Originally Posted by
keithj 
That's a fairly absurd notion and not very accurate. I'd bet we'd hear about it if the state was killing hundreds or thousands of people. A single death while incarcerated is a big deal. Big news and big investigation. I'm guessing it's very rare.
Why would it get reported? Any deaths I ever heard about from the prison system have been suicides and homicides.
I understand that a lot of people don't care about inmates, but the only stories that get reported are the ones that the news media decides to report. There isn't a lot of sympathy for addicts (I count alcoholics as addicts), so why would the media report detoxes gone bad? Sadly, this issue isn't exactly one that many people care about.
Thanks for this thread, Eroica. This is something I've never thought of before. I'm interested to find out more. I would like to know the statistics, but I'm sure cause of death is a lot harder to find out due to privacy laws and the way the government likes to jerk people around when it comes to the Freedom of Information Act.