Nebraska State Patrol investigators on Monday were investigating why a 22-year-old state prison inmate was found unresponsive by his cellmate Saturday night.
Tecumseh State Correctional Institution staff members were summoned by the cellmate of Terry L. Berry of Lincoln, Department of Correctional Services spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith said in a news release.
Correctional staff found Berry not breathing at 7:45 p.m., she said.
Staff immediately started CPR, and medical crews took Berry to Johnson County Hospital in Tecumseh before he was transported to Bryan West Campus in Lincoln, Smith said.
Hospital officials didn't have any status information on Berry on Monday.
"The details of the events leading to his being unresponsive are under investigation," Smith said.
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Berry is serving three to four years for felony forgery and a jail assault conviction from Platte County.
He has a parole hearing scheduled for next month, and his release date is in December.
Nebraska State Ombudsman Marshall Lux said his staff told him the incident occurred in the special-management unit at Tecumseh, which holds inmates in segregation or solitary confinement.
Smith said she couldn't confirm or deny that report, as state inmate privacy laws prevent the disclosure of an inmate's housing unit.
Prison officials in Tecumseh had previously discussed "repurposing" cells in that unit, which had been used for segregation, Lux said.
Ultimately they abandoned the idea, he said.
News of the incident Saturday in that unit raises questions for Lux.
"Why were there two people in that one cell?" Lux said, noting his staff will be following up with prison officials.
The Tecumseh prison housed an average of 1,032 inmates each day in the last quarter of 2016, operating at 107 percent of its design capacity, according to the department's latest population numbers.