OGLETHORPE, Ga. — A Macon State Prison inmate died following a fight with another inmate, the Georgia Department of Corrections confirmed to 13WMAZ.
They say Johnathan Vann — serving a life sentence without parole for murder — was found dead on Wednesday.
The GDC said the body was handed over the Macon County Coroner and will be taken to the GBI Crime Lab for an official cause of death.
The GDC's Office of Professional Standards is investigating Vann's death and, because of that, the GDC says no additional information is available.
Vann's death comes after the Department of Justice found the Georgia Department of Corrections' conditions are "unconstitutionally" unsafe.
They found the murder rate behind bars was three times higher than the national average, and the Department of Justice said there was an "endemic" culture of violence caused, in part, by rampant understaffing.
"Time in prison should not be a sentence to death, torture or rape," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said. "We can't turn a blind eye to the wretched conditions and wanton violence unfolding in these institutions."
In response, the GDC said the DOJ's report misunderstood the current correctional landscape, saying the issues the DOJ highlighted are curr
Vann was sentenced to life in prison for the death of three people in Berrien and Atkinson County.
Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, where Vann was incarcerated, was among the prisons highlighted in the Department of Justice's report.
