An inmate at U.S. Penitentiary, Florence in southern Colorado died early Monday morning, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Theodore Clifton Matthews, 43, was found unresponsive at the high-security facility around 2:15 a.m. Prison staff and emergency medical services attempted life-saving measures on Matthews, but he was pronounced dead at the prison.
Matthews was serving a 17.5-year sentence for a conviction of conspiracy to participate in racketeering activity in Maryland. He was in custody in Florence since July 2024 and was scheduled for release in December 2026, prison records show.
U.S. Bureau of Prisons 
“No employees or other incarcerated individuals were injured, and at no time was the public in danger,” the bureau said in a news release. It would not answer additional questions about the circumstances surrounding Matthews’ death.
According to a 2014 plea agreement, Matthews was federally indicted, along with over 30 other people, as part of a racketeering case against the South Side Brims, a subset of the Bloods gang that operated in Baltimore at the time. According to federal prosecutors, during a street fight, Matthews directed another member of the gang to retrieve a shotgun and kill someone in another gang. The Department of Justice also said Matthews had been dealing drugs in the Curtis Bay neighborhood of Baltimore since 2009.
The penetentiary is in Fremont County, about 110 miles south of Denver, and houses just over 820 inmates.
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