Hawaii Inmate Dies in An Arizona Prison
Sources say the prisoner killed himself in a disciplinary unit of the privately run facility.
A Hawaii prisoner apparently hanged himself in a disciplinary unit of the Saguaro Correctional Center this week, the fourth Hawaii inmate in Arizona to die this year.
The state holds nearly 1,000 prisoners at the privately run Saguaro prison because Hawaii facilities have no room for them. The Arizona prison is , one of the largest prison operators in the nation.
The confirmed the death in a written statement saying Saguaro staff found the Hawaii inmate unresponsive in his cell at about 7:38 p.m. Monday.
Prison staff immediately administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation and called emergency medical services and the Eloy Police Department. The inmate was pronounced dead at about 8:14 p.m. before being removed from the facility, according to the statement.
The prisoner was not publicly identified pending notification of next of kin, but the statement said he was between the ages of 30 and 40.
A Note On Anonymous Sources
A source in Arizona and another in Hawaii said the prisoner apparently hanged himself in a single cell in an administrative segregation unit of the prison. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.
The official cause of death is pending determination by a medical examiner鈥檚 office in Arizona.
If confirmed, it would be the 11th known suicide of a prisoner held in the Hawaii correctional system since 2020. The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation rarely announces a cause of death for the inmates who die in custody.
The Eloy Police Department and the Hawaii Department of Law Enforcement are investigating the death.
The other Hawaii inmate deaths at Saguaro this year include two elderly inmates who died at Arizona hospitals and a third inmate who was killed in his cell. An autopsy of 46-year-old Anton Myklebust found he had been beaten and strangled. That case is still under investigation.
