WGBH and New England Center for Investigative Reporting
March 19, 2018
By Chris Burrell and Jenifer McKim
Fourteen inmates died by suicide in Massachusetts prisons and jails in 2017, the highest such number of deaths since 2014, according to state and county data.
Those who died include four who hanged themselves in state prisons and 10 who died in county jails that together house about 20,000 prisoners, according to data collected by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.
Bonnie Tenneriello, a senior attorney from Prisoners’ Legal Services in Boston, said more needs to be done to protect troubled inmates. She says the state lacks standards for how the county jails are run.