As Keir Starmer faces criticism for allegedly appeasing big tech firms over online safety, a more immediate crisis has quietly exploded in Britain's prisons. The number of deaths in custody still awaiting official explanation has quadrupled in a single year.

New Ministry of Justice data reveals that 45 prison deaths in 2024 remain classified as "awaiting further information" compared to just 10 in 2023. That's a 350% surge in cases where families don't know why their loved ones died behind bars. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Safety in Custody -- Deaths_in_prison_custody_1978_to_2024_accessible -- Table_1_1)

This isn't about the total number of prison deaths, which fluctuates annually. This is about the system's ability to explain what happened. When someone dies in state custody, their family deserves answers. The fact that nearly four times as many cases are stuck in bureaucratic limbo suggests the investigation system is buckling.

The timing matters. While Westminster debates whether tech giants should do more to protect users online, the government's own institutions are failing to protect the people directly in their care. Each unexplained death represents a family waiting for closure, wondering if their son, daughter, or partner died from natural causes, suicide, or something preventable.

Prison deaths always require investigation, but the "awaiting further information" category typically covers complex cases where initial inquiries haven't provided clear answers. These might involve suspicious circumstances, medical negligence claims, or deaths where multiple factors contributed. The surge suggests either more complicated deaths are occurring, or the investigation system cannot cope with its workload.

This explosion in unexplained deaths coincides with Britain's prison crisis. Overcrowding has forced early releases, staff shortages plague the system, and conditions in many jails have deteriorated. When basic operations are under strain, thorough death investigations inevitably suffer.

The human cost extends beyond statistics. Families of prisoners face a unique grief, often carrying guilt about their loved one's imprisonment alongside loss. When that death remains unexplained for months or years, that pain intensifies. They cannot properly mourn, cannot seek justice if negligence occurred, and cannot find peace.

While politicians debate how to make social media safer for children, 45 families are waiting to learn why someone died in a British prison cell. Both matter. But one involves people the state chose to lock up, creating a duty of care that makes every unexplained death a potential scandal.

The Ministry of Justice must explain why its investigation capacity has collapsed so dramatically. Until then, these 45 cases represent not just statistical anomalies, but 45 failures of basic accountability in a system that literally holds the power of life and death.