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Posted by: kwflatbed

Man Was Serving Life Sentence For Murder

BOSTON -- The weekend suicide of a New Hampshire man serving a life sentence for murder in a maximum security prison could have been prevented, the head of an inmate advocacy group says.


Michael Keohane, of Exeter, N.H., was found hanging from a bed sheet in his cell at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley at about 11:25 p.m. on Sunday, state prisons spokeswoman Diane Wiffin said. He was pronounced dead at Leominster Hospital at 12:45 a.m. on Monday, she said.


Keohane, 27, left notes indicating that he was distraught about a personal relationship with someone outside the prison, she said.


Prison officials and the Worcester district attorney's office are investigating, she said.

Keohane's suicide was the fifth in the state prisons system in the past 13 months, and the second at Souza-Baranowski, according to Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, an inmate advocacy group.


"This is a high-tech, super-max prison with lights and cameras and electronic surveillance equipment," she said. "This is one building, one unit. Nothing happens in that unit without those guards knowing about it."


Walker said another inmate called her and told her that Keohane had hung from the sheet for more than 30 minutes as guards and medical personnel stood outside his door.


Wiffin denied that account. Medical staff started administering CPR after arriving at the cell at 11:27 p.m., EMTs responded to the prison at 11:45 and transported Keohane to the hospital at 12:15 a.m., she said.


Three of the four suicides in state prisons last year, as well as the only suicide in 2004, involved inmates who had been diagnosed as mentally ill, Walker said. Keohane had no history of mental illness, Wiffin said.


Walker has been advocating for better mental health treatment behind bars, including the creation of specialized units for mentally ill patients.


Walker testified before a legislative committee last month that mentally ill patients deteriorate more rapidly when they were placed in highly segregated units.


Keohane was being held in a segregated special unit for prisoners with discipline problems, Wiffin said.


Keohane was convicted in 2000 of first-degree murder in the baseball beat beating death of Michael Monahan, 22, in a Salisbury motel room after an argument about money.


Improving mental health care in state prisons was one of the recommendations made by an advisory panel established by Gov. Mitt Romney following the August 2003 death of former priest John Geoghan, a convicted pedophile. Geoghan was beaten and strangled while behind bars. Another inmate was convicted of killing him.




Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Posted by: RPD931

Let them all hang themselves. It will save my tax $$.

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Posted by: pickels

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPD931 Let them all hang themselves. It will save my tax $$.

I totally agree with you.

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Posted by: USMCTrooper

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwflatbed The weekend suicide of a New Hampshire man serving a life sentence for murder in a maximum security prison could have been prevented, the head of an inmate advocacy group says.

I AGREE. It could have totally been prevented......DON'T COMMIT THE MURDER.

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Posted by: KozmoKramer

Quote:

Originally Posted by RPD931 Let them all hang themselves. It will save my tax $$.

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Posted by: Ptlm.Shamrock147

Maybe if the DOC wasn't so grossly understaffed this wouldn't have happened. 1 Officer can't be in 15 places at once.

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Posted by: 94c

I don't see what the problem is. After all, he did complete his sentence.

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Posted by: Mikey682

Today the inmates advocacy group is bitching that with all the high tech cameras and survellance equipment they were unable to prevent it. Tomorow, this same group will complain that the cameras are an interference of the inmates privacy.

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Posted by: RPD931

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94c I don't see what the problem is. After all, he did complete his sentence.

=D>

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Posted by: KozmoKramer

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94c I don't see what the problem is. After all, he did complete his sentence.

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Posted by: RPD931

Each inmate should be issued:
Pillow, shirts, pants, soap on a rope, toothbrush, and heavy duty noose.

Aw, hell. Just give them a noose and tell them they have 24 hours to hang themselves or they'll be shot. It's cheaper.

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Posted by: SGT_GRUNT_USMC

I can't still believe thier still talking about Goeghan, he's been dead for 3 YEARS!Two murders and a few suicides in 3 years ain't bad for a prison system with over 10,000 inmates.Hell,we have on average, a homicide a day here in Las Vegas.

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Posted by: BartA1

Quote:

Originally Posted by SGT_GRUNT_USMC I can't still believe thier still talking about Goeghan, he's been dead for 3 YEARS!Two murders and a few suicides in 3 years ain't bad for a prison system with over 10,000 inmates.Hell,we have on average, a homicide a day here in Las Vegas.

by the numbers i have seen Mass has a pretty low inmate mortality rate not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing

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Posted by: CJIS

Who gives a flying rats. They are lucky they have a roof over their head and are served free food daily. Don't forget a free education, Weight room, Courtyard, And a buch of other stuff they don't deserve.

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