BAILEYTON – The inmate who was killed on Friday, July 22 while on the job in the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) work release program has been identified. Jerry Lynn Coggins, 38, of Cullman was killed in an incident involving a tractor.
“At approximately 10:29 a.m. this morning, we received a call that an inmate worker was killed in a tractor incident,” said Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry on Friday afternoon.
"At the request of the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency's (ALEA) State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), is investigating the death of a work-release inmate that occurred on July 22, near Pan Creek Road," said Trooper Curtis Summerville. "The inmate was on a tractor bush-hogging when he struck a barbed-wire fence and fell off the tractor. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The SBI’s findings will be turned over to the Sheriff's Office. Nothing further is available as the investigation is ongoing."
According to Gentry, different Cullman County municipalities and nonprofits have inmate labor through the CCSO’s work release program six days a week. They do not work on Sundays.
“My heart and my prayers go out to the family of the inmate,” said Gentry.
The CCSO’s work release program, in place for 11 years, allows non-violent inmates to get jobs through participating businesses.
The inmates earn money, which is sent to the CCSO. Some goes to the inmate’s restitution bill, some back into the program itself and the rest the inmate gets when he or she is released.
