Two Arkansas Department of Correction prisoners died of “natural causes” in April, a prison spokesman said Monday, after an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette inquiry was made because no prison death notifications had been received since March 16.
In January, prison officials stopped releasing specific causes of death for inmates. Instead, each death is classified as “natural causes” unless there are special circumstances that would lead to an Arkansas State Police investigation.
The 40 year old Crittenden County man , died at 12:09 p.m. April 3 at the Ouachita River Correction Unit.The 62 year old Faulkner County man, died at 4:56 a.m. April 9 at Jefferson Regional Medical Center, prison spokesman Cathy Frye said Monday in an email.
There have been 23 Arkansas prison deaths since Jan. 1; there were 56 deaths in 2014.