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 owned and operated by CoreCivic, one of the largest prison operators in the nation.

The Hawaii Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 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.

Saguaro Correctional Center, Eloy, Arizona patrol. 6 march 2016. photograph Cory Lum/Civil Beat
Hawaii doesn’t have room for all of its prisoners, so about 1,000 of them are held at the privately run Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2016)

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

Civil Beat generally uses on-the-record sources. However, we occasionally use unnamed sources when a source is sharing important information we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to obtain and when they could face negative consequences for speaking publicly. The reporter and at least one editor must know the identity of the source and the use of anonymity must be approved by a senior editor. You can read more about our anonymous sources policy here.

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’s 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.

16 years ago, Civil Beat did not exist.

Civil Beat exists today because thousands of readers like you read, shared and donated to keep our stories free and accessible to all. Now we need your support to continue this critical work.

Give now and support our spring campaign to raise $100,000 from 250+ donors by May 15. Mahalo for making this work possible!

About the Author