Carol Pona
Carol Pona, 64, died of liver cancer after being held at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Rhode Island, according to The Brown Daily Herald. Activists protesting the deaths at the ACI that year listed her among seven people who died there in 2023. The Rhode Island Department of Corrections said she had been released to house arrest and died in a hospital hours later, and its spokesperson counted her among six inmate deaths the department had reported for 2023 so far. The two accounts differ on how many people died and on the circumstances of her death.
Cause of death, as reported: Died of illness. Carol Pona died of liver cancer, according to an activist-reported account; the Department of Corrections said she died in a hospital hours after release on house arrest.
Reported by: Activists protesting the deaths at the Adult Correctional Institutions (advocates); JR Ventura, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections (the agency that held her).