An inmate at the Pima County jail was found dead in his cell Monday night.
A corrections officer on rounds about 10:15 p.m. found Jose Flores, 61, unresponsive in his cell. An effort was made to resuscitate Flores, but he was pronounced dead, a news release Tuesday from the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.
The cause of death is currently unknown. Detectives found no signs of trauma and no suspicious circumstances. Flores had been housed in a medical unit to recover from a major medical procedure, the news release said.
Flores was booked into the jail on January 16 on suspicion of multiple charges of aggravated assault and terrorism.
This is the second death to happen in the jail this year.
Earlier this month, a doctor responded to a housing unit at the jail to do a follow-up on Yunan Mohammed Altib Tutu, 26, after corrections officers said that he was not eating. Tutu was found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead.
Federal correctional officers staged a protest in response to an Associated Press investigation that exposed how the Bureau of Prisons repeatedly promoted an official who was accused of beating several Black inmates. The officers gathered in front of the Bureau of Prisons' regional office in Stockton, California. The picket comes as members of Congress, including the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, are demanding answers from the agency's director after AP's reporting on deputy regional director Thomas Ray Hinkle. Hinkle was repeatedly promoted, most recently to one of the highest posts in the agency. And this has happened despite his being accused of beating multiple Black inmates in the 1990s. Since then, people who know Hinkle say he has repeatedly boasted about the beatings and being part of a violent, racist group of officers that called themselves "The Cowboys." An Associated Press investigation has found the Bureau of Prisons has continued to promote Hinkle despite numerous red flags.
