The first prisoner to die in custody at Riverside Regional Jail in more than a year suffered from heart disease and died a natural death, the state medical examiner and police have determined.
William A. Brown, 42, who was being held on a felony charge, experienced a medical emergency July 24 and died while being examined by medical personnel, authorities said.
Police in Prince George County, where the facility is located, conducted an outside investigation into Brown's death and determined he died naturally, said police spokeswoman Alexis Grochmal.
The police findings were based primarily on an autopsy conducted by the state medical examiner's office, which determined that Brown died naturally from hypertensive cardiovascular disease, a spokesman said.
"An internal investigation was conducted and concluded that all jail procedures were followed correctly by staff," said Lt. Charlene Jones of Riverside's Office of Professional Review.
Brown had been booked into the jail on June 4 on a felony charge of causing malicious injury by a caustic substance.
His death was the first at the facility since April 14, 2018, when 27-year-old Joseph McAlpine killed himself in his cell. It was the longest stretch the jail experienced without a death in recent years.
Only one inmate died last year. The greatest number of deaths occurred in 2017, when five inmates died, including two who died by suicide and whose deaths were investigated by a state jail review committee. A total of 16 inmates have died at Riverside since 2013.
Brown's death occurred a week after Riverside was placed under closer state supervision - and forced to receive two unannounced audits every six months - by the Virginia Department of Corrections.
The board placed the facility on "probationary certification" for three years after the panel's jail review committee found shortcomings at the facility that may have directly or indirectly contributed to the deaths of the two inmates who killed themselves in 2017. The committee concluded there was evidence that the jail was not complying with some of the board's regulations.