Arizona Inmate Housed in Oklahoma Prison Dead in Apparent Suicide

By James King Wed., Sep. 1 2010 at 11:33 AM

Categories: News

AZDOC

Patrick Ross

An Arizona prison inmate, being housed in a private prison in Hinton, Oklahoma, is dead after apparently taking the easy way out, rather than completing his sentence.

Officials at the Arizona Department of Corrections tell New Times inmate Patrick Ross was found dead in his cell around 7:50 a.m. yesterday.

Responding Medical teams tried to revive Ross but were unsuccessful.

DOC officials wouldn't say how Ross killed himself only saying he died "after apparently committing suicide."

Ross was serving a 13-year sentence -- at a private prison run by Cornell Companies -- for an armed robbery he committed in Maricopa County.

Ross began his sentence in December 2009 and ended it -- apparently on his own terms -- yesterday.

DOC is investigating the death.

Tags:

arizona, cornell companies, department of corrections, inmate suicide, patrick ross, prison suicide

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Re: the death of Patrick Ross. Mr. Ross was suffering from Juvenile Huntingtons Disease and would have passed away soon due to the disease as his mother, uncle, grandmother and several others in his mother's family line so if he did commit suicide it was during a moment of failure of cognitive reasoning. This is a very real problem in caring for people with HD as you have to watch them and care for them almost on a 24 hr basis. If Mr. King would care to contact me, he has my phone number and can print the story correctly, beginning with the letter to Joe Arpaio that was ignored and my follow up communications with medical personnel, liasons in the systems, etc, that were also apparently put in the round file because nothing was done and Mr.(although I feel this salutation is not deserved by him)Arpaio did not even have the decency to either respond to my letter or have someone else respond to find out what this disease was. In June 2009 Governor Jan Brewer declared a day in June as Huntingtons Disease Day. It seems a real shame that the Governor can know about the seriousness of HD but her(or our employees) do not care to find out how serious it is and what we can do for those afflicted. Mary Anne Pence, Patrick (and Shawn Humphreys) Grandmother Great Grandmother to Patrick's 10 year old daughter.
Suicide, my ass suicide. PATRICK ross was an incredible human being, with a sad story and a debilitating disease that was taking over his life. His family was told he was being moved to Oklahoma so that he could get better treatment for Huntington's Chorea. He was supposed to get released into his grandmothers care in Wa. state when his symtoms worsened and the prison could no longer take care of him, as she is trained in caring for people with this disease. This is obviously another case where they, being the prison system, has failed to help a inmate who was sick and trying to turn their life around. So what do they do? Cover their asses by saying it was a suicide. FUCKED! IN LOVONG MEMORY PATRICK LEE ROSS YOU WILL BE GREATLY MISSED WE LOVE YOU
Ever been inside?
That's too bad. I loved the paintings he used to do on channel 8.
"is dead after apparently taking the easy way out" King, did you get beaten often as a kid?
He was probably homesick. But since we are police state with the massive prison complexes throughout AZ-land. What's an AZ inmate doing in Oklahoma?
I don't understand how we can outsource our prisoners to other states ...
Killing yourself is the "easy way out?" Bull!