A federal investigation into the suicide of an immigrant being held at Youngstown’s private prison has found that the prison failed to comply with detention standards.

The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released findings last week of an investigation conducted jointly with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Professional Responsibility, and the ICE Health Service Corps.

The findings jointly investigated the death of an ICE detainee who, according to authorities, hung himself at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center.

The report does not identify the inmate or say when the suicide occurred. However, operators of the prison said the suicide occurred in February 2020.

Investigators say they interviewed NEOCC facility staff and medical staff and reviewed the autopsy report, coroner’s report, medical records, incident report, and policies and procedures.

The findings state that NEOCC failed to comply with four requirements of the ICE Performance-Based National Detention Standards 2011.

The areas of non-compliance pertained to significant self-harm/suicide prevention/intervention, detention files, admission/release, and custody classification system, according to the findings.

In addition, five areas of concern were noted regarding the inmate’s medical care, safety, and security at NEOCC, although they were not violations of detention standards.

 The joint investigation did not identify any criminal violations

21 News has reached out to CoreCivic which issued the following statement:

We take the health and well-being of every individual entrusted to our care very seriously. Anytime there is a serious incident such as a death at one of our facilities, the facility investigator, in conjunction with local law enforcement and our government partner, conducts a full review of the events surrounding the death. This process gives facility leadership an opportunity to review all policies and procedures and address any identified areas of noncompliance. In some instances, our government partner may take additional steps to investigate an incident, as was the case for the ICE detainee who died at our Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in February 2020. Our facility leadership team and staff cooperated fully with this investigation. We will carefully review the findings of this investigation and take the necessary steps to remedy any identified issues.

 

NEOCC is one of about 70 correctional institutions operated by the CoreCivic around the country.

Early Monday, an inmate who was found hanging at NEOCC was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital.

NEOCC officials issued a statement saying the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction inmate committed suicide.

Youngstown Police and the Mahoning County Coroner are investigating.