While Bill Gates heads to Delhi to discuss AI safety, a more immediate safety crisis is unfolding in Britain's prisons. The number of deaths in custody where authorities are still 'awaiting further information' has exploded by 350% in just one year.

In 2023, there were 10 such cases where prison deaths remained under investigation or classification. By 2024, that figure had rocketed to 45 deaths still without definitive answers about what happened.

This isn't just bureaucratic delay. When the Ministry of Justice lists a death as 'awaiting further information', it means families don't know how their loved one died. It means lessons that could prevent future deaths remain unlearned. It means accountability is suspended.

The surge comes as Britain's prison system creaks under unprecedented pressure. Overcrowding has forced early releases. Staff shortages mean fewer eyes on vulnerable prisoners. Mental health services remain patchy across the estate.

Each number represents someone's son, daughter, parent, or sibling who entered prison alive and didn't come home. Their families are left waiting for answers that, in 45 cases last year, still haven't come.

The data doesn't tell us why these investigations are taking longer or what's causing the backlog. But it does tell us the human cost of a system struggling to keep people safe and provide basic accountability when it fails.

Prison deaths have always required investigation. Coroner inquests, internal reviews, and Prisons and Probation Ombudsman reports all take time. But a 350% increase in cases without resolution suggests something has broken down in the process.

While politicians debate the theoretical risks of artificial intelligence overseas, real people are dying in British prisons and their families are waiting months or years to understand what went wrong. The Ministry of Justice owes them better than 'awaiting further information'.

Every death in custody should be thoroughly investigated. But when investigations drag on indefinitely, they serve no one. Not the families seeking answers, not the system trying to learn from mistakes, and certainly not future prisoners whose safety might depend on lessons we're failing to extract from these tragedies.

(Source: Ministry of Justice, Safety in Custody -- Deaths_in_prison_custody_1978_to_2024_accessible -- Table_1_1)