A Philly prison inmate was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive in his cell
Armani Faison's death follows that of at least three other inmates who died in city jails since mid-2020 as violence soared amid the coronavirus pandemic.
An inmate at Philadelphia’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility died Saturday, hours after he was found unresponsive in his prison cell, likely the victim of an assault.
Armani Faison, 35, who had recently been arrested on arson and robbery charges, was discovered face up on the floor by a prison guard on Saturday morning, according to an internal incident report. He was later pronounced dead at Nazareth Hospital.
Faison was housed in a cell with another inmate when he was found. The sprinkler system inside the cell had been activated when the prison guard arrived, a possible attempt to eliminate evidence, according to a law enforcement source.
The Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet made a determination on Faison’s cause and manner of death, said James Garrow, spokesperson for the office.
No charges had been filed as of Sunday night, according to Corporal Jasmine Reilly, a police spokesperson. Detectives are expected to wait for the Medical Examiner’s final report then to confer with the District Attorney’s Office on possible charges.
Faison’s death follows that of at least three other inmates who died in city jails since mid-2020 as violence soared amid the coronavirus pandemic. In January, an Inquirer analysis found that assaults on staff were up 44% for the first six months of pandemic lockdown compared with the average number of incidents reported over the same period for the five previous years. Suicide attempts roughly doubled compared with prior years.