Odessa CiviGenics Inmate Took His Own Life

21-year old Luis Chavez-Chavez was pronounced dead earlier this month after his body was discovered hanging in the CiviGenics-managed Ector County Correctional Center. CBS 7 is reporting that a preliminary autopsy indicates the prisoner committed suicide.

Current news reports do not mention conditions or staff-levels at the the Civigenics facility during Chavez-Chavez's death, but I was able to locate six immediate full-time job openings for the facility posted online at the beginning of the month. CiviGenics seems to have been searching for three guards and three medical professionals to staff the 223-bed jail very recently.

One reader believes CiviGenics' management of the facility was shoddy:

"While it is difficult to keep inmates from commiting suicide, when jails and prisons are run professionally, these tragic incidents can be kept to a minimum. This reduction requires proactive measures that include screening, observation, suicide watches, special cells that reduce the possiblity of self-harm, etc."

Mr. Chavez-Chavez was being detained for the charge of illegal entry by the U.S. Marshal Service, which has a contract with the Civigenics-managed Ector County Correctional Center.