Ryan Warren-Hunt,Jordan Canteberry Obituary, Death; – Four inmates have been killed in less than a month at two state prisons in Nevada in what corrections officials said appeared to have been drug-related homicides, a cycle of violence that prompted the state to place both facilities under heightened security.
The deaths occurred at the High Desert State Prison and Southern Desert Correctional Center, which are less than 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas in Clark County, Nev., according to the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Prison officials identified the four men who died as Ryan Warren-Hunt, 35; D’marea Wallace, 18; Jordan Canteberry, 34; and Jacob Herman, 35.
Each of them had been assigned to different housing units, and the homicides appeared to be unrelated, the authorities said.
Prison officials said that they believed that drug debt — in which illegal drugs are supplied on a promise-to-pay basis — was an exacerbating factor in all four inmates’ deaths. The officials did not explain how they had reached that conclusion and did not immediately respond on Wednesday to requests for further information about the killings.
On Tuesday, Nevada’s prison system said that it was tightening security at the two correctional facilities that were involved. Both prisons were increasing surveillance and shifting staff operations to reduce the number of inmates outside their cells at the same time, officials said.
“We need to get creative in bringing in different perspectives and attack this problem from all angles.” James Dzurenda, the director of the Department of Corrections, said in a statement.
The announcement by corrections leaders about the series of homicides came two days after the Las Vegas television station KLAS reported about the four inmates’ deaths.
