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Four dead in Alabama prisons over the weekend

The deaths marked yet another deadly weekend for the state’s incarcerated population.

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Four incarcerated men in Alabama’s correctional system died over the weekend, marking yet another deadly weekend for the state’s incarcerated population, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections and the Jefferson County Coroner’s office.

A spokesperson for the ADOC confirmed to APR on Tuesday that two incarcerated individuals died at Elmore and St Clair County Correctional Facilities between Saturday and Sunday of last week, with both causes of death pending results of a full autopsy and investigation.

One of the deceased individuals, Dakota Jamel Borden, 34, was serving at Elmore Correctional Facility on a 21-year sentence for a robbery committed in Talladega County. Borden was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday and later transported to the health care unit at the facility. He was later pronounced dead that Saturday.

At the St. Clair County facility, Antonio Lang, 23, was also found unresponsive in his cell on Sunday and later transported to the health care unit, where life-saving measures were performed by medical staff, the ADOC said. The attempts were unsuccessful, and Lang was later pronounced dead that Sunday.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s office released the names of two individuals who passed away between Friday and Saturday at Donaldson Correctional Facility near Bessemer from what the coroner’s office determined as natural causes.

Paul Stephen Smith, 65, who had previously been taken to an area hospital for treatment of an unknown malady, was pronounced dead on Friday of last week after being found unresponsive in the prison infirmary, according to the coroner’s office. Smith was serving a life sentence for a murder committed in Cullman County in 1986.

The coroner’s office said that Smith “was receiving care for [a] significant natural disease.”

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The second individual, Lee Clemon Hardy, also aged 65, was found unresponsive on Saturday in the prison infirmary where he had been receiving care for a “significant natural disease.” He was pronounced dead later the same day.

John is a reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter. You can contact him at jglenn@alreporter.com or via Twitter.

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