Prisoner Deaths
Mentally Ill, Disabled CDCR Prisoner Dies Following Use of Force Incident
On September 7, 2013, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prisoner Joseph Duran, 35, a mentally ill inmate who breathed through the use of a tube in his throat, died following a use of force incident. He had been pepper-sprayed in the face for refusing to remove his hands from a food slot in…
Read MoreState Prison Suicides Climbed 30% in One Year
The number of inmate suicides in state prisons climbed by more than 30 percent during a one-year period, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in the Department of Justice. The statistical study, Mortality in State Prisons, 2001-2014, released on Dec. 15, noted that in 2013, 192 state prison…
Read MorePrisoner Deaths Continue To Rise
By Chris Zoukis For the third year in row, the number of prisoners who died in America’s prisons and jails rose. Some 4,446 prisoners died in 2013, a two percent increase over 2012, continuing an upward trend, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Suicide remains the…
Read MorePennsylvania: Woman Dies in Jail While Serving Sentence for Truancy Fines and Court Costs
By Chris Zoukis A 55-year-old mother of seven died in a Pennsylvania jail cell on June 7, 2014 while serving a 48-hour sentence for failure to pay truancy fines and court costs that totaled about $2,000. Eileen DiNino was jailed by Berks County District Judge Dean Patton for debts that had been accruing since 1999.…
Read More