Pick one or more. We'll use your choices and the connected bills to help you send a message to your elected officials.
Answer the policy questions below or skip any that don't fit your view. We use only your answers and the bills they connect to for your message.
1 bill on this topic
“People in custody should be told how emergency contact information will be used, be free to refuse or update it without punishment, choose whether the facility contacts others for them, and have limits on unrelated use of that information.”
1 bill on this topic
“Detention staff should ask people entering custody who to contact in an emergency, whether a faith leader should be involved, and whether they have medical decision documents, then let them update contacts and medical paperwork while in custody.”
1 bill on this topic
“Detention agencies should keep emergency contacts, notification preferences, faith leader preferences, and medical decision information on a standard custody form, and should record each attempt to notify a contact, including who tried, when, how, and whether it worked.”
1 bill on this topic
“Detention agencies should record each attempt to notify a chosen contact after a custody death or serious medical event. DOJ should investigate complaints when notices, visits, or medical staff communication do not happen, but these notification rules should not create a new standalone right to sue.”
1 bill on this topic
“Detention agencies should ask people in custody about medical decision makers, faith contacts, and medical decision documents. When someone in custody becomes seriously ill or badly injured, agencies should quickly notify the chosen contact, share key medical facts, and give that contact a meaningful chance to visit and speak with medical staff.”
1 bill on this topic
“When someone dies in custody, detention agencies should quickly notify the emergency contact, share key known facts and later updates, tell family when an autopsy is ordered, provide completed autopsy results, and give next-of-kin time to decide about remains and belongings?”
1 bill on this topic
“When a person dies in custody, detention agencies should tell the chosen contact within 12 hours and between 6 a.m. and midnight local time. The notice should share basic facts, say whether the death is being investigated, be delivered respectfully by trained staff, and explain any planned autopsy and how to request the report?”
1 bill on this topic
“When DOJ uses an outside jail, prison, private facility, or other detention facility to hold people, the contract should require that facility to follow these custody death and medical notification rules or very similar rules?”
1 bill on this topic
“Detention agencies should ask people in custody who to contact in an emergency, who may receive their body or belongings after a death, and how that information may be used. People should not be pressured, fined, charged, or punished for refusing or giving information that later turns out to be wrong, and named contacts should not become legally or financially responsible just because they were listed.”
1 bill on this topic
“Federal Justice Department detention agencies should have to notify emergency contacts when someone in custody dies, is seriously injured, or becomes seriously ill, and facilities holding people for those agencies should have to use the same or very similar notification steps.”
1 bill on this topic
“The Justice Department should create sample policies for state, territorial, tribal, and local jails and prisons to notify emergency contacts after deaths or serious medical emergencies, and should help those agencies use them voluntarily.”
1 bill on this topic
“The Justice Department should have an Ombudsman in the Inspector General's office to receive and investigate complaints about problems with death notices, serious medical notices, communication with medical staff, and visits.”
1 bill on this topic
“Federal detention agencies should post their emergency notification policies online and give those policies to people when they enter custody.”
1 bill on this topic
“Detention agencies should deliver death, serious injury, and serious illness notifications in a compassionate and professional way, privately when possible, and in person by trained staff when available.”
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