Breakdown | The prison suicide crisis

A system strains, and inmates die

James Deegan , a mental health worker at Bridgewater State Hospital, made his rounds recently at the facility’s Intensive Treatment Unit, where inmates are secluded for their own safety.

(Globe Staff / Jonathan Wiggs) James Deegan , a mental health worker at Bridgewater State Hospital, made his rounds recently at the facility’s Intensive Treatment Unit, where inmates are secluded for their own safety.

December 9, 2007

E-mail|
Reprints|

Text size – +

Last year alone, seven inmates killed themselves, and another's attempt left him brain dead; four have taken their lives so far this year. Department of Correction officials say the suicides are random and unrelated. But a Globe Spotlight Team investigation of the deaths and detailed reconstruction of how they occurred found that they were far from random. (Full article: 4526 words)