A 55-year-old inmate died Wednesday after he jumped from the third tier of his housing area at the Ouachita River Correctional Unit in Malvern, according to a statement from the Arkansas Department of Correction released Thursday.
Staff members at the unit saw inmate Danta Sullivan jump from the tier in his housing area at around 8 p.m. Wednesday, the statement said.
Medical staff and correctional officers began emergency treatment, and Sullivan was then taken to an area hospital, according to the release.
He was pronounced dead at around 9:20 p.m., the release said.
Sullivan was serving a five-year sentence out of Mississippi County for theft of property, said Solomon Graves, spokesman for the Correction Department. Sullivan was set to be discharged in 2018, he said.
The Arkansas State Police will investigate the death, while the Correction Department will continue an internal investigation, according to the statement.
Graves said the department did not notify the public of the death Wednesday because it had not notified Sullivan's next of kin. Department policy states that the next of kin must be notified before the department can report the death of an inmate to the public, he said.
Metro on 10/28/2016