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Investigative Unit: Coroner denies public records request for Elayn Hunt death records
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ST. GABRIEL - The Department of Corrections sent documents to the WBRZ Investigative Unit detailing how many in-custody deaths have happened at Elayn Hunt Correctional over the last two years.
According to their data, 82 inmates died in the last 24 months. Only seven were classified as overdoses. Five are pending autopsy results. One is undetermined
In an email, the Department of Corrections said it "does not receive the coroner's investigation report" after an autopsy — which means any of these types of deaths could have been the result of a drug overdose but weren't labeled as such.
Loyola Law professor Andrea Armstrong is part of a team that tracks in-custody deaths across the state and country.
"A lot of the records that we get will say pending determination or pending autopsy results. What we're finding is that when we request updated records, they're never being updated," she said.
In her research, she's found that drug-related deaths in prisons like Elayn Hunt are wildly under-reported.
"I think not just in our records, but national general population studies show that we are undercounting drug-related deaths, that they are miscoded sometimes as heart attacks, often."
The data DOC provided us shows 16 "Heart" related deaths.
Early in our investigation, we were provided with a list of eight inmates who died recently at Hunt that we were told we needed to look into. Our source alleged these were all overdose deaths.
We sent public records requests to the Iberville Parish Coroner's Office for each of their causes of death, and were sent this response from their lawyer, denying our request.
"Due to the circumstances surrounding the deaths, it is the understanding of the coroner's office that the deaths of said individuals remain under investigation. Because criminal litigation may be anticipated, the records you have requested are exempt from production."
Armstrong says she has received the same response from other entities before, which to her understanding as a lawyer is not legal grounds for a denial.
While Louisiana law does exempt some records from public release due to pending investigation or possible litigation, it specifically exempts a fact of death letter or coroner's report. (La. R.S. 44:19)
"Coroners have specific public records obligations when there's a death behind bars," she said.
She says without more transparency across the board, people behind bars will keep dying preventable deaths.
"If we don't understand why they are dying, then we can't prevent future deaths."
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