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Georgia agrees to pay $350,000 in lawsuit bought by inmate’s family

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.ajc.com

The state has agreed to pay the family of an inmate strangled and beaten to death in his cell at Hays State Prison $350,000.

According to the settlement agreement The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained on Wednesday, the money will be paid to Damion MacClain’s family in exchange for dropping the lawsuit they brought, blaming the state prison system for MacClain’s death on Dec. 26, 2013, death.

The agreement says the settlement is not an admission of liability but was made “to seek peace and secure resolution and to terminate further controversy.

MacClain’s was one of three deaths in five months at the northwest Georgia prison. At the time, Hays was becoming increasingly dangerous because faulty locks allowed inmates to leave their cells and roam at will. MacClain’s family said that was how other inmates were able to attack him in his bed.

According to the suit brought on behalf of the MacClain family by the Southern Center for Human Rights, prison officials knew conditions at Hays had deteriorated to a level that allowed stabbings, beatings, and assaults on inmates and officers.

Prison audits in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012 all reported cell door locks at Hays could easily be circumvented. Yet prison officials did not fix the locks or find a way to control the movements of the inmates…

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