A prisoner at the Varner Supermax unit in Lincoln County died last week in a suspected suicide, the eighth in the state prison system this year.
If ruled as death by suicide, for the first half of 2024, the number of suicides in state prisons has now reached the total number documented for the entire 12 months of 2023.
Jeremy Coleman, serving 55 years for a variety of convictions, was found hanging in his single-person cell early Friday morning by a correctional sergeant. Staff performed life-saving measures until Coleman was pronounced dead at approximately 2:05 a.m., according to a press release from the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
Coleman was serving sentences for convictions for murder in Jefferson County and battery out of Lincoln County.
The Arkansas State Police responded to the scene to investigate the death. The Department of Corrections will conduct an internal investigation, the press release said.
Coleman’s death is the latest in a string of Arkansas prison suicides that have drawn attention this year. There were eight documented suicides in the state prison system in total in 2023 and 10 in 2022.
An internal report by the Department of Correction this year was critical of the department’s mental health services. The analysis of 49 suicides from 2017-2022 found that many of the victims had met with mental health staff only days before dying by suicide. The report said the statistic was concerning because mental health intervention typically decreases the risk of suicide.
A growing number of research focusing on mental health in federal and state prisons has shown the systems are failing inmates with proper treatment, leading to high rates of suicide behind bars across the U.S.
A February 2024 report from the U.S. Department of Justice’s inspector general found that the Bureau of Prisons failed to prevent nearly 200 deaths by suicide over a seven-year time period. The report “found that a combination of recurring policy violations and operational failures contributed to inmate suicides.”