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Nearly 50 People Have Died in ICE Custody Since Trump’s Return to White House

Loaded on May 1, 2026 by Jo Ellen Nott published in Prison Legal News May, 2026, page 39
Filed under: LaSalle Management Company, Systemic Medical Neglect, Staffing, Suicides, Immigration Detention. Location: United States of America.

by Jo Ellen Knott

The death toll within the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carceral system reached a sad milestone with the April 12, 2026, passing of Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, 27, at a detention center in Miami. Carbonell-Betancourt, a Cuban national, was found in his cell, with suicide announced as the probable cause of death, according to local station WTVJ. Carbonell-Betancourt was the 17th person to die in ICE custody so far this year (an average of one per week)—and the 48th since President Donald Trump (R) assumed office in 2025. This year has already reached half of 2025’s record-breaking body count.

Just one day prior to Carbonell-Betancourt’s death, a Mexican detainee was found dead at the Winn Correctional Center in rural Louisiana. Officials claim the detainee, Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, was found “unresponsive,” but independent reviews of ICE deaths in custody frequently reveal that systemic delays in care are often the true culprits. It is perhaps unsurprising that Winn is operated by LaSalle Corrections, a private prison profiteer, and that it sits in a cluster of private facilities notorious for medical neglect and chronic understaffing.  

 

Sources: ABC News, WTVJ

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  1. ACLU Threatens New Lawsuit After Indiana County’s Repeated Failures to Abide by 17-Year-Old Settlement Agreement, by Chuck Sharman
  2. From the Editor, by Paul Wright
  3. Washington Governor Fires Independent Prison Watchdog
  4. Spike in Massachusetts Prisoner Suicides Blamed on Isolation, K-2 and Spotty Mental Healthcare, by Chuck Sharman
  5. Idaho Moves Closer to Firing Squad Executions
  6. Exonerated Texas Prisoner Entitled to $1.68 Million After 22 Years of Wrongful Incarceration, by Chuck Sharman
  7. Atlanta Jail Boasts Improvements Since Consent Decree, Reports from Monitor and ACLU Are More Critical, by Chuck Sharman
  8. Fourth Circuit Revives North Carolina Prisoner’s Suit Blaming Lazy Guards for Assault by Detainee, by Chuck Sharman
  9. Hospital Keeps Sending Detainees Back Without Care to County Jail in Colorado
  10. Former Prison Dentist in Iowa Accused of Harassment
  11. Pregnant Women Detained in Jail: The Hideous Story of In-Custody Births, by Douglas Ankney
  12. $9.8 Million in Settlements Reached with South Carolina County and Wellpath in Gruesome Jail Death, by Chuck Sharman
  13. New York Juvenile Detention Officials Sued for Abusing Adolescents with Solitary Confinement, by Chuck Sharman
  14. Idaho DOC Director Denies Verified Report of Rampant Sexual Abuse of Women Prisoners by Staff, by Douglas Ankney
  15. Prisoners in Norfolk, Virginia Left on Extended Lockdown, by Michael Thompson
  16. “Like the Walking Dead”: Smuggled Drugs Fuel Chaos Inside Ohio Prisons, by Laura A. Bischoff, USA Today Network, Doug Livingston, The Marshall Project
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  18. New Hampshire Officials Halt $700 Million Prison Replacement
  19. Illinois Jail Reprimanded for Denying Detainees Mail Based on Media Content, P.O. Box Return Address, Settles Detainees’ Suit with $111,825 Payment of Legal Fees, by Douglas Ankney
  20. Texas Officials Testify That Cost to Air Condition Prisons Tops $1.5 Billion, by Chuck Sharman
  21. $2.135 Million Partial Settlement Reached in Schizophrenic Detainee’s Death from “Gross Medical Neglect” at South Carolina Jail, by Chuck Sharman
  22. Oklahoma Supreme Court: Jail Trust Cannot Withhold Requested Records under Law Enforcement Exemption of ORA, by Douglas Ankney
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  26. Pennsylvania Closes Its Second-Oldest Prison
  27. Federal Court Places Medical Care in Arizona Prisons Under Receivership, by Matthew Clarke
  28. Nearly 50 People Have Died in ICE Custody Since Trump’s Return to White House, by Jo Ellen Nott
  29. $1.25 Million Paid for Special Needs Teen’s Fatal Beating in Houston Jail, by Chuck Sharman
  30. Oklahoma DOC Paid Prison Guards $35.5 Million in Overtime in 2025
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  48. Prisons in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula “in a Death Spiral” Due to Under-Staffing
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  53. News in Brief

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