Authorities were investigating the death of a man imprisoned at Tucson’s Pima County Jail who was found unresponsive Tuesday morning.
A doctor was following up at the Pima County Adult Detention Center around 9:30 a.m. after a corrections officer reported a man was not eating, according to a Pima County Sheriff’s Department news release. .
The man, later identified as Yunan Mohammed Altib Tutu, 26, was found unresponsive in his cell. Doctors pronounced him dead.
Detectives visited the prison but found no signs of trauma or suspicious circumstances, according to the sheriff’s office.
Tutu was in jail on July 10, 2022 for robbery and multiple warrants.
This is the second death in one month at the Pima County Adult Detention Center.
Deaths in Arizona Prisons and Prisons
On December 16, Robert Tsalabounis, 38, was found unresponsive in his cell and was later pronounced dead. No signs of trauma or suspicious circumstances were found by detectives visiting the prison, according to the sheriff’s office.
His cause of death was under investigation.
In November, a family filed a lawsuit against Pima County and other authorities after 18-year-old Sylvestre Inzunza died in a Pima County adult detention center after overdosing on fentanyl twice in the same week.
The Pima County Adult Detention Center was sorely understaffed that security and medical staff were unable to check on Indunza for hours, according to the complaint, even though he was in a pod designated for detox inmates. environment was created.
Statewide, the Republic of Arizona has found someone dying in arrest or in county jail at least once a month.
Advocates and criminal justice experts say discrepancies between reports and investigations of these custodial deaths make it difficult to know how widespread the problem is and to address its root causes. I’m here.
Between January 1, 2017 and August 4, 2020, Arizona found at least 64 cases of people dying while in county jail or under arrest. Republic data.
Perry Vandell and Juliette Rihl contributed to this report.
