0 people, most recent first. Choose a name, or a dot on the map.
54 of them are recorded here one by one, 51 by name. Another 132 are known only as numbers: deaths the official yearly counts report, for the same years, beyond the people recorded here.
At least 8 people have died in custody in South Dakota so far in 2026. The most recent named here is Michael Kaiser, who died on September 8, 2026 at South Dakota State Penitentiary.
Each dot is one of them, held in a jail, prison or lockup, or executed by the state. Some died after abuse by officers; others from withdrawal, overdose or untreated illness; many by suicide. Almost all of them show the state’s neglect of the people in its custody.
This is an undercount: many deaths are never made public, and older records are hard to find.
0 people, most recent first. Choose a name, or a dot on the map.
One mark per person, by the year they died. Choose the box at the side to see every decade. Coverage is uneven: recent deaths come mostly from local news since 2000, older ones from official lists and historical newspapers, so the shape shows what was recorded as much as how many people died.
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has published yearly counts of deaths in South Dakota's state prisons, as the state reported them, for 2001 to 2019, but not who died. Most of those deaths, especially from illness, never appear in the news, so far fewer are named here. The gap is people still to be identified.
These are the counts the state itself reported to the federal government. The series ends in 2019 and has not been updated since.
Source: The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics Mortality in State and Federal Prisons, 2001–2019. Official counts are deaths in state prisons only; county jails report to no central agency.
| Year | Reported by BJS | Recorded here |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 12 | 2 |
| 2018 | 6 | 1 |
| 2017 | 12 | 1 |
| 2016 | 5 | 0 |
| 2015 | 7 | 0 |
| 2014 | 7 | 3 |
| 2013 | 6 | 0 |
| 2012 | 9 | 0 |
| 2011 | 11 | 0 |
| 2010 | 8 | 0 |
| 2009 | 4 | 0 |
| 2008 | 6 | 0 |
| 2007 | 8 | 0 |
| 2006 | 4 | 0 |
| 2005 | 4 | 0 |
| 2004 | 5 | 0 |
| 2003 | 11 | 0 |
| 2002 | 11 | 0 |
| 2001 | 4 | 0 |
Each bar is a source and the years its records cover. Sources checked on a schedule are searched again for new records; the others were collected once.
Questions, a correction, or a death I’ve missed? Email me at orion.j.taylor@gmail.com.