Another inmate has died in the custody of the Pima County jail, the second prisoner fatality in less than a week.
The Pima County Medical Examiner is still determining what caused the deaths of the two 29-year-old inmates who died six days apart on May 31 and June 6.
The Pima County Sheriff’s Department, which runs the jail, announced Wednesday, June 9, that inmate Jack Dixon died on June 6 after hanging himself in his cell two days prior.
Dixon was found hanging June 4 around 10 a.m. by a corrections officer making his rounds and was revived and taken to a hospital but did not survive, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.
Dixon’s death is the fourth at the jail so far this year — twice as many as the two that occurred in 2019 and 2020 during the same time period, Sheriff’s Department statistics show.
Six days earlier, inmate Justin Crook died in his cell in circumstances that remain under investigation.
Crook was found “unresponsive in his cell” around 3:15 a.m. on Memorial Day — about 24 hours after he was booked into the Pima County jail on a felony warrant and disorderly conduct charge, the Sheriff’s Department said.
Investigators found “no signs of trauma and no suspicious circumstances,” but also nothing to suggest Crook’s death was a suicide, the Sheriff’s Department said at the time.
Autopsy results for Crook are pending, and Dixon is scheduled for an autopsy on Thursday, June 10, said Dr. Greg Hess, the Pima County Medical Examiner, whose office is charged with establishing the causes of death.
Dixon was facing three felony domestic violence charges: kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault by interfering with breathing. He also was charged on suspicion of discharging a weapon in city limits and prohibited possession of a weapon, the Sheriff’s Department said.
The Sheriff’s Department initially refused to provide Dixon’s name to news media “out of respect for the family” but reversed course after the Arizona Daily Star filed a public-records request noting the sheriff cannot legally conceal the identity of someone who dies in law enforcement custody.
