Alan Fields
Alan Fields was 29 when he died on November 28, 2018, at Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville, South Carolina. Dorchester County Coroner Paul Brouthers said he was found hanging from a bedsheet, and corrections officials said he was found unresponsive in his cell. His family's wrongful death lawsuit says he lived with schizoaffective disorder and psychosis, had made multiple suicide attempts before, and that prison doctors and nurses wrongly dismissed his symptoms as malingering and failed to treat him properly. The lawsuit names medical staff and the South Carolina Department of Corrections, and his attorneys say he repeatedly asked to be placed in a treatment program. An autopsy had not been performed when the death was first reported, and the cause and manner remained pending while the department's police services division investigated.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (disputed; neglect alleged). The coroner's office and corrections officials said he was found hanging from a bedsheet in his cell, while his family's wrongful death lawsuit says prison doctors and nurses wrongly dismissed his serious mental illness and failed to treat him properly.
Reported by: Dorchester County Coroner Paul Brouthers (medical examiner or coroner); South Carolina Department of Corrections (the agency that held him); family's wrongful death lawsuit (family or their lawyers).
Lawsuit: His family sued the South Carolina Department of Corrections and prison medical staff in a wrongful death lawsuit, and the claims have not been adjudicated.