At memorial service, sadness and anger over inmate suicides

Given the rising number of suicides by inmates at state correctional facilities, friends, relatives, and local community leaders gathered yesterday at a Boston church to remember loved ones who took their own lives while serving time.

The mood inside the small Commonwealth Church of Boston on Boylston Street wavered from sadness to forgiveness to anger.

Those who stood and spoke to the more than 30 people at the two-hour service lit candles in memory of the dead.

As candles flickered on the small altar, Steven Beadles of Dorchester, spoke of his friend, Jarred Aranda , who hanged himself last month while at Bridgewater State Hospital for a mental evaluation.

"He was the most special, kind person I knew. This system chews them up," said Beadles, his voice cracking.

Aranda, 27, of Boston had been sentenced in January to a year in jail on several minor charges.

He hanged himself with a shoelace while taking a shower, Beadles said.

Aranda was the third inmate to commit suicide this year, and the 10th in the past 15 months.

Those numbers are up from one suicide in 2004 and four in 2005, state officials have said.

An independent study of the state prison system released in February found serious shortcomings in the state's handling of inmates at risk of committing suicide.

The report, commissioned after a sharp increase in prisoner suicides, concluded that prison policies and practices were contributing to the problem.

The Department of Correction has said it has made some changes since the report's release and is making more.

"Something has to be done, but the fact is, I lost my best friend," Beadles said at the gathering.

Congregation director Jason Lydon , who said he had served six months in jail, said changes in the system need to happen soon, before more inmates take their lives.

"People die in prison before their bodies do," he said at the gathering.

Timothy Swallow of East Boston lighted a candle for his half-brother and youngest son who he hopes will survive their jail terms.

Swallow, a member of the Lakota Sioux tribe, said he had spent time in jail for fighting.

He offered several Lakota Sioux tribal prayers and asked others at the gathering to pray with him.

"If you have relatives behind brick walls, iron bars, say a prayer for them," Swallow said.