Inmate Dies At Downtown Federal Facility

A 24-year-old federal inmate died Saturday after staff found him unresponsive at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego. (sandiegouniontribune.com) The inmate was identified as Roberto Daniel Garcia Jacobo, and prison employees found him shortly after 9:30 a.m. on April 18, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Staff began life-saving measures inside the jail before emergency medical services arrived. (timesofsandiego.com) Emergency crews later pronounced Garcia Jacobo dead, Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Brittney Potes said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified, and officials said the death remains under investigation. (10news.com) Garcia Jacobo was serving a 24-month federal sentence for methamphetamine importation in the Southern District of California. He had been held at the downtown facility since Sept. 11, 2025. (10news.com) The jail, known as MCC San Diego, is a federal detention center at 808 Union Street that holds both male and female inmates. The Bureau of Prisons lists its population at 594. (bop.gov) MCC San Diego is part of a federal prison system that reported 153,681 inmates nationwide as of April 2, 2026. The Bureau of Prisons classifies the San Diego lockup as an administrative security metropolitan correctional center. (bop.gov) San Diego County’s Medical Examiner posts public case summaries after death investigations are opened, but no public entry for Garcia Jacobo appeared on the county press-release page reviewed Tuesday afternoon. That suggests the county process was either still pending or not yet posted. (sandiegocounty.gov) Federal officials have not released a cause of death, and they have not said whether the review is being handled internally, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or both. For now, the public record is limited to the timeline: found unresponsive, treated by staff and medics, then pronounced dead. (timesofsandiego.com)