Iwai Yoshiko, Behne Michael Forrest, Brinkley-Rubinstein Lauren
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 340 MacNider Hall Campus, 333 South Columbia Street, Box 7240, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7240, USA.
Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Health Justice. 2023 Sep 12;11(1):37. doi: 10.1186/s40352-023-00232-x.
Policies for next-of-kin (NOK) notification and disposition of remains surrounding death are unclear across the United States' (US) carceral systems. The goal of this study was to collect data on carceral system policies pertaining to NOK notification and disposition of remains for individuals who are incarcerated. We collected publicly available operational policies for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 50 state prison systems, and the Washington D.C. jail for a total of 53 systems.
Approximately 70% of systems had available policies on NOK notification and disposition of remains. Few systems had information on time constraints for NOK notification, notifying parties or designated contacts person, and ultimate disposition of unclaimed remains. Several systems had no accessible policies.
Across the US, carceral systems vary in policies for notifying NOK after the death of an incarcerated individual and their processes for the disposition of remains. Carceral and health systems should work towards standardization of policies on communication and disposition of remains after death of an individual who is incarcerated to work towards equity.
在美国的监狱系统中，关于近亲（NOK）通知以及死亡后遗体处理的政策并不明确。本研究的目的是收集有关监狱系统中与被监禁者的近亲通知和遗体处理相关政策的数据。我们收集了联邦监狱管理局、移民和海关执法局、50个州监狱系统以及华盛顿特区监狱的公开运营政策，共计53个系统。
约70%的系统有关于近亲通知和遗体处理的可用政策。很少有系统提供关于近亲通知的时间限制、通知对象或指定联系人以及无人认领遗体最终处理的信息。有几个系统没有可获取的政策。
在美国，各监狱系统在被监禁者死亡后通知近亲的政策以及遗体处理流程方面存在差异。监狱和卫生系统应努力实现被监禁者死亡后遗体沟通和处理政策的标准化，以促进公平。
