Investigators are probing the killing of an inmate at Phillips State Prison in Buford over the weekend.
Antonio Turner, 27, was killed Sunday about 10 p.m., Joan Heath, spokeswoman for the state prison system, confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday.
Heath did not confirm the motive, saying the investigation was ongoing. “No details are available at this time,” she said.
Turner was serving a 10-year sentence for a strong-arm robbery in Cherokee County in 2011, according to department of correction records.
The number of homicides at Phillips in 2014 was not available. Last year the Southern Center for Human Rights published a report on prison violence that documented an "escalation in the level of homicides, stabbings and assault in the Georgia prison system" from 2010 to July 2014.
The Southern Center, which advocates for prisoner rights, has documented dozens of incidents since 2010, including the violence involving Hays State Prison inmates. Since 2010, a correctional officer and 33 inmates have been killed and more prisoners have been seriously injured. Gangs, the Southern Center said, operate freely inside cell blocks.
The AJC requested the number of homicides in the state prisons from 2011 through 2014, which Heath said would be provided by Thursday.
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