N.C. Claims Fewer Prisoners Died of COVID Than Documents Show In the final hours of August 2, Billy Bingham lay alone in his cell, silent except for the sounds of his short, shallow breaths. Thirty-four minutes after midnight, he was dead. Paramedics arrived at the Albemarle Correctional Institute, a state prison in central North Carolina, too late to take him to the hospital, and instead called the time of death and left. A prison official called his uncle, who would wake up to a voicemail sharing the news. Binghamâs story is not unique. A North Carolina Health News investigation in partnership with