Eastside inmate from Netflix's Unlocked passes away at 29

Modified Jun 05, 2024 08:18 GMT

John McAllister from Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment has recently passed away(Image via Netflix)

John McAllister, also known as Eastside, who was recently featured in Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, has died at 29, KATV reported. According to the news outlet, McAllister was found unresponsive in his bunk on Sunday morning, June 2, 2024. After the incident, he was taken to the Jefferson Regional Medical Centre in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

The Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility inmate was pronounced dead around 8.50 am. The authorities do not suspect suicide or foul play.

Who was John McAllister in Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment?

John McAllister in Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment(Image via YouTube/Netflix)

John McAllister was one of the prime focuses of Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, a docuseries chronicling the lives of inmates of the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility. Released on April 10, 2024, the series, under the supervision of Sheriff Eric S. Higgins, explored the changes in the behavior of the detention facility inmates under comparatively relaxed rules.

John McAllister, or Eastside, was serving a three-year prison sentence at Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility for committing multiple felonies. These included charges for drug possession, breaking and entering, theft of property, and firearms possession.

McAllister's death comes as a shock to the people who had developed a liking towards the in-house tattoo artist in Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment.

What is Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment about?

Netflix's Unlock: A Jail Experiment is a social experiment by Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility Sheriff Eric S. Higgins. The eight-part docuseries traces the behavioral changes of the facility's inmates when the ground rules usually applied no longer exist.

The new rules are comparatively unrestrained, warranting greater autonomy to the inmates over their activities. Speaking to Netflix's Tudum, the Sheriff explained the thought process that dictated his decision to conduct such a radical social experiment.

"We thought, What can we do to create some ownership for those detainees in that unit? How do we make the facility safer, and what can we do to still hold them accountable but empower them at the same time?,” he said.

He also made his expectations from the experiment very clear:

“In this country, we have a certain perception of someone who goes to jail — the assumption being that they’re guilty. But they deserve dignity. These individuals, they’re fathers, they’re uncles, they’re sons. People care about them… they’re not just a number.

"I believe that if you treat people right, and you hold them accountable… I think they take that with them when they walk out of this facility. I think we have proven that people will rise to the expectation.”

Who were the other subjects of Netflix's Unlocked: A Jail Experiment?

Inmates of the Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility( Image via Tudum/Netflix)

John McAllister was one of the main focuses of Unlocked: A Jail Experiment. Chauncey Young, Randy Randall, Raymond "AJ" Lovett, and Krisna Piro "Tiny" Clarke were the other inmates whose lives inside the facility were explored in detail.

The roster for the social experiment also included the names of: