S. 1322 — Family Notification of Death, Injury, or Illness in Custody Act of 2025

This section states congressional findings that (1) families of individuals who die or become seriously ill or injured while detained, arrested, or in law enforcement custody deserve timely and compassionate notification to uphold the basic human dignity of incarcerated people under the Eighth Amendment and Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment; and (2) the lack of a national standard for such notifications can lead to inhumane treatment of incarcerated people and their loved ones and exacerbate survivors' grief and related physical and psychological effects.

This section defines terms for use in the Act, including (1) "custodial record" as the central file of an individual in custody; (2) "detention agency" as any government agency, including a law enforcement or correctional agency, that has authority to detain individuals for violations or alleged violations of criminal or civil law; and (3) "in custody of a detention agency" as an individual who, after being detained and booked into a jail or holding facility for a federal, state, or local offense, is physically housed at a jail, prison, boot camp prison, contract correctional facility, community correctional facility, halfway house, or other correctional facility (including any juvenile detention facility) or has been or is being transferred to a medical facility from a correctional facility.

This section directs the Attorney General, not later than one year after the date of enactment, to (1) implement policies and procedures for Department of Justice detention agencies (i.e., primarily Bureau of Prisons and Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities) requiring notification of a detainee's next of kin or emergency contact in the event of death, serious illness, or serious injury; and (2) develop and distribute model policies, with implementation assistance, for state, territorial, tribal, and local detention agencies to do the same. The required policies and procedures incorporate best practices addressing (1) collection of emergency contact details (i.e., name, address, phone, email, faith leader preference, and medical proxy information); (2) notification timelines and content, including for death within 12 hours (between 6:00 a.m. and midnight local time) with circumstances, time, cause, and investigation status, and for serious illness or injury as soon as practicable with cause, nature, incapacity status, treatments, and medical contacts; (3) compassionate delivery by trained personnel via phone or in-person (followed by written condolence letter), with in-person point of contact; (4) definition of serious illness or injury, requiring notification at minimum for imminent death without treatment, hospital admission, suicide attempt, unconsciousness/incapacity precluding consent, or terminal diagnosis; (5) a template emergency contact form for detainee records; and (6) allowing updates to contact information, completion of advance directives under state law, return of belongings/remains, and documentation of notification attempts.

This section specifies rules of construction stating that nothing in the Act may be construed to (1) create any legal or financial obligation for any individual designated as next of kin or other emergency contact; (2) require an individual in the custody of a detention agency to provide emergency contact information; or (3) create a private right of action to enforce any provision of the Act.