New Custody Act Mandates 12-Hour Family Notification for Death or Serious Injury in Jails

If you have a loved one who is detained, arrested, or incarcerated, this new legislation aims to ensure you won't be left in the dark during a crisis. The Family Notification of Death, Injury, or Illness in Custody Act of 2025 establishes a national standard requiring detention agencies—from local police departments to federal prisons—to notify a person’s emergency contact within a strict timeframe if that individual dies, is seriously injured, or becomes seriously ill while in custody.

This bill steps in because currently, there’s no unified rule, leading to heartbreaking situations where families learn about a death or serious injury days or even weeks later. Under this Act, federal agencies must implement new policies within one year, and the Attorney General is tasked with creating model policies to help state and local facilities adopt similar rules. The core goal is to inject compassion and clear procedure into what is often a chaotic and traumatic process for families.

The 12-Hour Countdown and Medical Directives

The most critical change is the timeline for tragic news. If a person dies in custody, the detention agency must notify the emergency contact within 12 hours of the death being declared. This notification must happen between 6:00 a.m. and midnight local time, and staff must be trained to deliver the news compassionately. For serious illness or injury—a definition the Attorney General must iron out, but which includes hospital admissions, suicide attempts, or being unconscious—agencies must contact the emergency person as soon as possible, providing details about the event and the treating medical facility.

For you, the reader, this means if your sibling is detained and suffers a serious medical event, the facility is required to share information like whether life-saving procedures were performed and contact details for the hospital. Crucially, the bill requires agencies to collect vital documents at intake, such as medical proxies, powers of attorney, and Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) orders. This ensures that if a construction worker is detained and then suffers a stroke, the medical team has immediate access to their wishes and the correct person can make crucial decisions.

The Fine Print: What This Doesn’t Do

While this legislation creates much-needed standards for humane communication, it’s important to look at the escape clauses. Section 5, the “Rules of Construction,” explicitly states that this Act does not create a private right of action. In plain language, this means if a jail fails to notify you within the 12-hour window, you cannot sue them in court based solely on a violation of this law. Enforcement relies entirely on the Department of Justice’s oversight and internal monitoring, not on the affected families.

This lack of direct legal recourse for families is a significant detail. It means that while the policy is strong on paper, accountability for failure rests with the agency itself, rather than allowing a family to challenge a proven failure in court. It’s a classic trade-off: establishing a clear, national standard that benefits everyone, but limiting the individual's power to enforce that standard when it breaks down. Agencies, especially local ones, will also face the administrative burden of developing and posting these detailed plans, training staff, and updating their intake procedures to comply with the new rules.