Mystery deepens as third inmate found dead in cell this month at Mississippi prison

An inmate at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility has been found dead - the third this month as mystery surrounds the growing number of deaths.

Emily Lawhead, a spokesperson for Management and Training Corporation, which manages the facility, said Clarence Gillie, 59, was found unresponsive in his cell on Thursday.

“Facility medical staff responded immediately, performing emergency medical procedures,” Lawhead said in a statement. “Local emergency medical services arrived and declared Gillie deceased.”

The man’s death is under investigation, Lawhead said. A cause of death is pending the outcome of an autopsy but foul play was not suspected, she added. Lawhead referred questions about why Gillie was in custody to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

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Grace Fisher, a spokeswoman for MDOC, said in an email late Friday that Gillie was serving three sentences totaling 65 years. He was convicted of burglary in Coahoma County in 1987, escape in Sunflower County in 1988 and armed robbery in Bolivar County in 1989, she said.

This is the third death this month at the East Mississippi Correctional facility in Meridian after officials confirmed that Robert Simmons died at the prison and William HIll was found unresponsive in his cell just five days later.

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Medical staff attempted life-saving measures on Hill, but he was transported to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Hill was sentenced in Adams County to 10 years for robbery and five years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon back in 2016. Information surrounding all three inmates' death remains slim.

It comes as President Joe Biden signed into law on Thursday a bill strengthening oversight of the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons after reporting by The Associated Press exposed systemic corruption, failures and abuse in the federal prison system.

The Federal Prison Oversight Act, which passed the Senate on July 10 and the House in May, establishes an independent ombudsman to field and investigate complaints in the wake of sexual assaults and other criminal misconduct by staff, chronic understaffing, escapes and high-profile deaths.

It also requires that the Justice Department’s inspector general conduct risk-based inspections of all 122 federal prison facilities, provide recommendations to address deficiencies and assign each facility a risk score. Higher-risk facilities would then receive more frequent inspections.

Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters lauded the bill as she testifying before Congress this week. But, she told the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance that the agency will need tens of millions of dollars in additional funding “to effectively respond to the additional oversight and make that meaningful, long-lasting change.”