Amy
03-14-2005, 07:01 PM
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/thesunherald/11129588.htm
By TOM WILEMON
THE SUN HERALD
PASCAGOULA - Prison officials are mum about the reasons for transporting sick inmates last week to Singing River Hospital from the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville after three prisoners died in three consecutive days.
Seven sick inmates are now being treated at the hospital, where prison guards have been posted. Hospital spokesman Richard Lucas said he could not discuss the nature of their illnesses because of federal privacy laws. The presence of the prisoners has generated concern about a communicable disease within the prison system, but Greene County Coroner Clyde Gilley said autopsies determined that the three men who died succumbed to heart attacks.
The South Mississippi Correctional Institution, one of three state prisons, has a capacity for 2,214 inmates, according to the Mississippi Department of Correction's Web site. Ron King, the prison superintendent, refused to answer questions about the prisoners' health and directed questions to the state agency's three public affairs officers in Jackson. They did not return messages left Sunday on their office voice mail.
Gilley identified the three men who had died of heart attacks as Edward Johnson, 64, who died Monday at the prison hospital; Henry Lee Williamson, 44, who died Tuesday at the prison hospital and Randall, Laughter, 49, who died Wednesday at a Jackson County Hospital.
The men had pre-existing conditions that made them susceptible to heart attacks, Gilley said.
By TOM WILEMON
THE SUN HERALD
PASCAGOULA - Prison officials are mum about the reasons for transporting sick inmates last week to Singing River Hospital from the South Mississippi Correctional Institution in Leakesville after three prisoners died in three consecutive days.
Seven sick inmates are now being treated at the hospital, where prison guards have been posted. Hospital spokesman Richard Lucas said he could not discuss the nature of their illnesses because of federal privacy laws. The presence of the prisoners has generated concern about a communicable disease within the prison system, but Greene County Coroner Clyde Gilley said autopsies determined that the three men who died succumbed to heart attacks.
The South Mississippi Correctional Institution, one of three state prisons, has a capacity for 2,214 inmates, according to the Mississippi Department of Correction's Web site. Ron King, the prison superintendent, refused to answer questions about the prisoners' health and directed questions to the state agency's three public affairs officers in Jackson. They did not return messages left Sunday on their office voice mail.
Gilley identified the three men who had died of heart attacks as Edward Johnson, 64, who died Monday at the prison hospital; Henry Lee Williamson, 44, who died Tuesday at the prison hospital and Randall, Laughter, 49, who died Wednesday at a Jackson County Hospital.
The men had pre-existing conditions that made them susceptible to heart attacks, Gilley said.