Second prisoner death at the county jail in Athens within a month

A second prisoner has died within a month’s time at the jail off Lexington Road.

The Clarke County Sheriff’s Office released the following statement at 10 p.m. on Monday, May 5th:

On the afternoon of May 5, 2025, at approximately 4:30 PM, the staff at the Athens-Clarke County Jail were alerted to an individual with an unknown medical issue inside one of the housing units.

Upon entering the cell, staff found an unresponsive 32-year-old African American male. Immediate life-saving measures were initiated by jail personnel, and medical staff were notified without delay. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and the Athens-Clarke County Fire Department (ACCFD) arrived promptly and continued resuscitation efforts.

Despite the efforts of both jail and emergency medical personnel, we were unable to resuscitate the individual.

Per protocol, the incident is currently under investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

No further information is available at this time.

The prisoner is the second to have died in the jail since April 22.

That death also was investigated by the GBI, but any findings have yet to be made public.