Autopsy reports are public in many states – but not Rhode Island. Here's why.

PROVIDENCE – On Feb. 28, a 25-year-old man died after vomiting and complaining of chest pains for 24 hours at the Adult Correctional Institutions, according to his cellmate. Within the next few months, three other people died while in state custody.

Questions swirl about what led to the sudden deaths, but in Rhode Island, unlike many states, autopsy reports are not public. In the case of Willie Washington Jr., the 25-year-old who died Feb. 28, the state Department of Health referred questions to the Rhode Island State Police, which, in turn, kicked inquiries to the state Department of Corrections. An investigation is ongoing.

Though causes of death are released regularly by the Office of the State Medical Examiner, Washington’s death has not been determined yet, Joseph Wendelken, spokesman for the Department of Health, said in an email.

What is in an autopsy report?

State law gives the Office of State Medical Examiners the authority to perform an autopsy in cases of sudden, unexpected or violent deaths and other instances when an autopsy is viewed as a public necessity. It is their duty to identify and document the cause of death.

An autopsy involves examination of the deceased's major organs and includes multiple laboratory tests. The final autopsy report is released once all tests are completed, which can take weeks or months.

Who can request autopsy reports under RI law?

Rhode Island law dictates that “it shall be unlawful for any person to permit inspection of, or to disclose information contained in, vital records, or to copy, or issue a copy, of all, or part of, any vital record, except as authorized by regulation.” Vital records are defined as information detailing a person’s birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce, and related. The reports are available for a $40 fee upon request by the next of kin.

More: Man recalls 25-year-old ACI cellmate's vomiting, complaining of chest pains for over 24 hours

The Rhode Island Department of Health is what the federal government considers a “covered entity” when it comes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, meaning that health officials cannot release HIPAA-protected information, such as the information in autopsy reports, to any requester, Wendelken said.

They can release an autopsy report to a decedent’s next of kin, and a next of kin can also authorize the release to someone else, such as a lawyer, he said. Others with certain legal authority can also access autopsy reports, including an executor of the decedent’s estate or an estate administrator appointed by a probate court.

Are autopsy reports public record in other states?

Many states consider autopsy reports public records but have carve-outs for when a matter remains under investigation, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Rhode Island, however, is not alone among New England states in considering them confidential.

There is an exception in Massachusetts specifying that the reports become “presumptively” public once a prosecutor determines that the case will not be presented to a grand jury or files notice that a grand jury has “returned an indictment or a no bill.”

Calls for a balancing test, particularly when a death occurs in state custody

The state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union and eight other organizations last month called for an independent investigation into the deaths of Washington and the three others at the ACI. On March 10, a man died after an apparent medical emergency at the Intake Service Center. Another man collapsed and died while playing basketball at the maximum-security facility. Two days later, a woman was found unresponsive shortly after being admitted and later died.

The groups pressed the corrections officials for more transparency and accountability in investigating and reporting about the deaths and the string of suicides last year. They implored officials to keep the families better informed about the probe and its findings.

More: These state agencies have come out against expanding access to public records. Here's why.

Steven Brown, executive director of the state ACLU, emphasizes the need for a balancing test that would require disclosure of most personnel records or others identifiable to a particular person, unless it would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.

“The complete denial of public access to autopsy records is one of many examples of the inordinate secrecy imposed on certain types of important documents under Rhode Island law. As with many other types of government records that potentially implicate both legitimate privacy interests and matters of public concern, we believe that a balancing test should be available to weigh those competing interests,” Brown said in an email.

He stressed that it is important to have a mechanism allowing access to such information in circumstances where there is a legitimate public interest in learning the cause of a person's death, especially of people who have died while in government custody.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Are autopsy reports public in Rhode Island? Here's why not.