Two prison inmates died Wednesday at a prison hospital of natural causes, an Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman said Sunday afternoon.
Donald Finchem, 65, died at 1:03 a.m. Wednesday at the Ouachita River Unit Hospital. Finchem had been serving a 14-year White County sentence for second-degree sexual assault.
Harvey Childs, 89, died at 7:25 a.m. at the Ouachita River Unit's Special Needs Unit. Childs was serving a life without parole sentence for capital murder out of Jefferson County.
Spokesman Cathy Frye said neither death will be investigated by the Arkansas State Police because the inmates died of "natural causes." Notification of the deaths was delayed because of the time it took to notify next of kin, Frye said Monday.
In January, prison officials stopped the practice of releasing a specific cause of death for inmates. Instead, each death is classified as "natural causes," unless there are special circumstances that would lead to a state police investigation.
Jim DePriest, the department's chief legal counsel, said in January that the causes of inmates' deaths are "generally exempt" from disclosure according to state law, A.C.A. 12-27-113.
There have been 14 Arkansas prison deaths since Jan. 1; there were 56 deaths in 2014.
State Desk on 02/24/2015