April 19, 2017
The Boston Globe
By Eric Moskowitz
The executive director of the statewide inmate-advocate organization said she believes Aaron Hernandez’s death is the first reported successful suicide by an inmate hanging a sheet from a window at the maximum-security Souza-Baranowski prison, as authorities say Hernandez did.
Leslie Walker, executive director of the nonprofit Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, which serves indigent inmates, said the state had a worse-than-average inmate suicide rate a decade ago but had done some work to “suicide proof” its facilities, such as installing clothing hooks that collapse if too much weight is placed on them.
Further reading: Mass. has a troubled record on prison suicides