RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- The N.C. Department of Public Safety said its Division of Adult Correction has reached a $2.5 million settlement with the estate of a man with mental illness who died of thirst after being held in solitary confinement for 35 days.
A statement issued Monday announced the agreement with the estate of Michael Anthony Kerr.
Records showed the 54-year-old inmate was twice cited for violations by prison staff for flooding his cell weeks before his death. Kerr was found unresponsive in the back of a prison van after being driven three hours from the Alexander Correctional Institution in Taylorsville to a mental hospital at Raleigh's Central Prison.
The Associated Press reported that an autopsy determined Kerr died of dehydration on March 12, 2014, and was receiving no treatment for his schizophrenia.
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