BEAVER, W.Va. — An inmate at a West Virginia prison who came under scrutiny in lawsuits citing inmate deaths and alleging poor living conditions was pronounced dead Friday morning, officials said.
Correctional officers at Southern Regional Jail found the 24-year-old man unconscious in his cell and attempted life-saving measures, according to a statement from the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was then taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, WCHS reported.
Authorities did not immediately provide further details or reveal the identity of the deceased inmate. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Criminal Investigation Division and the West Virginia State Police have opened an investigation into the death.
Several former Southern Regional Jail correctional officers were indicted by a federal grand jury last month in connection with the 2022 death of an incarcerated man who was beaten while handcuffed and restrained in an interrogation room and later in a jail cell. They were also accused of covering up their actions, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The indictment came weeks after two West Virginia corrections officers pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge stemming from the fatal beating of the same inmate, 37-year-old Quantez Burks. Burks was a pretrial detainee who died less than a day after being booked into the Southern Regional Jail.
The state of West Virginia also agreed this year to pay $4 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by inmates who called prison conditions inhumane. The lawsuit filed last year on behalf of current and former inmates described a lack of access to water and food at the facility, as well as overcrowding and fighting that was allowed to continue until someone was injured.
