ICE facility in Louisiana reports its second detainee death in less than 2 months
A second detainee died in less than two months US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Facility in Louisiana where a recent inspection report found unsanitary conditions, problems with medical care and excessive use of force.
Mamuka Artmeladze, 43, of Georgia, was found unresponsive at the Winn Correctional Facility in Winnfield, Louisiana, on June 4, ICE announced in a press release Sunday. ICE said staff began life-saving measures before taking him by ambulance to a local hospital, where a doctor pronounced him dead less than an hour later.
Additional circumstances surrounding the death were not available, and ICE said the cause of death was pending an autopsy. Artmeladze had been detained for nearly four months at the facility run by the Winn County Sheriff’s Office and ICE contractor LaSalle Corrections.
There are more than 1,500 male detainees at the facility, and like the majority of them, Artmeladze has no criminal record. ICE said Artmeladze entered the country illegally on an unknown date, and after encountering him in September 2022, Border Patrol allowed him to temporarily remain in the country under ICE supervision. He was arrested in Alabama in February after ICE determined he no longer had legal status to remain in the United States.
He is the 19th prisoner Who died in ICE custody A coroner’s report obtained by The Associated Press shows that 49-year-old Alejandro Cabrera Clemente was found unresponsive at a security check that day, staff tried to resuscitate him, and he died after being taken to the same hospital as Artmeladze.
The medical examiner recently ruled that Cabrera, a Mexican native who lived in Tennessee, died of natural causes due to cardiovascular disease. The report stated that Cabrera woke up coughing and wheezing about 2.5 hours before he was found unresponsive, but fell back asleep, saying he was fine.
A separate ICE report on Cabrera’s death said detainees alerted nearby nursing staff to his unresponsiveness and found him “drooping on the left side of his face” and his skin discolored from low blood oxygen. The report stated that Cabrera was treated for high blood pressure and other medical problems during his months of detention.
The deaths come at a time of increased scrutiny over whether ICE detention centers are closed. medical neglect of detainees and forcing them to live in inhumane conditions, charges that ICE denies.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General released a report last week saying an unannounced inspection at Winn found violations of standards regarding environmental health and safety, food service, use of force, medical care and other matters.
The report describes water leaking from vents in the kitchen, holes in the ceiling of the entrance building and exposed insulation, and food stored in freezers above required temperatures.
The report warned that medical staff at Winn did not keep up-to-date treatment documentation and laboratory test records, which “could negatively impact the health care and safety of detainees.”
The inspection also found violations of use-of-force policies, including when an officer choked a detainee in a prohibited manner and a second officer stabbed a detainee’s thumb with a pen after the detainee refused to remove his hand from the door.
ICE adopted nine recommendations to improve conditions at Winn and implemented several of them, the report said.
