COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina inmate died at a correctional facility in Mississippi on Sunday. An autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday to find out why.
According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the inmate was 41-year-old Kenneth Harris. Harris reportedly began having seizures in his cell around 4 a.m. Sunday. His roommate alerted officials, who corrections officials say then administered CPR and other emergency measures. Harris died about an hour and a half later at a hospital in Clarksdale, Mississippi, where he'd been transported.
Corrections officials say foul play is not suspected, but an autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday to determine the cause of death.
In June of 2018, Harris was transferred from the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia to the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, Mississippi. He was serving a 22-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter out of Lexington County.
In July of 2018, WLTX reported that the state Department of Corrections sent dozens of inmates out of state to a private for-profit prison in Mississippi. At the time, SCDOC said the move involved "problematic" inmates that posed a danger to others.
According to Harris' inmate records, there were three disciplinary actions on his record, including being in possession of a cell phone in September of 2016, striking an inmate in July of 2018 and being out of place on that same date.
His family says that he was not a problem behind bars and they were shocked that he was transferred to the Mississippi facility last year.