BATON ROUGE — A bill that would have required prisons to notify families quickly when an inmate dies and make cause-of-death information public failed to get out of committee.

House Bill 323, brought by state Rep. Candace Newell, did not advance after a committee hearing where several families of deceased inmates testified they were not properly informed of their loved ones' deaths.

One woman in the audience began shouting that she found out about her son, Antonio Dukes, death from the news.

"That's my son they killed, and nobody called me," the woman yelled before being escorted out. 

The bill came in the wake of 18 unexpected deaths at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center in 2025. De'Troit Draper, 30, was one of those inmates.

Draper died unexpectedly in November while serving a 20-year sentence for attempted manslaughter. His family testified during the committee hearing.

"I have not received any clarity on what happened to De'Troit other than he had a fight or an altercation, and he collapsed in his cell," his mother, Jehane, told WBRZ last month.

Jehane said she got the call that he was dead hours after he was found unresponsive in his cell and brought to the hospital. Four months later, she still has not received the answers she needs.

According to the Drapers, the autopsy report they received simply states he died of natural causes, despite having been in a fight beforehand.

Department of Corrections Attorney Jonathan Vining responded to the families' claims during the hearing.

"It's a little disappointing and discouraging to listen to some of that because our people try very hard," Vining said. "I can tell you that as soon as someone does pass away, the last thing we would ever want is for anybody to see that a loved one died in the media."