SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Seventy-nine inmates died in Oregon prisons in the past two years, and the Department of Corrections said nothing to the public about all but one of them.
The Statesman Journal compiled the information (http://is.gd/6vpyzk ) from internal prison reports obtained through public records law, court filings and other documents.
Among the unreported deaths were a prisoner who died of a suspected drug overdose and a convict who cut his wrist. The DOC also did not report deaths due to natural causes in the system that holds 14,000 inmates.
The only news release was for Shelly Resnick who died in her cell in May at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility n Wilsonville. A prison spokeswoman says the death was reported because of media attention to her case.
