NELSON RODRIGUEZ

By Ralph Ranalli
Globe Staff
December 22, 2005

4 INMATES ATTEMPT SUICIDES, 1 SUCCEEDS

One inmate died and three others required medical attention in a wave of suicide attempts Tuesday in a segregation unit at the maximum security state prison in Walpole, officials said.

Nelson Rodriguez, a 26-year-old inmate serving time on a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, was found hanging in his cell at MCI-Cedar Junction about 4:20 p.m., said Diane Wiffin, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Correction.

Officers opened his cell, and paramedics tried to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but Rodriguez was pronounced dead 24 minutes later, she said.

Following his suicide, three other inmates attempted suicides later in the evening in the same unit, Wiffin said. They were all being housed in the same segregation unit as Joseph L. Druce, the inmate who authorities say strangled former priest and convicted pedophile John Geoghan in August 2003. Officials did not identify the other inmates who made suicide attempts.

Wiffin would not comment on whether the number of suicide attempts was unusual, or whether officials had a theory about why so many inmates tried to kill themselves on the same night.

''The situation is under investigation," she said. ''I really can't say much more than that because we don't know what the investigation will turn up."

Wiffin added, however, that the holiday season ''is a sad time of year" for many inmates.

Leslie Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, said that Rodriguez had requested mental health treatment in an interview with MCLS lawyers on Monday. She said that Rodriguez had appeared depressed, disoriented, and incoherent and had said he wanted to die. Rodriguez's death highlights the need for better mental health treatment in state prisons, the official said.

Wiffin said that Department of Correction officials had notified both the State Police and Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating's office of suicide and attempted suicides. David Traub, a spokesman for Keating, said he could not comment.

Rodriguez had been imprisoned on April 26, 2004 after he was sentenced to four to seven years, officials said. He was eligible for parole on June 23, 2007, and had been transferred to the segregation unit for assaulting prison staff, Wiffin said.

During the same evening Rodriguez died, another inmate in the unit tried to hang himself, while two others attempted to cut themselves, Wiffin said. Two of the inmates were brought to local hospitals, while the third was treated at the prison's health services center, she said. Wiffin declined to disclose more information about the three, citing restrictions imposed by the state's Criminal Offender Record Information law.

Walker said that prisoners need better access to treatment and that guards need to be better trained to recognize and deal with mental health problems.

Rodriquez's death was the fourth suicide this year in the state prison system, which houses about 10,300 inmates, Wiffin said.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

FACTOR 8: THE ARKANSAS PRISON BLOOD SCANDAL

Kelly Duda and Concrete Films have produced a documentary which details the corruption and greed that led the Arkansas Department of Correction to spread death from Arkansas prisons to the entire world. Hear the story from the mouths of those responsible for the harvesting of infected human blood plasma, and its sale to be made into medicines.

Duda's award-winning film unflinchingly documents the whole story the U.S. government and the state of Arkansas have tried to keep hidden from the world.

Click the photo of Kelly Duda at work to order your own copy of
"Factor 8: The Arkansas Prison Blood Scandal"

Click the photo of Kelly Duda at work to visit the
Factor 8 Documentary website

Please help spread the word about this important film,
along with the urls to the linked pages.

This PRUP (Prison Reform Unity Project) site owned by

Linda Tant Miller
[Previous 5 Sites | Previous | Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites ]

Read my Dreambook! Sign my Dreambook!