Robert Michael Vidic is the second Goose Creek Correctional Center inmate to die this month and the state's 10th inmate death this year.
Goose Creek Correctional Center. (Ellen Lockyer/KSKA)
A second Alaska prison inmate has died this month, bringing the state�s inmate death toll this year to 10.
The state Department of Corrections announced that 65-year-old Robert Michael Vidic died at about 4:15 a.m. Tuesday. According to a statement Vidic had been in DOC custody since July of 2022, most recently at the Goose Creek Correctional Center near Wasilla, as he faced unresolved felony-DUI and assault charges.
DOC declined in its statement to discuss Vidic�s health, citing patient privacy laws.
Vidic�s death comes about three weeks after fellow Goose Creek inmate Artemy Arthur Hapoff, Jr. died at age 69. Both men�s deaths were expected by medical personnel, according to the department.
If Vidic is the state�s final inmate death this year, Alaska will end 2023 with a tally nearly halved from last year�s 18, a record in modern times. That toll prompted lawsuits against DOC, as well as questions from the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska over how the state counts inmate deaths.
