Every death in custody counts.
An independent, sourced record of deaths, serious illness, and healthcare neglect among the people held in Michigan’s prisons — and an honest accounting of the gap between the official count and a complete one. Everything here is a documented minimum: every figure is sourced, dated, and tagged with how confident we are in it.
A death at the hospital is still a death in custody.
The federal standard is explicit
“If an inmate is transferred to a medical facility and dies there… absent the medical condition, [they] would have been in prison at the time of death… Although the person was not physically in a correctional facility at the time of death, the death is still one of an incarcerated individual.”
— U.S. DOJ, Bureau of Justice Assistance — DCRA Reporting Guidance & FAQ v5.2 (April 2025), p. 7
When a dying person is moved from prison to an outside hospital, recording the hospital as the place of death is correct. Declining to count it as an in-custody death is not. People Not Numbers counts every death, tags each by where it happened, and measures the difference.
How we count →Official vs. independent count
Live figures come online as the dataset is verified and published. The first release pairs the official MDOC Prisoner Mortality Report against an independent, all-locations count.
The facility that forced this into the open.
Michigan’s only women’s prison has drawn national attention amid a cluster of deaths and lawsuits over conditions and medical care. It is where this work begins.
4 deaths documented here, each corroborated by two or more independent outlets. Causes remain under investigation pending autopsy unless noted; every record links its sources.
2026-05-13 · in the facility · Undetermined — pending autopsy · Tier 2 — corroborated
Died days before a scheduled May 27 parole. Date reported as May 13 by most outlets (Detroit News, Bridge, CBS Detroit, Metro Times); FOX 2 reported May 14. Family alleges delayed medical response.
Sources: Detroit News · CBS Detroit · Michigan Public
2026-05-17 · in the facility · Undetermined — pending autopsy · Tier 2 — corroborated
Second WHV death in under a week. MDOC: "Life-saving measures were initiated at the prison by staff and continued by EMS upon their arrival to the facility, but without success." Reported diabetic; Flood Law alleges she was refused healthcare-unit access the day she died.
Sources: Michigan Public · CBS Detroit · Bridge Michigan
2026-06-06 · outside hospital · Undetermined — pending autopsy · Tier 2 — corroborated
Cleanest transfer case: escorted to the prison healthcare unit, then transported by ambulance to an outside hospital where she was pronounced dead. Hospital named as Trinity Health-Ypsilanti by CBS Detroit and as Trinity Health Ann Arbor by Bridge Michigan. Death date reported variously as June 6 (FOX 2/CBS), with June 7 early-morning pronouncement (CBS) and June 8 (Bridge/Metro Times). Serving 25–40 years for second-degree murder (Hillsdale).
Sources: CBS Detroit · FOX 2 Detroit · Bridge Michigan
2025-11 · place undetermined · Sepsis from a Haemophilus bacterial infection (reported by Bridge Michigan; not officially adjudicated) · Tier 2 — corroborated
Died November 2025; exact date not confirmed by a credible source (reporting indicates death followed a hospital stay, which would make this an outside_hospital case, but place of death is not confirmed by a named credible source, so it is left unknown). Bridge Michigan reports sepsis from a Haemophilus infection while in MDOC custody, with allegations of wrong medication and delayed/untreated dental care.
Sources: Bridge Michigan · Bridge Michigan
Deaths by facility and year.
Only figures we can attribute to a specific source are shown. Each carries its citation; contested or single-source numbers are withheld until corroborated.
| Facility | Year | Deaths | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility | 2024 | 3 | MDOC critical incident reports to the state legislature, via Bridge Michigan — "three in 2024" |
| Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility | 2025 | 4 | MDOC critical incident reports to the state legislature, via Bridge Michigan — "only four prisoner deaths at the facility in all of 2025" |
Know of a death we should document?
Families, attorneys, and people inside often know first. Share a name, facility, and date and we will source and verify it with care and discretion.
Report a death →Why this exists
People, not numbers. This record refuses to let a death disappear because of where it happened or how it was filed. Read the methodology.