Oregon, USA

Salem, OR: (Jul-29-07) The family of Aaron Munoz brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the state or Oregon, after Munoz hanged himself in 2005 in his isolation cell at the Oregon State Penitentiary. Growing up in Portland, Munoz spent much of his adolescence under state supervision. He was 13 when he first encountered Michael Boyles, a state parole and probation officer. The suit alleged that Boyles supplied Munoz with alcohol and marijuana and sexually abused him multiple times during a five-year period. Prior to Boyles being arrested and prosecuted for sexually abusing several boys, Munoz entered the adult prison system to serve his sentence for an assault conviction. He eventually made it to the penitentiary's Intensive Management Unit, where disruptive and defiant prisoners are confined to their cells for more than 23 hours a day. It was there where he committed suicide.

The wrongful death suit also claimed that prison officers and managers failed to conduct sufficient checks of his cell, failed to meet staffing requirements for the Intensive Management Unit and permitted staff to work for such extended periods of time that their effectiveness was compromised. In a settlement reached, the state of Oregon agreed to pay $210,000 to the relatives of the deceased prison inmate. [STATESMAN JOURNAL: INMATE SUICIDE]

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Published on Jul-30-07