For the third consecutive year, (click here) the number of inmates who died while in custody of local jails or state prisons increased. A total of 4,446 inmates died in 2003, an increase of 131 deaths since 2012. The number of deaths in local jails and prison decreased an annual average of 2 percent between 2008 and 2010.

By Margaret Noonan, BJS Statistician, Harley Rohloff and Scott Ginder, RTI International

U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
Bureau of Justice Statistics

9 July 2013
By James Nye

...Police (click here) have said they still do not have a motive for the murder of Lloyd.

The Boston Globe reported last month that Lloyd was believed to have known about Hernandez's alleged involvement in the 2012 double murder of Daniel Abreu and Safiro Furtado and Hernandez reportedly killed Lloyd to keep him quiet....

I didn't look at Aaron Hernandez criminal file so I don't know everything that went into his sentencing. But, first time murderers aren't usually life sentences unless there are heinous circumstances. I am not advocating allowing dangerous people roam free, but, this seems like mental cruelty in a way that should never be tolerated. I think the entire circumstances surrounding Aaron Hernandez conviction and death needs to be investigated. There is something wrong with the way this all ended. I think Aaron left us all a message.

Considering the escalating deaths in our jails and prisons, there needs to be hearings to determine the reasons AND something be done about it. If there was improvement during the years 2008 and 2010, what were we doing right? Was there a change in funding?

April 14, 2017
By Chris Villani and Laurel J. Sweet

In this still image from video, Aaron Hernandez, center, is hugged by defense attorney Ronald Sullivan Friday, April 14, 2017, in court in Boston, after being found not guilty of murder in the 2012 shootings of two men in a drive-by shooting in Boston

Former New England Patriots (click here) tight end Aaron Hernandez cried today as a jury returned a stunning verdict clearing him of two murder charges in a 2012 drive-by shooting in the South End.

Hernandez, who is already serving a life sentence for a murder he committed in 2013, was found not guilty of all charges, except for unlawfully carrying a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. He was sentenced to 4 to 5 years in prison for that offense. 

"The jury spoke with one voice and we are delighted," said defense attorney Ron Sullivan, who called his client a "happy-go-lucky young man" who was wrongly accused....