Garner Inmate Attempts Suicide

A Garner Correctional Institution inmate, who is the brother of a man found hanged inside a Virginia prison last year, attempted to hang himself this week inside Garner, the state’s high-security prison on Nunnawauk Road, a state Department of Correction (DOC) spokeswoman said Thursday.

DOC spokeswoman Heather Ziemba said Garner inmate Joseph Tracy, 30, was saved by three DOC staff members about 3:30 pm Monday, who cut away the prison jumpsuit he was using in an attempt to hang himself.

Tracy was treated by prison staff members and did not require outside medical help, Ms Ziemba said. Tracy is serving a 25-year prison sentence.

In April 2000, Joseph Tracy’s brother, David Tracy, 20, hanged himself in a super-maximum security prison in Virginia. David Tracy was one of about 500 inmates that Connecticut had sent to the Virginia prison to alleviate Connecticut prison crowding. Tracy’s family has sued the State of Connecticut over David Tracy’s suicide last year, charging the state showed indifference to David Tracy’s known mental health problems by transferring him to the Virginia prison.

 When DOC staff members found Joseph Tracy hanging from his jumpsuit in a solitary confinement cell in Garner on Monday afternoon, they cut away the material from his neck with safety shears that were stored in a secured area, Ms Ziemba said. Tracy had been sent to solitary confinement pending a disciplinary action.