTS.—Any Department of Justice detention 21
agency, including the U.S. Marshals Service, that 22
contracts with State, municipality, Tribal, private, or 23
other entities to house individuals in custody shall 24
require adoption of the procedures or substantially 25
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similar processes as described in subsection (b)(2) as 1
a condition of such contract or contract renewal as 2
soon as practicable but not later than 7 days of tak-3
ing the individual into custody. 4
(4) D
EPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICE OF IN -5
SPECTOR GENERAL TO MONITOR COMPLIANCE WITH 6
NOTIFICATION AND COMMUNICATION REQUIRE -7
MENTS.—The Attorney General shall appoint an 8
Ombudsman within the Department of Justice with 9
the authority to receive and investigate complaints 10
regarding the failure to provide the notifications re-11
quired in the Act, and inadequate notifications, and 12
the failure to provide opportunities for communica-13
tion and visitation in accordance with this Act. 14
(e) C
ONFIDENTIALITY.—Information collected under 15
this Act by a detention agency, or any agent working on 16
behalf of such detention agency, may not be disclosed or 17
used for any purpose except as provided in this Act. 18
(f) V
OLUNTARYCOLLECTION.— 19
(1) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Nothing in this 20
Act shall be construed to require the individual in 21
custody to provide the emergency contact informa-22
tion described in subsection (a). 23
(2) N
O COERCION.—The detention agency may 24
not— 25
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(A) attempt to coerce or persuade the indi-1
vidual in custody to provide the information de-2
scribed in subsection (a); or 3
(B) impose a penalty, fine, or fee on the 4
individual for the individual’s failure or refusal 5
to provide the information requested or for pro-6
viding information that is later determined to 7
be inaccurate. 8
(g) I
NADMISSIBILITY.—No information disclosed or 9
used in violation of this Act may be admitted into any 10
State, Federal, or other court as evidence or for any other 11
purpose, except in the case of information that has been 12
discovered through any independent means. 13
SEC. 5. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 14
Nothing in this Act may be construed to create any 15
legal or financial obligation on the part of any individual 16
designated as a next-of-kin or other emergency contact 17
under this Act. 18
Æ
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