13 prison employees suspended in Pa. inmate death
HARRISBURG, Pa. - The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has suspended 13 employees while authorities investigate an inmate's death.
A Saturday release says 29-year-old Tyrone Briggs died "following an inmate-on-inmate assault" Nov. 11 at the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy.
The release says department secretary John Wetzel on Friday suspended the employees without pay during the criminal and administrative investigations. They include medical and security staff, but the department won't release names.
The release quotes Wetzel as saying "this incident should not serve to tarnish the reputation" of the department and its employees.
An earlier release says Briggs became unresponsive while waiting to be processed into the restrictive housing unit after the altercation. He had been at the prison since 2011 and was serving a 15-to-30-year sentence for child rape out of Philadelphia County.