Lauderdale County, Miss., authorities said Tuesday they hope to make an arrest today in the stabbing death of 43-year-old Stanley Johnson inside the East Mississippi Correctional Facility.

"We are anticipating an arrest in the next 24 to 48 hours," Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said.

Johnson was serving a life sentence for a 1985 rape conviction in Sunflower County. Warden Larry Greer said Johnson was attacked about 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the privately run prison and died several hours later in a local hospital.
Sollie and Greer said several prisoners have been questioned in the stabbing. No weapon has been found, and officials won't go into specifics about their investigation.

Greer said he was unaware of any unrest that could have led to the stabbing. He said he doesn't know why Johnson was attacked.
Greer said the 1,000-bed prison in the Lost Gap community west of Meridian has been on lockdown since the stabbing. The prison's 872 inmates have been confined to their cells virtually 24 hours a day.

Greer said the security measures are in line with the seriousness of the incident.

This is the second time in three years an inmate has been killed in the prison. In 2002, 58-year-old Lonnie Grisham was found bludgeoned to death in his cell. Information on whether Grisham's killer was prosecuted wasn't available Tuesday.

The prison is run by the GEO Group Inc., a Florida-based company formerly known as Wackenhut. The GEO Group runs private prisons in 14 states, as well as in South Africa and Australia. In Mississippi, the company also runs the Marshall County Correctional Facility in Holly Springs, which was the site of the beating death of an inmate by another prisoner in 2001.

The GEO Group is in the first year of a five-year contract renewal to run the two prisons.