The last hours in Cell 24: How a young man’s suicide unfolded in Massachusetts’ max-security prison

“Death Under Watch” is an ongoing series by MassLive and The Republican investigating deaths in Massachusetts prisons and jails.

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NEW BEDFORD — On a stifling hot day in late July, Zahkuan Bailey-Sweeting’s gravesite sat serene and overgrown. Meadow grasses and horseweed tangled among the artificial flowers, prayer candles and an iridescent pinwheel. To the right, over a well-kept stone wall, a wash of engines hurtled by, joined by the trance-like hum of grasshoppers.

One mile away in a third-floor walk-up apartment, a stone’s throw from the harbor sea spray, Bailey-Sweeting’s mother, sister and aunt hoped for answers with clenched hearts – just as they’d done since April 2025. They poured glasses of wine in the living room, dappled by afternoon light, and clung to their sense of humor. But they cried, too. And they prayed.

They’ve been buoyed by their faith since the sudden death of Bailey-Sweeting inside Massachusetts’ maximum-security prison. A correctional officer making a required half-hour security round in unit M1 discovered the 25-year-old seated beneath his cell window – one end of a white bedsheet tied to its bars, the other around his neck. It was 2:34 p.m. on April 10, 2025, at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster. His skin appeared pale, the officer reported.