Federal inmate dies in altercation with another prisoner

An inmate at Kentucky’s USP McCreary federal prison died this weekend after an altercation with another prisoner, the Associated Press reported. 

According to the AP, federal Bureau of Prisons officials said Brian Bennett, 50, was critically injured Saturday afternoon and pronounced dead at an area hospital shortly after. The agency provided few further details beyond saying it had notified the FBI, which is standard procedure following an inmate death in federal custody.

Bennett had been at the prison since January and was serving a 10-year sentence for distribution of methamphetamine and possession of a firearm as a felon.

The high-security facility houses about 1,500 men, including high-profile inmates such as Bonanno Mafia family hit man Thomas Pitera, white supremacist convicted mass murderer Chevie Kehoe and Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who was convicted in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Two corrections officers at the facility were stabbed by an inmate in 2010; both survived.

The federal prison system has long been plagued by reports of violence and inadequate oversight, highlighted by the 2019 death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein in federal custody. A 2019 report to the House Subcommittee on National Security determined misconduct in federal prisons is “largely tolerated or ignored altogether” and “some individuals deemed responsible for misconduct were shuffled around, commended, awarded, promoted, or even allowed to retire with a clean record and full benefits before any disciplinary action could apply.”