A prisoner at an Elmore County prison died Friday after a fight with another inmate.

Johnny Lee Spears, 31, was stabbed at Elmore Correctional Facility and was pronounced dead at 5:56 p.m. Friday.

According to the Alabama Department of Corrections website, Spears was serving time for murder, and was sentenced in Madison County in 2006.

Latarian Martel Frison, 25, was detained as a suspect in the stabbing, according to state news reports. Frison was sentenced for assault and robbery in Mobiel County.

Gov. Robert Bentley issued a statement late Friday.

“Tonight’s stabbing at Elmore Correctional Facility is another sad reminder of the crisis inside the prison system,” Bentley said. “The violence is spiraling out of control and, left unaddressed, poses a major threat to public safety. The Prison Transformation Initiative is a good, common sense, plan to address the challenges in the prison system and make the system safer for corrections officers and inmates. We cannot continue to have incidents of violence like the stabbing tonight or the riots a few weeks ago.”

It’s at least the second stabbing of a prisoner at an Alabama prison this month.

A prisoner was stabbed March 14 at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

Earlier in March, both the warden and a corrections officer also were stabbed at Holman.