A Vermont man died Thursday at a private prison in Mississippi after being found unresponsive in his cell, the Vermont Department of Corrections said in a press release.
Titus Peters, 42, of Bennington, was serving his sentence at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility, which is run by CoreCivic, a private prison company. Peters was convicted in 2019 on charges that he abused multiple women, including two underage girls, the Bennington Banner reported.
Peters was found unresponsive in his cell on Thursday. Prison staff called medical personnel, who initiated life-saving measures, according to the Vermont corrections department. Emergency Medical Services pronounced Peters dead when they arrived, the department said.
The department’s investigative unit will review the incident. The Defender General’s Prisoners’ Rights office was notified about the fatality, the department said.
Peters was one of 150 Vermont men held at Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility. Vermont has sent prisoners out of state since the late 1990s due to insufficient space in-state. The state renewed its contract with CoreCivic in 2023. Since then, the number of Vermonters out-of-state has increased, as has the overall prison population in Vermont.
Peters is the second incarcerated Vermonter to die this year. Alexis Poulin, 28, died at Chittenden County Regional Correction Facility earlier this month. Last year, nine people died in Vermont prisons, according to the Department of Corrections.
