Corrections injuries spark review

PALMER — An incident Monday in which an inmate at the Mat-Su Pretrial facility was injured was one of two episodes that sparked a policy review at the Department of Corrections this week.

A 39-year-old man was injured and transported to Providence Alaska Medical Center about 7 p.m., Monday, according to a Department of Corrections press release.

Corrections spokesperson Sherrie Daigle declined to comment on the incident, other than to say that Alaska State Troopers were notified.

Because the inmate did not die, the incident is not the subject of a death or criminal investigation, according to trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters.

“At this point, there’s not believed to be an criminality,” she said.

Corrections officials follow department guidelines in deciding whether to involve troopers in an incident involving non-life-threatening injuries sustained by inmates, Peters said.

Monday’s incident is the second injury incident to occur at a corrections facility this week. A 33-year-old inmate at Anchorage Correctional Center-East, Larry Kobuk of Anchorage, died about 11:30 p.m., Wednesday after being restrained by corrections officers. That incident remains under investigation, according to the Alaska State Troopers.

Because the two incidents happened in such a short span of time, incoming Corrections Commissioner Ron Taylor has ordered a review of basic security procedures, Daigle said.

The review is to insure that procedures are appropriate and that incidents are responded to appropriately, she wrote in an e-mail message.

A Mat-Su Pretrial inmate also was injured there after leaping from the second story inside the facility Oct. 6, 2014. Troopers also were notified in that incident.

The last inmate death there was reported Aug. 25, 2014.

About 33 percent of inmates in state prisons reported being injured in either an accident or a fight since their admission to a state prison, according to a 2004 report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the last time such a study was conducted.