Officials say a man accused of killing nearly two dozen elderly women and who was convicted in the slayings of two has been killed by his Texas prison cellmate.

A Texas prisoner accused of killing 22 older women over two years, preying on them so he could steal jewelry and other valuables, was slain Tuesday by his cellmate while serving a life sentence, prison officials said.

Billy Chemirmir, 50, who was convicted last year in the slayings of two women, was found dead in his cell at a prison in rural East Texas, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Hannah Haney said. He was killed by his cellmate who was also serving a prison sentence for murder, according to Haney.

Chemirmir’s death comes about two weeks after Texas’ 100 prisons were placed on a rare statewide lockdown because of a rise in the number of killings inside the facilities, which prisons officials have said were related to drugs.

Haney did not release the name of the cellmate, how Chemirmir was killed or what may have led to the slaying.

    • Neato@kbin.social
      59·
      1 year ago

      While I understand the sentiment, it is patently false.

      In America prisons are designed to be cruel, not to rehabilitate.

      This is unconstitutional and illegal, besides. Therefore the governments and the victims are well within their rights to hold the prisons accountable and liable.

        • Neato@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          Uh, Citation Needed.

          Equal protection for protected classes in prison isn’t relevant when the issue is prisons not properly protecting their inmates.

        • GladiusB@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          Prove it. That’s the issue. It’s systemic and hard to prove that it’s from the top down. Even if you can get some instances, then you need many forms of evidence. Which has a way of disappearing or waiting so long that witnesses die.

      • GlendatheGayWitch@lib.lgbtEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        The only falsehood about their statement is the implication that all prisons are for-profit.

        For example, Louisisna has state and privately owned prisons. Many, if not all, of Louisiana’s private for-profit prisons are owned by members of law enforcement. This gives them incentive to fill the cells as much as possible. The rules for these prisons are much more lax than the state-run prisons. While the state prisons have libraries and vocational training, the Private prisons usually don’t. At least that’s my understanding from a few years back.

        Louisiana is also not the only state with private prisons, however most, if not all states, have public prisons as well.