Another inmate dies, prison says
Man treated for head injury lockups’ 2nd fatality in week
An Arkansas prison inmate died Wednesday, a day after being hospitalized with a head injury, the state Department of Correction said.
In a news release, the department said 34-yearold James Walker was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. His death is the second at a state prison in the past week.
Walker was taken by ambulance from the Cummins Unit at Grady to a nearby hospital about 11:40 a.m. Tuesday “after an incident” at the prison, spokesman Solomon Graves said.
The department had previously said it was unknown whether the inmate’s head injury resulted from a fall or an attack.
Records show that Walker was taken to the Cummins Unit in April 2008 after being found guilty by a Faulkner County jury on charges stemming from an April 13, 2007, armed robbery at a bank in Greenbrier.
Walker was sentenced to 85 years in prison on three counts of kidnapping, as well as one count each of aggravated robbery, attempted capital murder, aggravated assault, theft of property, felony fleeing and misdemeanor fleeing.
The Arkansas State Police is investigating the death, and the Correction Department is conducting its own internal investigation.
On Friday, an inmate at the East Arkansas Regional prison in Brickeys died after he was found unconscious in his cell.
Anthony Howard, 50, was pronounced dead at 10:35 p.m., less than 20 minutes after he was found. He was serving a 15-year sentence out of Sebastian County for robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a certain person.
State police and the Correction Department are investigating Howard’s death.
State police officials also are investigating several other incidents in state prisons, including more than two dozen cases of unrest, one in which inmates took keys and a Taser from guards and held three correctional officers hostage for three hours. Last week, three inmates were injured in what state prison officials called a “disturbance” at one of the prisons.