Inmate kills self as prison suicides continue

BOSTON --An inmate undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital hung himself in a shower room -- the 10th suicide in the state prison system in the past 15 months, the Department of Correction said Saturday.

Jarred Aranda, 27, wrapped a shoelace around his neck and tied it to the handle of the shower-room door Friday night, DOC spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said. He was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m.

Aranda began serving a one-year sentence for larceny and assault in January. He was transferred from the Bristol County House of Correction to Bridgewater on March 13 to begin a 30-day psychiatric evaluation, Wiffin said.

The death is the third suicide in Massachusetts state prisons this year, after seven last year. Those are up from one suicide in 2004 and four in 2005.

"You can't eliminate risk, you can only minimize it," Wiffin said on Saturday.

A federal lawsuit filed this month claims inmates with mental illnesses get inadequate oversight, contributing to an increase in suicide attempts.

"We're long past the crisis stage," said Leslie Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, an inmate advocacy group that supports the lawsuit. "It's especially disheartening that this occurred in state hospital, which is designed to protect and heal the mentally ill."

Four correction officers -- one above normal staffing -- were monitoring Aranda's unit at Bridgewater on Friday night, and there were 39 inmates assigned to the unit, Wiffin said.

That unit, which has single rooms and multi-bed dorm-style rooms, has a shower room with observational windows for officers, Wiffin said. Only one inmate is allowed in the shower room at one time, she said. The incident was reported at 8:05 p.m. Aranda was taken to Brockton Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Aranda's last known address was Boston. His sentence began Jan. 26. He was convicted in Taunton District Court.

All inmates brought to Bridgewater are given an initial mental health screening to determine which unit they're sent to, Wiffin said.

"He was in a less restrictive setting," she said of Aranda.

The state's inmate suicide rate was about 27 per 100,000 inmates during the 10-year-period that ended in 2006, according to a state-commissioned report issued in February. That was nearly twice the rate nationally, according to data for 2002, the report said.

The study called for cells to be more "suicide-resistant" -- some cells where suicidal inmates are held have not been stripped of items they could use to harm themselves -- and recommended hiring more staff to monitor troubled inmates. The report stressed the need for more and better training.

Veronica Madden, an associate commissioner, in February called the report "our roadmap to corrective action."

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the Disability Law Center Inc. claims that one-quarter of the 11,000 inmates in the state prison system are mentally ill, and criticizes the DOC for keeping hundreds of inmates in isolation for too long.

Unlike most of the recent suicides, however, Aranda was assigned to a multi-bed dorm.

It was the second death this week in the prisons system.

Thomas Moriconi, 35, was found unconscious in his cell at MCI-Shirley early Wednesday morning. A preliminary investigation shows he died of a heroin overdose, Wiffin said. He was pronounced dead at 4 a.m. at Leominster Hospital.

Moriconi's death was accidental, Wiffin said. His cellmate was treated for heroin use. Prison and county investigators are investigating how the heroin got inside the facility.

Moriconi's four-year sentence for possession with intent to distribute heroin began last August.