Inmate Dies After Altercation At San Diego Federal Prison

SAN DIEGO, CA — An inmate died at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego following an altercation inside the facility, authorities said Monday.

Steven Lee Davis, 60, was found unresponsive at approximately 1:15 p.m. Sunday after what officials described as a "perceived altercation" at the administrative security prison, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

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Facility staff initiated life-saving measures and called for emergency medical services. Davis was pronounced dead at the scene by EMS personnel.

Davis was a pretrial inmate who had been held at the facility since March 30 following an indictment on a bank robbery charge, officials said.

No staff members or other inmates were injured. The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service were notified of the incident.

The MCC is a federal facility that has received various complaints over the years for its inmate protocol, but the San Diego County Sheriff's Office, which runs the county's jails, has also been under scrutiny for years due its unusually high number of in-custody deaths. In 2022, the California State Auditor's Office found "deficiencies with how the (county agency) provides care for and protects incarcerated individuals (that) likely contributed to in-custody deaths."

That audit examined 185 deaths within the San Diego-area jail system from 2006 through 2020, a rate that exceeded all of California's other large counties during the same period. Nineteen in-custody deaths occurred in the county in 2022 alone, and another six took place in 2023.

The Sheriff's Office has committed to a $500 million effort to modernize and upgrade its jails.

— City News Service