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Groups Protest Prisoner Suicides at Smithfield

About two dozen protesters participated in a vigil Saturday December 29, 2007 at the SCI Smithfield state prison, Huntingdon, PA in an effort to gain support for an independent investigation into suicide deaths that happened within the past six months in the prison's Restricted Housing Unit (RHU). Of the over two dozen-plus prisons operated by the state Department of Corrections, fully one-third of those suicides took place in the Smithfield prison's RHU.

Parents, relatives, friends and prison-rights advocates are calling for such an investigation. "We are seeking to raise awareness and an outside oversight into the conditions at Smithfield," Naimi Black of the American Friends Service Committee - a Quaker organization - told The Daily News. "Three suicides in six months should be a red flag."

MAPJEN member group New Vision Organization, Inc, which works on prison/prisoner rights issues, was one of the vigil organizers. For information, see: http://mysite.verizon.net/bizuiard/newvisionorg2.

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