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The Alabama Department of Corrections has confirmed the death of an incarcerated individual at St. Clair County Correctional facility on Saturday, according to a statement provided to APR on Tuesday.
Jason Wade Means, a 42-year-old incarcerated man at the St. Clair County facility, was found unresponsive in his dorm on Saturday. After being rushed into the healthcare unit, healthcare staff at the facility attempted life-saving measures on Means, but to no avail.
Means was pronounced dead later that same day.
The ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division, the section within the ADOC responsible for investigating deaths that occur in state prisons, is currently investigating the surrounding circumstances of Means’ death, with an official cause of death yet to be announced.
At least four individuals died at the St. Clair County Correctional facility in the month of September, two of whom were found unresponsive in the facility and pronounced dead after life-saving measures were attempted by healthcare staff.
The names of the departed: Kawmane Lamane Moore, 32; Robert Vernon Durough, 83; Jerome Vincent Berard, 62; and Charles Eugene Fortenberry, 74.
Attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department visited the facility a few days earlier as a part of their discovery process for the federal government’s ongoing lawsuit with the state. The lawsuit alleges that the lack of correctional staff and overcrowding suffered by every major correctional facility in the state is leading to increases in sexual and physical violence between incarcerated individuals.
Investigators conducted interviews with incarcerated individuals at the facilities on the conditions and treatment they have experienced in recent months, according to sources familiar with the visit.
