Alaska is reporting 18 in-custody deaths so far this year, tying a grim record

The Department of Corrections this week reported the 18th death of an inmate this year, tying the record for the highest number of annual in-custody deaths in at least the past decade.

Kane William Huff, who had been imprisoned at Goose Creek Correctional Center near Wasilla, died Dec. 11, according to a DOC statement. Huff, 46, was serving a sentence for a 2018 conviction on two counts of sexual abuse of a minor, according to online court records. DOC officials said he had been in custody since 2015.

Huff was found unresponsive in the prison’s infirmary, where he had been housed, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Austin McDaniel. Alaska State Troopers, who handle in-custody death investigations, have closed their investigation and are awaiting autopsy results from the State Medical Examiner Office, McDaniel said. Troopers don’t believe Huff died by suicide or that foul play was involved, he said.

The last time as many people died in state custody was in 2022, when a record seven inmates also died by suicide, according to a department snapshot of deaths since 2015.

The Department of Corrections began consistently keeping inmate death statistics in 2001, said spokesperson Betsy Holley. The department also posts data showing in-custody deaths since 2015. That year, 15 people died while in DOC custody.

The state’s official count for 2025 doesn’t include the death of 36-year-old William Farmer, who died in a hospital in January after he was severely beaten by his cellmate at the Anchorage Correctional Complex the month before.

An upward trend of in-custody deaths in the past several years has alarmed some prisoner rights advocates and prompted state lawmakers to ask Department of Corrections officials to address the deaths in multiple hearings this year. The department has also found itself under fire for inmate suicides.

This year, at least four inmates have died of natural or expected causes, such as disease or a medical event, while at least five have died by suicide, according to information provided by Alaska State Troopers.

Officials have also said that a Spring Creek Correctional Center prisoner died of an overdose in April.

Another inmate, 53-year-old Jeffrey Foreman, died in July after being restrained by guards after an altercation with his cellmate at the Anchorage Correctional Complex.

[Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the year the Department of Corrections started consistently keeping inmate death statistics. It was 2001, not 2015.]