A Shasta County Jail inmate has died. At 12:18AM Sunday morning correctional deputies were alerted by other prisoners that 24-year-old Michael Kenneth Jorgenson was down in his cell. He was unresponsive and had no pulse. Medical aid was started and when paramedics arrived they continued trying to revive him. Jorgenson regained a pulse and was breathing when he was taken by ambulance but he died after arriving at the hospital. There are no signs of foul play. Redding Police are investigating and the Coroner’s Office will determine a cause of death. In May the Shasta County Grand Jury investigated after 5 inmate deaths occurred within a 13 month period. That rate is much higher than other California counties with similar populations, and there have been at least two more since then.
-Steve Gibson