An Idaho man incarcerated in a private prison hundreds of miles from the state is dead after an assault.
A 38-year-old man, who was in custody at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, died after suffering “life-threatening injuries” Wednesday, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. He was pronounced dead at 9:16 a.m. local time, IDOC said. The man hasn’t been identified.
Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic, a spokesperson for the state’s correctional system, told the Idaho Statesman by phone that the investigation was ongoing Wednesday. She declined to provide additional details about the assault. When reached by phone, the Saguaro Correctional Center also declined to provide the Statesman with any information on the incident.
For years, correction officials have housed hundreds of Idaho prisoners out of state because of struggles with overcrowding. In 2020, IDOC entered into a five-year contract with Saguaro Correctional Center, which is owned by CoreCivic, to hold men, the Statesman reported. Prisoners from Hawaii and Montana are also incarcerated in the nearly 2,000-person facility.
CoreCivic told the Statesman that it would issue a statement later Wednesday.
The contract, which costs local taxpayers about $28.7 million a year, was signed after the GEO Group, another private-prison company, told the Idaho correctional system that it wasn’t interested in bidding for another long-term contact, according to prior reporting. That let to the transfer of hundreds of men being housed in Eagle Pass, Texas, to the Arizona facility, which is 60 miles southeast of Phoenix in the desert.
The Saguaro Correctional Center has been plagued by complaints and allegations for years, with the ACLU of Hawaiʻi calling for a federal investigation of the prison in 2024 after a Hawaiian prisoner was killed, and another was stabbed, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat. Six Hawaiian prisoners were indicted this month in the May 2024 homicide of another prisoner, with five of the men being charged with first-degree murder, the news outlet reported.
IDOC said that law enforcement in the area is handling the investigation into the Idaho prisoner’s death. The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and the Eloy Police Department didn’t respond to phone calls seeking more information.
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