Summary

The Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) is required by both Illinois state legislation (730 ILCS 210/) and federal legislation (34 U.S.C. § 60105) to collect, report, and publish specific data on deaths that occur among individuals in the custody of Illinois local and state law enforcement agencies or as a result of an officer’s use of force.

ICJIA collects death in custody data from four sources:

  • The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) Planning & Research Unit,
  • The IDOC Jail Detention Standards Unit (JDSU),
  • The Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice (IDJJ), and
  • The Illinois State Police (ISP).

Additionally, law enforcement agencies may report deaths in custody via ICJIA’s online reporting tool. ICJIA has collaborated with state agencies to modify pre-existing death-in-custody reporting procedures to collect all data under state and federal legislation.

In addition to data collection, management, reporting, and publishing requirements for deaths in custody, ICJIA is statutorily required to publish an annual report detailing Illinois deaths in custody.

Key findings from the analysis of death in custody data collected in the calendar year 2024 include:

  • Agencies reported 129 deaths.
  • State prisons accounted for 76.0% of all deaths (98 deaths).
  • 51.2% of deaths were of Black individuals.
  • 98.4% of deaths were male individuals.
  • While 51.9% of deaths were attributed to natural causes, in 26.4% of cases, the manner of death had not been reported by the time of this publication.

ICJIA follows a multi-part strategy to improve data collection and auditing procedures to better comply with reporting requirements (730 ILCS 210/). This strategy includes:

  1. Review of external datasets and media reports to identify missing cases.
  2. Conduct a study of efforts to reduce deaths in custody.
  3. Create a system to monitor updates to death-in-custody reports due to revised reports and/or audits.