Federal detention center officer dies of ‘potential’ COVID-19

Days after news of a federal inmate’s death due to the coronavirus at the Southern Nevada Detention Center in Pahrump, the private company that operates the facility announced a staff member also has died.
CoreCivic, which runs the federal detention center, confirmed the staff member’s death in an emailed response to questions from the Review-Journal on Tuesday. A detention officer died on Sunday “due to potential COVID-19 related issues,” spokesman Ryan Gustin said in the statement.
On Friday, the Nevada federal public defender’s office announced that 29-year-old Brandon Patton, an inmate at the detention center, had died of the coronavirus. The U.S. Marshals Service later confirmed Patton’s death.
Patton was the first known inmate housed in Nevada to die of COVID-19.
The Pahrump facility is the only federal detention center in the state. The Department of Corrections, which operates state prisons, has not had any staff members or prisoners die