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WILLIAMSPORT—The suicide ruling in the 2023 death of a convicted murderer while incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Rockview is being challenged in a federal lawsuit. Denise Woods, administrator of the estate of her son Richard Woods, raises potential other causes in a wrongful death suit filed Wednesday in U.S.
Middle District Court. Woods, 46, of Philadelphia, died April 20, 2023, at Mount Nittany Medical Center near State College, after being found unresponsive in his restricted housing cell. His death was ruled suicide by hanging.
He had been at Rockview since 2003 serving a life sentence for first-degree murder in the death of his brother in Philadelphia. In her suit, Woods states totally unexplained are the bruises and other injuries family members observed on the body in the morgue. Also, she notes, the sheet Woods had around his neck was tied only to his bed meaning if he used it to hang himself his feet would have touched floor.
That would have made suicide by hanging nearly impossible, she claims. The prison has released to the family only parts of Woods’ medical records and none of his non-medical records, claiming they will be available through discovery, the suit states. It is Woods’ contention prison staff caused or allowed to be caused the injuries that ultimately resulted in her son’s death.
He had complained to his family he had been assaulted by other inmates he understood were members of the crips gang, his mother says. She also raised as a possible factor in his death the harsher conditions imposed on inmates in solitary confinement. Prison officials were aware of Woods history of depression, that he was receiving prescribed mental health medication and of a previous suicide attempt, Woods says.
The complaint refers to psychological and medical literature on the impact solitary confinement has on humans. Despite three other suicide deaths in Rockview in 2023, Superintendent Bobbi Jo Salamon continued to place inmates like her son in solitary confinement, Woods charges. She accuses Salamon and the up to 20 unnamed Rockview personnel who are defendants of being deliberately indifferent to Woods’ mental health issues thus depriving him of his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
They also are accused of conspiring to conceal the cause of death and the degree of deliberate indifference that made placement in restrictive housing wholly inappropriate. The estate is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages on claims that also include negligence for not complying with generally accepted standards of care by putting him in restrictive housing..
