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A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday the deaths of three incarcerated men in the corrections system over the last week.
The most recent confirmed death occurred last Sunday when Brian Stephen Pate, 48, an incarcerated man serving a 30-year sentence for burglary and rape committed in Walker County, was pronounced deceased at St. Clair Correctional Facility by medical staff at the facility, according to ADOC.
After being found unresponsive, correctional staff began life-saving measures and eventually transported him to the health care unit, where he was pronounced deceased. The ADOC spokesperson said that a full autopsy and investigation are ongoing.
On the same day, an incarcerated man at Donaldson Correctional Facility was pronounced deceased at the facility’s medical unit, according to ADOC. David Danial Sloan, 45, was serving a 30-year sentence at the facility for a burglary committed in St. Clair County.
Sloan had been in a coma since June 24 caused by an inmate-on-inmate assault. After receiving treatment at UAB Hospital, and while still in a coma, he was transferred back to Donaldson Correctional Facility’s medical unit three days before his death this previous Sunday.
Also, on Sunday, Charles Bradley Sullivan, 28, was found unresponsive in his cell by correctional staff at St. Clair County Correctional Facility, later being transported to an area hospital after medical treatment was administered at the in-facility health care unit, according to the ADOC.
Sullivan’s current status has yet to be released by the ADOC, whose Law Enforcement Services Division is investigating the incident.
This previous Wednesday, Matthew Bright, 34, an incarcerated man serving a 5-year sentence for a domestic violence charge from Houston County, was found unresponsive in the day room of Fountain Correctional Facility.
Bright was later transported to USA Hospital in Mobile to receive treatment, where he was pronounced deceased two days later on July 15 by USA Hospital staff. An official cause of death and autopsy have yet to be released pending an investigation by the ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division.
Confirmations on increasing deaths in Alabama prisons this July make it one of the deadliest months for the state’s incarcerated population in recent memory. Alabama’s prison system is critically overpopulated and understaffed, leading to heightened levels of lethality via drug overdoses and inmate-on-inmate assaults for incarcerated individuals in correctional facilities.
An estimated 25 incarcerated men have died in the Alabama prison system since the first of this year.
