Arkansas County agrees to $3 million settlement after inmate's death in prison in 2021

FORT SMITH, Arkansas – A western Arkansas county has approved a $3 million settlement to the family of a man who died of dehydration and malnutrition in a local jail.

The Sebastian County Quorum Court voted unanimously and without discussion on Tuesday to settle the lawsuit filed in connection with the 2021 death of Larry Eugene Price Jr. in the county jail, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

A district attorney did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press late Wednesday afternoon. An attorney for the Price family declined to comment.

Price died after being held at the facility for just over a year while awaiting trial on terroristic threatening charges. Price, 51, who had a history of severe mental illness, was held in solitary confinement at the county facility, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit filed against Sebastian County last year accused the jail and its medical provider of neglecting Price as he ate and drank less over the course of a year and his weight dropped from 185 pounds (84 kilograms) to 90 pounds (41 kilograms). The lawsuit accused the jail and its medical provider of violating Price's constitutional rights.

The parties requested in June that the case be referred to a settlement conference.

A lawyer for the provider, Oklahoma-based Turn Key Health Clinics, told the AP that they had also agreed to a settlement but could not comment until terms were finalized.

Prison staff discontinued Price's psychiatric medications after he refused to take them, the lawsuit says, and made no effort to provide the inmate with mental health care.

According to the lawsuit, inspections of the prison over the years have identified problems such as overcrowding, understaffing and lack of space at the county facility.

Price was arrested in August 2020 after he entered the Fort Smith Police Department and threatened officers while pointing his finger at them as if pulling an imaginary trigger, the lawsuit states. Price, who also had a developmental disability, was homeless at the time of his arrest.