CDEx — the Custody Deaths Exchange — is a live, operating platform that collects, connects, and publishes structured information about deaths in custody at the state level. It brings fragmented records from jails, prisons, law enforcement agencies, and medical examiners into a coherent reference environment for oversight organizations, researchers, journalists, legal professionals, and the public.
CDEx is the state-level solution for the Houchins List. Where the Houchins List aggregates custody-death information across a broad national scope, CDEx applies the same information model within a defined state context — closer to the agencies, facilities, and reporting practices where the records originate.
State-Level Records and Institutional Context
Information about a death in custody rarely lives in one place. An initial incident report, a custodial agency's notification, a medical examiner's finding, and subsequent public disclosures may each be held by a different organization and published at a different time.
CDEx organizes these materials around the deceased individual and the relationships needed to understand the record: the custodial organization, the facility, the location and jurisdiction, relevant dates, and the published sources. These relationships allow users to approach the collection through a person, an institution, or a geographic context — turning separate entries into a navigable information system.
The State-Level Companion to the Houchins List
CDEx and the Houchins List share a common information model. Individuals, custodial organizations, jurisdictions, and disclosures are structured the same way in both environments, which means a record developed at the state level can contribute to the broader collection without translation or loss of context.
This division of scope is deliberate. State-level operation allows CDEx to reflect local custodial structures, facility relationships, and reporting practices with greater precision, while the shared model preserves consistency across the wider platform family. Aggregation works because definitions are agreed before data is exchanged — not reconciled afterward.
A Practical Application of Quantum
CDEx applies Quantum's shared-platform model to custody-death reference publishing at the state level. Structured records support multiple contextual views while retaining a common application foundation.
Individual records contribute to organizational collections, which in turn support jurisdictional views across the state. This creates a coordinated publishing structure without requiring each participating institution or audience to maintain an independent application. The platform illustrates several connected engineering disciplines:
- Information architecture: Distinguishing individuals, custodial organizations, facilities, jurisdictions, and related records.
- Taxonomy design: Classifying manner, status, and source so that users can discover relevant categories.
- Contextual publishing: Presenting shared records within organizational and geographic perspectives.
- Structured intake: Collecting reports and disclosures through defined forms.
- Editorial workflows: Supporting review, verification, and the handling of corrections.
- Cloud operations: Maintaining the application and its supporting services.
Structured Intake and Review
The platform provides submission pathways for reports connected to custody deaths, along with requests to correct, modify, or supplement published information.
Its review process considers identity, source reliability, procedural status, restrictions, and relevance. An initial announcement, an official finding, and a subsequent correction represent different kinds of information, and CDEx maintains those distinctions as records develop. Inclusion in the collection does not establish a cause, fault, or legal conclusion — and missing information does not establish that an event did not occur.
Exchange With Consistent Definitions
The "exchange" in CDEx is a commitment as much as a capability. Custody-death information becomes comparable only when participating sources describe it in consistent terms.
The platform's record categories, status classifications, and relationship structures provide that shared vocabulary within the state it serves. This is what allows records originating in different counties, agencies, and facilities to be searched, filtered, and examined together — and what allows the state's collection to connect cleanly with the Houchins List at the national level.
Engineering for a Continuing Information Service
CDEx is an ongoing platform rather than a fixed publication. New deaths, new disclosures, institutional changes, and corrections create continuing development and maintenance responsibilities.
We connect the content model with the application's operational needs. Changes to shared functionality account for existing records, publishing behavior, navigation, and the users who depend on the service. The objective is continuity: preserving a clear connection between each event, its sources, and the information available at a particular stage.
Institutional Applications and Development
The platform offers a foundation for state-level organizations seeking more coordinated collection and publication of custody-death information. A tailored engagement could address organizational participation, review responsibilities, integrations, or additional reporting.
Further capabilities — such as change notifications, source-linked retrieval, and connections with institutional systems — can be developed according to defined requirements and access rules. The underlying opportunity is to reduce fragmentation through shared technical infrastructure and consistent information relationships.
Professional Significance
CDEx brings together our work in information architecture, structured data, permission-controlled contribution, and public information access. It demonstrates the sustained effort required to turn a specialized concept into an operating reference platform — and to operate it responsibly at the level where the records are created.
It also expresses a central purpose of our work: making accurate, contextual information easier to find and use so that people can make better-informed decisions.
Primary audiences: Oversight organizations, public institutions, researchers, journalists, legal professionals, and people seeking information about deaths in custody.
Platform foundation: Connected profiles, organizational and jurisdictional collections, categorized records, and submission workflows — aligned with the Houchins List information model.
Related projects: The Houchins List, Quantum, and The Brady List.