“This is one of 16 deaths in custody detailed in a report the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) commissioned in 2021. The details of what took place and who this individual was are vague because the report was heavily redacted. The agency hired an outside contractor to review the investigations of 16 deaths that took place in a handful of the more than 90 detention centers the BIA operates and/or funds on tribal lands. The BIA has yet to publish the report. However, POGO’s analysis of a redacted version of the report, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), raises troubling questions about the BIA’s compliance with federal requirements around reporting deaths in custody, whether those deaths are being adequately counted and investigated by the agency, and whether proposed reforms would address why these deaths occur in the first place.”
Program on Government Oversight. POGO. June 27. 2023. 9p.