Nicole Rathmann
Nicole Rathmann, 33, was a poet who earned her GED in prison and hoped to become an addiction treatment specialist to help others, her mother, Rita Korsen, said. She had recently reconnected with her 12-year-old son and was due to be released on parole five days after she died on August 23, 2018, at a hospital in Jackson, where she had been taken from the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility. The Mississippi Department of Corrections has listed her death as natural, citing a massive stroke with bleeding in the brain from head injuries. Her father, Kent Rathmann, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that another prisoner repeatedly struck her in the head as she lay in her bunk, that staff did not intervene, and that she received no medical help until she was found unresponsive; the lawsuit also says a hospital doctor linked her aneurysm to drug use during her detention, and the family says the state has not fully explained what happened.
Cause of death, as reported: Killed by another person in custody (disputed; neglect alleged). The Mississippi Department of Corrections recorded her death as natural, but her father's federal lawsuit says another prisoner repeatedly struck her in the head while staff did not intervene or give medical help until she was found unresponsive.
Reported by: Mississippi Department of Corrections (the agency that held her); Kent Rathmann, her father, in his federal lawsuit (family or their lawyers); Rita Korsen, her mother (family or their lawyers); a hospital doctor.
Lawsuit: Her father, Kent Rathmann, sued in federal court over her death alleging a fellow prisoner beat her and staff failed to help; the case's outcome is not reported.
Sources (10)
- 11th Mississippi inmate dies in August
- DOC identifies 12th prisoner to die in state custody this month
- 14th Mississippi inmate dies in August; Governor responds
- “Mississippi Is Failing”: As Prisoner Deaths Reach 13 in August Alone, Advocates Demand Answers
- 15th inmate dies in Mississippi prison system in August
- Nicole Rathman was set to go home from prison. She died five days before seeing freedom
- 16 prisoners died in one month in Mississippi. Their families want to know why.
- Mississippi prison deaths up 10 percent, records show
- Woman ‘Brutally’ Beaten in Mississippi Prison Died Because Officials Failed To Give Her Medical Care, Lawsuit Alleges
- Female prisoner dies after guards ‘did not stop her being beaten with soap bars’