Death, Illness, and Notification in Wyoming Prisons

There are two directions a death or a serious illness can travel through a prison wall, and a family usually only thinks about it when it is already happening.

One direction is from the outside in. Someone in the family is dying or has died, and you need the prison to tell your incarcerated person, and you are wondering whether they can be there for it. The other direction is from the inside out. Your person is the one who is sick, or who has died in custody, and you are trying to find out what happened and what you are allowed to do. This article walks both directions for Wyoming, run by the Wyoming Department of Corrections.

I am going to tell you something up front, because I learned it the hard way and I do not want it to land on you cold. An approval that has been granted is not the same as your person being there. Those are two different things, and the gap between them is where families get hurt.

When the Death or Illness Is on the Outside

If someone in the family is gravely ill or has died and you want your incarcerated person notified, the channel is the facility, usually through the chaplain or the assigned case manager. Call the institution, explain the emergency, and be ready to provide the family member's name and relationship, the funeral home or hospital name and location, and what is happening. Be ready to provide documentation such as the funeral home's confirmation or a physician's statement about the severity of a serious illness.

Whether your person can leave the prison to be there is a separate and harder question.

Attending a Funeral or a Bedside Visit in Wyoming

Wyoming handles emergency trips through the facility's discretionary process for furloughs and special escorts, set by Department policy. State law authorizes the Department to grant furloughs and special escorts for specified purposes including funerals and hospital visits to terminally ill family members, and approval at the facility level involves the warden and, depending on the type of leave, authorization from Department leadership. Wyoming's policies are not fully published online, so the practical step for families is to contact your person's case manager at the facility as soon as the emergency arises.

Read the following as the realities.

It is discretionary. Approval is not guaranteed. The facility evaluates each request based on your person's custody level, behavior, security classification, the relationship to the deceased or ill family member, and public safety. Not everyone will qualify.

Document everything and act fast. The sooner the facility receives verified information, the sooner the process can begin. Funeral and bedside visit requests have a narrow window, and the more information you provide up front, the better positioned the case manager is to move it forward.

Now the part I promised you.

I was told I had a five-hour furlough to attend my mother's funeral. I was told to get dressed and wait for the escort. I got dressed. I waited. The escort never came. Word going around was that the warden had been moved or was on leave, and the assistant warden denied it. Nobody walked up to me with a form. The day just passed. What I got, in the end, was a free phone call.

I tell you that not to make you bitter before you start, but to make you smart. An approval that exists on paper is not a person standing at a graveside. Administrators change. Acting wardens reverse decisions. Escort details fall through. If you are pinning the family's grief on the hope that your person will physically be there, you are building on sand. Plan the service around the family that can be there. If your person makes it, that is a mercy. If they do not, you were not depending on it, and the grief is heavy enough without that.

Ask about a phone call and a video option at the same time. Those can often happen faster than a formal leave request, and the chaplain can help.

When the Illness or Death Is on the Inside

The other direction is harder, because you have less control and the information comes slower.

If your person is seriously ill in custody. Push for medical information, knowing that medical privacy rules limit what staff will share unless the incarcerated person has authorized release of information to you. Encourage your person, while able, to sign a release naming you. If the condition is serious or terminal, learn about Wyoming's medical parole now, not later.

Wyoming medical parole. Wyoming has a medical parole statute, and the Wyoming Board of Parole is the decision-maker. With the exception of inmates sentenced to death or life imprisonment without parole, the Board may grant medical parole to any inmate who meets one of the medical criteria.

Wyoming's law sets out three medical tracks. The first covers people who are seriously ill. The second covers people who are permanently physically incapacitated as a result of an irreversible injury, disease, or illness, to the point that significant physical activity is impossible, they are dependent on permanent medical intervention for survival, or they are confined to a bed, wheelchair, or similar assistive device with significantly limited mobility. The third covers people with a terminal illness caused by injury or disease that is predicted to result in death within twelve months of the application for parole.

For inmates who otherwise would not be eligible for parole because of their sentence type but who meet the medical criteria, the Board can also recommend commutation to the Governor to achieve parole eligibility.

How the Board approaches it. The Board imposes conditions on medical parole, including periodic medical progress reports at intervals of not more than six months. Medical parole can be revoked if the parolee violates a condition, or if the medical condition that justified the release no longer exists or has improved enough that the justification is gone. When a medical parole hearing is scheduled for an inmate who is otherwise ineligible for parole, the Board notifies the prosecuting attorney and the sentencing court, and gives them the opportunity to provide input.

What families can do here. Because the process runs through the Department and the Board, push the prison's medical staff to document the diagnosis, prognosis, and functional limitations as fully as possible. Make sure the treating physician or physicians document the condition in terms of the statutory tracks. Ask in writing that your person be considered for medical parole and that the Board be notified. Help build a release plan for where your person would live and receive care, since the Board will want to know the plan is workable. Consider an attorney. Start early, because the process involves multiple steps and a terminal illness does not wait.

If your person dies in custody. The Department attempts to notify the family using the emergency contact your person has on record, which is exactly why that contact must be correct now. Make sure the listed person is reachable and will tell the rest of the family.

The coroner and the investigation. Wyoming uses a county-based system of elected coroners, one for each county. By state law, the death of a prisoner, trustee, inmate, or patient of any county or state corrections facility is a coroner's case, whether or not the death was anticipated. This means any death in a Wyoming prison goes to the county coroner regardless of how expected or unexpected it was. The coroner investigates and determines whether an autopsy is necessary. If the coroner's appointed physician determines an autopsy is needed, one is performed.

Claiming the body and getting answers. The body is released to the next of kin, generally through a funeral home, once the coroner's work allows. Make your intention to claim your person known promptly, and be clear about who the legal next of kin is, since disputes between family members slow everything down. Contact the county coroner in the county where the death occurred for information about the cause and manner of death and any autopsy findings. The death certificate is available through Wyoming vital records. If the family cannot afford a funeral, ask the funeral home and the county about assistance.

What Families Can Do Before a Crisis

Most of the pain in these situations comes from decisions that were never made in calm times. A few things you can do now, while no one is dying:

Make sure your person has the correct emergency contact and next of kin recorded with the Department, and keep it current. This determines who the prison calls.

Have your person sign a release of information naming the family members who should be allowed to speak with medical staff. Without it, privacy rules will keep you in the dark.

Ask your person's case manager in advance about the process for emergency leave for funerals and critical illness visits, so you are not figuring it out in real time.

If your person is seriously ill, permanently incapacitated, or has a terminal illness, do not wait. Ask in writing that your person be evaluated for medical parole under Wyoming statute. Make sure the treating physician documents the condition in the terms the statute uses. Help build a care plan for after release. Consider an attorney who can work with the Board of Parole on the petition.

Keep the funeral home's contact information ready, both to verify an outside death so your person can be notified, and to claim your person if they die inside.

State Resources

Wyoming Department of Corrections: contact the institution and your person's case manager or chaplain directly; use the WDOC website and offender locator for facility contacts.

Wyoming Board of Parole: for medical parole of a seriously ill, permanently incapacitated, or terminally ill incarcerated person; for commutation recommendations to the Governor for those otherwise ineligible.

County Coroner: for the cause and manner of death, any autopsy, and death investigation records in the county where the death occurred.

Wyoming Department of Health, Vital Statistics Services: for certified copies of the death certificate.

Wyoming 211: dial 2-1-1 for grief support, funeral assistance resources, and counseling referrals.