If your incarcerated spouse falls deathly ill, the Duval jail might not tell you

While acknowledging that privacy laws exist and must be followed, Michele Deitch, director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas, said it’s inhumane that families are left in the dark about the health status of incarcerated loved ones.

“It is absolutely a reflection of the inadequacy of the medical care provided to people inside [jails],” Deitch said.

“There needs to be a better process making sure that information is collected up front,” Deitch said. “The policy should be very clear that any medical thing that’s significantly out of the ordinary or that renders the person unable to communicate on their own… the person’s medical contact should be notified.”