CLAYTON, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama prison inmate was found with a stab wound to an eye last week and died several minutes after a correctional officer found him bleeding amid a group of fellow inmates, authorities said Wednesday.
The Department of Corrections said in a statement that 52-year-old William Stanley Warren was stabbed Thursday at Ventress Correctional Facility in Clayton. It didn't elaborate on why the information was released days later, but said an investigation is ongoing.
The statement said a correctional officer noticed Warren bleeding about 5 p.m. that day as he approached him and other inmates aroundd him dispersed. Warren was pronounced dead about 20 minutes later by medical personal transporting him to a hospital, the statement added.
Warren was serving a life sentence for a 1994 murder conviction in Marshall County.
At least nine inmates have been killed by other inmates in 2019 inside Alabama prisons, according to prison system statistics and news releases. In 2016, Corrections Officer Kenneth Bettis, 44, died after being stabbed by an inmate at Holman Prison.
Alabama prisons have come under fire for overcrowding and understaffing that results in dangerous conditions for both staff and inmates.
The U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year issued scathing findings that condemned Alabama prisons for what it called unconstitutional conditions, including high rates of violence.
The Governor's Study Group on Criminal Justice on Tuesday toured another state prison as part of its work of preparing recommendations ahead of the 2020 legislative session.
