An inmate at the St. Louis County Jail in Duluth died Saturday after correctional officers found him unresponsive and could not revive him, despite starting CPR and using an automated external defibrillator. The inmate never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead, according to the sheriff's office.
Correctional officers were called to the man inside the Duluth facility on August 8 and immediately began emergency medical care, per the sheriff's office account reported by CBS News. Officers performed CPR and deployed an AED, but the man did not regain consciousness before he died. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is now investigating the death, the outlet reported.
That BCA involvement follows standard protocol. Under St. Louis County Sheriff's Office policy, the state agency is routinely asked to conduct an independent investigation into every in-custody death, a step meant to avoid conflicts of interest and preserve public transparency rather than leaving the review solely to internal jail staff.
A Troubling Pattern at the Same Facility
Saturday's death is not an isolated event at the Haines Road jail. In January, 35-year-old Darrin John Tiessen was found unresponsive during a welfare check in a single-occupancy cell and died three days later at Aspirus St. Luke's Hospital, according to a county bulletin distributed via GovDelivery.
In June 2025, 56-year-old Keith Jrome Taylor was found unconscious during routine checks at the same jail; resuscitation attempts failed and he was pronounced dead. Preliminary state reports noted no obvious signs of physical trauma on Taylor, according to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Taken together with Saturday's death, that makes at least three unresponsive-inmate deaths at the Duluth facility within a roughly 14-month span.
The pattern stretches back further still. In August 2023, 34-year-old Dustin Paul Eggert died alone in his cell after jail staff attempted CPR and paramedics were dispatched, according to another county bulletin — an incident that occurred almost exactly three years before this month's death.
A Fully Compliant but Heavily Burdened Jail
The deaths have occurred despite the jail clearing its most recent state inspection with a clean bill of health. In an April inspection report, the Minnesota Department of Corrections granted the facility full operational approval through April 2028 with a 100 percent compliance rating on mandatory state rules, noting only a single administrative record-release form issue that was corrected on site.
The jail opened in 1995 and holds an approved capacity of 197 beds, operating under a direct-supervision model in which correctional officers are stationed inside housing units alongside detainees rather than monitoring them remotely, according to St. Louis County. The county also runs two regional 72-hour lockups in Hibbing and Virginia, transferring longer-term detainees to the Duluth facility — a structure shaped by St. Louis County's sprawling geography of more than 6,000 square miles.
Nearly 4,000 people move through the Duluth jail each year, and administrators have said the facility has increasingly become a de facto regional behavioral health provider amid shortfalls in community resources, according to The Timberjay. Sheriff Gordon Ramsay has said 911 calls and jail bookings have effectively become the region's default response to behavioral health crises, the outlet reported.
Recent Policy Shifts and Staffing Push
The death also comes amid broader statewide change to how Minnesota jails handle inmate medication. In June, the state revised legislation governing prescription management in county jails following legal challenges from the Minnesota Sheriffs' Association over Department of Corrections enforcement mandates, according to Corrections1. The amended statute removed a prior requirement for written consent before adjusting prescriptions inside local facilities.
Meanwhile, the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office has been actively recruiting correctional officers, advertising starting pay between $28.41 and $35.95 per hour as part of regional efforts to keep the Duluth jail fully staffed, the office said in a recent Facebook post. Staffing and retention have remained persistent priorities across county sheriff's offices statewide.
The identity of the man who died Saturday has not been released, and the cause of his medical emergency remains unknown pending the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's investigation.
