Alaska News

Inmate dies in suicide at Seward prison, officials say

An inmate at the maximum-security prison in Seward died in an "apparent suicide" Friday, the Alaska Department of Corrections said.

Doran Jennings, 27, was found unresponsive in his cell at Spring Creek Correctional Center's segregation unit, said department spokeswoman Megan Edge.

"Facility staff immediately began attempting lifesaving measures and continued until emergency services arrived," the statement said.

He was pronounced dead at the Seward hospital at 10:22 p.m., the DOC said.

[Rethinking Alaska's only maximum-security prison]

Jennings was in solitary confinement at the time. He had been at the prison for one month, serving a sentence for an assault conviction.

Jennings' death was the seventh Alaska inmate death of 2018. Three of the deaths have been suicide, the DOC said.

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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