Clemente Mponda
Clemente Mponda, 27, died on September 2, 2013, while held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Houston Contract Detention Facility in Houston, Texas. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement listed the cause of his death as undetermined. Human Rights Watch reported that he had mental health needs and had spent about eight months of his 15-month detention in isolation. According to the account reported by Human Rights Watch, staff did not search him after he was placed in isolation, even though a bottle of his medication was found in his cell, and he was found unresponsive two days later; an autopsy reported in an ICE Office of Detention Oversight review linked his death to toxicity from a large amount of prescribed medication and classed it as suicide.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). ICE's death review says an autopsy found toxicity from a large amount of prescribed medication, and the review faults staff for not searching Mponda after he was placed in isolation even though a medication bottle was found in his cell.
Reported by: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the agency that held him); ICE Office of Detention Oversight death review (outside investigators).