2 inmates die weeks after DOJ admonishes Georgia prison officials
Brandon Mincey and Travon Walthour (Supplied)
ATLANTA - Two Georgia inmates have died in custody in the past week, the Department of Correction confirmed.
Brandon Mincey, who was serving 10 years on a 2021 aggravated battery conviction out of Johnson County, was found dead on Oct. 11 in Phillips State Prison.
Travon Walthour, who was serving 18 years on a 2012 involuntary manslaughter conviction out of Johnson County, died in Phillips State Prison on Oct. 11.
The cause of death has not been released for either inmate. Their bodies have been turned over to the Georgia Department of Investigation Crime Lab for autopsy.
"The death is being investigated by the GDC’s Office of Professional Standards, as standard procedure; therefore, additional details are not available, as the investigation is ongoing," a Georgia Department of Correction’s spokesperson said.
The Human and Civil Rights Coalition of Georgia, which tracks in-prison deaths, says both men were stabbed to death.
The deaths of Mincey and Walthour come just two weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice released a scathing statement calling on the Georgia Department of Corrections to quickly take steps to curb rampant violations of prisoners’ Eighth Amendment protections against cruel punishment. The DOJ stated Georgia prison officials are "deliberately indifferent" to unchecked deadly violence, widespread drug use, extortion and sexual abuse in state lockups.
Allegations of violence, chaos and "grossly inadequate" staffing are laid out in the Justice Department’s grim 93-page report, the result of a statewide civil rights investigation into Georgia prisons announced in September 2021. The system holds an estimated 50,000 people.
SEE ALSO: Justice Department finds Georgia is ‘deliberately indifferent’ to unchecked abuses at its prisons
In its response, the Georgia Department of Corrections said it was "extremely disappointed" in the accusations. The Justice Department’s findings "reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of the current challenges of operating any prison system," the agency said. Prison officials responded with a statement saying the prison system "operates in a manner exceeding the requirements of the United States Constitution" and decrying the possibility of "years of expensive and unproductive court monitoring" by federal officials.