ATHENS — The Alabama corrections department says it is investigating how an inmate fell 12 feet at one of the state's prisons, dying from the injuries.

Corrections department spokesman Bob Horton told The News Courier on Tuesday that the fall happened at the Limestone Correctional Facility in Harvest.

Horton says the inmate fell from a second-level tier in the prison Saturday and was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries.

The Alabama Department of Corrections wouldn't release the inmate's name or additional details about the circumstances of the fall, citing an ongoing investigation into the incident.