/Between 2019 and 2023, about 1,000 people died annually in U.S. jails. Nearly one-third of those deaths don’t have a cause of death, according to an analysis of federal data by the Marshall Project.

In the U.S., there are statistics on just about everything. We know how many people die from heart disease, cancer and childbirth. So why is it so difficult to know exactly how many people die in jail? We ask Jay Aronson, co-author of the book “ Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do About It .”

6 questions with Jay Aronson

 Why is it so difficult to know exactly how many people die in jail

“I think there are two things going on. One is that we count what we care about. If we care about something, we do a really good job of counting it. And the other thing is

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