A state prison official has confirmed the Feb. 14 death of a prisoner in Limestone Correctional Facility was suicide.

Matthew Blake Holmes, 28, was found unresponsive in his cell around 10:30 that night, Bob Horton, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections, told The News Courier last week.

Horton confirmed Wednesday the death was suicide. An autopsy and an investigation were used to determine the cause of death.

Holmes’ friend, who asked not to be identified, said Holmes had been on suicide watch at one point. The friend said he later asked to remain on suicide watch but was denied. Holmes’ mother, Theresa Holmes, told The News Courier she learned of her son’s suicide the following day. After learning of her son’s suicide by phone from an inmate of her son’s, she said she called the prison the next morning and demanded the details. She said she believes someone should have called her the night of his death.

Suicide is on the rise in Alabama’s prisons due to overcrowding and the treatment of inmates with mental illnesses, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC sued the ADOC over its treatment of mentally ill inmates and has raised warnings about the prison system’s suicide rate. As of mid-February, there had been at least 14 suicides in the past 14 months, according to the group.

Overcrowding and too few guards are some of the problems cited by prison system officials who are working with the SPLC to implement changes.

On March 8, the ADOC and the SPLC are scheduled to issue a report on the suicide issue with recommendations on additional suicide prevention measures, which the prison system will implement, the Huntsville Times reported.

The SPLC has asked a federal judge for a temporary restraining order to address problems, including how the prison system supervises prisoners in segregation (isolation) and on suicide watch, according to the Associated Press.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson said in 2017 Alabama’s treatment of mentally ill inmates is a violation of the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment, according to the AP.