Bernalillo County jail investigates another inmate death in custody
Thomas Acee, 21, was found unresponsive at MDC around 4:27 a.m., and Bernalillo County kept posting more inmate-death notices after his death.
Bernalillo County identified Thomas Acee, 21, as the inmate who died at the Metropolitan Detention Center and said he was discovered unresponsive at about 4:27 a.m. in a July 23, 2025, notice titled "Inmate Death at Metropolitan Detention Center."
Acee’s death was not the end of the county’s public reporting on deaths at MDC. Bernalillo County later posted another inmate-death notice on Aug. 19, 2025, and a further notice on Feb. 3, 2026, showing that the jail continued to record in-custody deaths months apart. A Yahoo News item visible in search results described the facility as reporting its sixth inmate death that year, underscoring the repeated nature of the crisis inside the Bernalillo County jail.
The public record tied to MDC also shows the jail remains under legal and policy scrutiny. The Bernalillo County website includes a McClendon Settlement Information page for the Metropolitan Detention Center, signaling that the facility is still operating under settlement-related attention tied to conditions at the jail.
For Bernalillo County residents, the practical question is whether the county’s promised fixes have translated into safer conditions inside MDC. The sequence of death notices does not show a break in the pattern. Instead, the county’s own postings show a facility that continued to log inmate deaths after Acee’s case, while the settlement page indicates the jail remains under outside scrutiny rather than settled confidence.
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