11 inmates died in Las Vegas police custody in 2021

Eleven people died in 2021 while in Metropolitan Police Department custody, more people than in any of the last five years, a commander told the Clark County Commission on Tuesday.

Of those people, seven died at the hospital while in custody, and four died at the Clark County Detention Center downtown.

According to the Clark County coroner’s office, four of the deaths were due to natural causes, three were considered accidental and one was classified as a homicide. Reports on three others are still pending, said Capt. Bill Teel, acting chief of the detention center.

By contrast, seven people died in police custody in 2020, three in 2019, seven in 2018 and five in 2017, Teel reported.

In addition, 12 more people died in 2021 while under court-ordered electronic monitoring, although they were not in a Metro facility at the time, Teel said.

Teel touted the detention center’s accreditation by the National Commission on Mental Health Care, the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care for its medical services.

He said the jail is working to start a program to screen people, as part of the booking process, for mental health or substance abuse — a program that will see UNLV social work interns and psychiatric fellowship students work in the jail to help better treat inmates.

In response to a question from Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick, Teel said 31 percent of inmates at the jail are on some form of psychotropic medication.

The Clark County Detention Center can accommodate 3,089 inmates at maximum capacity, and the North Valley Complex an additional 1,064. The average jail population was 2,954 during the latter half of 2021, and the average stay in jail was 18.7 days, Teel said.