Digging In: Hundreds of deaths in Kentucky’s jails

Taylor Six covers courts and crime for the Lexington Herald-Leader. After a few assignments reporting on lawsuits related to in-custody jail deaths, she noticed a pattern.
“These (deaths) were taking place in a lot of the same facilities,” she said.
But there wasn’t much information readily available that could help her pin down the full scope of the issue.
So, she started digging in. After six months she found more than 230 people died in Kentucky’s jails between 2020 and 2024 — findings that experts deemed a “systemic failure.” Read her entire investigation here.
The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting interviewed Six about her recent investigation. You can listen to the conversation in the audio player above. The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.