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13 Pennsylvania Prison Employees Suspended After Inmate Died During Fight

Tyrone Briggs, 29

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections announced that 13 employees at the State Correctional Institution at Mahanoy in Frackville, were suspended without pay after an inmate died. The employees were not identified and included both security and medical personnel.

Tyrone Briggs, 29, was being transferred to a restricted housing unit at the prison after he got into a fight with another inmate. While Briggs was waiting for his transfer to be processed, he became unresponsive and was taken to a medical triage area where employees began performing CPR. Briggs was pronounced dead two hours later. Officials are waiting for the results of his autopsy to determine his cause of death.

Authorities did not provide specific details about why the employees were suspended and promised to take "remedial measures" once their investigation is complete.

"Whatever the outcome of this case, we are going to be as transparent as possible, and the DOC will take whatever remedial measures deemed to be necessary," Corrections Department Secretary John Wetzel said in a press release.

Briggs was serving a 15-to-30-year sentence after being convicted for raping a child in 2008. He had been at the Mahanoy prison since August 2011.

Photo: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections