By The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama prison inmate has died after what authorities believe was an assault by another inmate, prison officials said Wednesday.
The Alabama Department of Corrections said Dwight Campbell, a 48-year-old inmate at Bullock Correctional Facility in Union Springs, died Monday from injuries sustained during an apparent inmate-on-inmate assault.
“The ADOC condemns all violence in its facilities, and the fatal actions taken against Campbell by another inmate are being thoroughly investigated,” the prison system said in a statement.
The prison system said Campbell’s exact cause of death is pending a full autopsy, and more information will be available upon the conclusion of the investigation into his death.
Campbell was serving a 20-year sentence for receiving stolen property.
Prison system statistics show at least 16 inmates were killed by other prisoners in Alabama prisons from Oct. 1, 2019 through the end of August. The number does not include deaths still under investigation.
The U.S. Department of Justice last year issued a scathing report accusing Alabama of housing male inmates in unconstitutional conditions because of the high rates of violence. DOJ threatened legal action against the state unless officials improved conditions. The Department of Justice wrote that overcrowding, understaffing, excessive violence, a failure to stop sexual assaults, poor facilities and the indifference of officials were among the factors creating what it called inhumane conditions in Alabama’s prisons.
A follow-up report by DOJ said there was a pattern of excessive force by prison staff.
