Delaware requires custody death reports and checks agency compliance

Police and correctional agencies must report custody deaths to the Statistical Analysis Center. Medical examiners must mark custody deaths in Delaware’s electronic death records. Custody includes police pursuits, encounters people cannot leave, arrests, secure transport of incarcerated people, and confinement in state or contracted correctional facilities. Adult corrections and youth rehabilitation agencies are covered. Agencies must use the center’s forms, name an employee as a contact, and answer information requests within a reasonable time. The Criminal Justice Council oversees federal reporting compliance and may issue forms, guidance, and rules. The Statistical Analysis Center manages reporting. Agencies must confirm that no custody death occurred within 15 calendar days after each federal fiscal year quarter ends.

The Criminal Justice Council must report whether agencies and the council meet reporting duties. Delaware’s Department of Justice must check the report’s accuracy and share its findings. The reports cover whether agencies submit required reports and whether the Criminal Justice Council submits the required federal report. Both reports must go to lawmakers through legislative leaders, legislative services officials, the state archives director, the Attorney General, and the Governor. The Department of Justice must also send its findings to the Criminal Justice Council. The council’s report is due on or before December 1 each year. The Department of Justice’s review and findings report are due on or before July 1 each year.

Agencies cannot receive certain federal and state funding after the Criminal Justice Council formally finds that they failed to meet the law’s requirements. The restriction applies to law-enforcement agencies, including adult corrections and youth rehabilitation agencies. The council must make a formal decision under the state’s administrative case procedures. The restriction covers specified federal law-enforcement assistance grants and state funds allocated under Title 11, Chapter 41, subchapter II. The funding block lasts from the council’s formal finding of failure until its formal finding that the agency meets the requirements.