CAMDEN — A disturbing situation exists in our state prison system, but it seems no one is sounding the alarm about what seems to us to be an unusual frequency in inmate deaths.
Most recently an inmate who died at the state Department of Correction’s Tucker Unit was the second individual to die at that unit in October.
Two other inmates reportedly also died in October at the Maximum Security Unit, which is also in Tucker.
At the time of this writing, all four deaths remained open cases, according to an article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “All possible causes are being looked into,” said Solomon Graves, spokesman for the Department of Correction.
The deaths follow five In August at the Department of Correction’s Varner Unit. Those deaths occurred in a four-day period. Officials were reported to have said at the time those deaths were believed to be drug-related.
Don’t nine deaths over the span of just three months indicate that something unusual is happening in our state’s prison units? And that unusual something is increasing the danger in already dangerous environments, meaning for some that a prison term could in reality be a death sentence?
We encourage our delegation in the state Legislature to ask questions, and demand answers, about what’s going on behind the bars in our state prisons.