Prisoner death rate in Massachusetts jails tops national average

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http://www.tauntongazette.com/article/20141027/NEWS/141026886/1994/NEWS

Prisoner death rate in Massachusetts jails tops national average

Prisoners in Massachusetts are dying behind bars at a higher rate than the national average, and suicide is among the leading causes.

“It’s a really perplexing question for me, in large measure because this has been the story for quite some time, from the mid-90s and probably earlier,” said Bradley Brockmann, executive director of the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Miriam Hospital and Brown University Medical School.

From 2001-12, the suicide rate among the state’s prison population was nearly twice the national average. During that span, 38 state and federal prisoners in Massachusetts committed suicide, according to an Oct. 9 U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics report on prisoner mortality.

Physical illness is the only cause that claims more prisoners’ lives, both statewide and nationally.