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California | San Quentin begins prison reform - but not for those on death row

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California is transferring everyone on death row at San Quentin prison to other places, as it tries to reinvent the state's most notorious facility as a rehabilitation centre. Many in this group will now have new freedoms. But they are also asking why they've been excluded from the reform - and whether they'll be safe in new prisons. Keith Doolin still remembers the day in 2019 when workers came to dismantle one of the United States' most infamous death chambers.

Texas corrections officer dies by suicide at Huntsville prison

The Walls Unit, Huntsville, Texas
A 70-year-old corrections officer died by suicide Monday after shooting himself with his service weapon at a Huntsville prison, officials said.

Authorities did not release the man's name, but said that fellow officers found him around 1 a.m. sitting outside the guard picket at the Wynne Unit.

He was not under investigation and did not have a disciplinary history, according to prison spokesman Jeremy Desel.


"Our thoughts and prayers are with his family," Desel said. "We have a crisis response intervention support team that reported to the unit this morning and is available for support should anyone need it."

The death comes less than two years after another officer at a Huntsville-area unit fatally shot himself at work. 

In that case, fellow workers found the 40-year-old in the guard picket at the Ferguson Unit, with a gunshot wound to the head, The Huntsville Item reported at the time.

It's not clear how many officer suicides the department has seen in recent years, and Desel wasn't sure whether the prison system tracks such deaths unless they occur on the unit. 

Last year, a Houston Chronicle investigation showed that many law enforcement agencies do not track officer suicides.

Source: chron.com, Keri Blakinger, February 12, 2019


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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