Another incarcerated individual has died at Donaldson Correctional Facility, according to the Jefferson County Coroner’s Office.
Guy Jeffery Baker, a 60-year-old incarcerated man at the Jefferson County facility, was found unresponsive by correctional staff in a dorm inside the prison early on Sunday morning. He was pronounced dead 13 minutes later.
According to the coroner’s office, Baker’s death “is believed to be of natural causes,” with no foul play suspected. The Alabama Department of Corrections Law Enforcement Services Division is investigating the circumstances surrounding Baker’s death, as with all other deaths in the state prison system.
On Thursday of last week, a second incarcerated man died at Donaldson Correctional Facility, with the coroner’s office stating that death was also due to natural causes.
The deceased name was Eddie Robertson Jr, and he was found unresponsive in the infirmary by medical staff on Dec. 7. He was 71.
With Baker’s death on Sunday, at least 15 other individuals have died in state prison facilities over the past three weeks.
The state of Alabama incarcerated almost 2,400 incarcerated individuals over the age of 60, according to a recent study from Alabama Appleseed. The same study postulates that the increasing number of elderly incarcerated individuals places financial strains on a prison system already suffering from understaffing, rampant deaths related to narcotics, and investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice for its ongoing lawsuit against the state and the ADOC.
The study shows that the percentage of incarcerated individuals at and above the age of 50 has an incredible 3,640 percent, pushing a prison cohort that in the past numbered only 181 to well over 6,750 incarcerated individuals.
