Armando Cruz
Armando Cruz was 28 and his mother describes him as a sensitive son who worried about injustice and was well liked by his peers, and as a child he was quiet, played sports and did karate. He had lived with severe mental illness since his teens and spent years in segregation and isolation units. On September 20, 2011, he was found hanged in his cell in the Psychiatric Services Unit at California State Prison, Sacramento, and was pronounced dead that night. The prison system's initial death report, as cited by Solitary Watch, classes the death as a suicide, and his mother says the system failed him after a parole denial in 2010.
Cause of death, as reported: Died by suicide (neglect alleged). The prison's initial death report says he hanged himself, and his mother says he died by suicide in isolation after a 2010 parole denial and that the system failed him, though she does not describe a specific missed check.
Reported by: California prison system initial inmate death report, as cited by Solitary Watch (the agency that held him); his mother.