The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Dennehy, who has led the Department of Correction since being appointed by former Gov. Mitt Romney in December 2003, will begin a new job May 7 as superintendent of security operations for the Bristol County sheriff's office, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson said. Her annual salary will be $110,000, he said.

"She has such a breadth of experience in the field," said Hodgson, who oversees about 1,400 inmates in six jails.

Dennehy and Burke had no comment, according to their spokesmen.

Patrick also declined to comment specifically, but said he'll mostly support the decisions of his top brass.

"I don't discuss personnel issues," he said after a Statehouse news conference. "I have asked each of the secretaries to build a team. They are systematically doing that, looking at people who are incumbent in the job, and looking at people who are outside. They're going to make those decisions and make recommendations to me, and on the whole I'm going to defer to those decisions."

It's common for new administrations to replace incumbent department heads.

"I approached her and told her if the administration looks like it's going to switch gears, to get in touch with me," Hodgson said. "She contacted me and said in fact she would be interested."

Dennehy was named acting commissioner in December 2003 by Romney, who formally appointed her three months later.

She replaced Michael Maloney, who was forced out of office amid mounting criticism after the slaying of pedophile priest John Geoghan in August 2003 at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley.

Dennehy joined the department more than 30 years ago and rose through the ranks, becoming superintendent at MCI-Framingham, the sole facility for women inmates in Massachusetts. She was named deputy commissioner in 1997, when former Gov. William F. Weld selected Maloney over Dennehy for the top post.

Dennehy currently earns between $120,000 and $128,000 a year.

There have been 10 suicides in the state prison system in the past 16 months. The latest was Jarred Aranda, a 27-year-old who was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Bridgewater State Hospital. He hung himself in a shower room.

That death was the third suicide in Massachusetts state prisons this year, after seven last year. Those are up from one suicide in 2004 and four in 2005.

A federal lawsuit filed last month claims inmates with mental illnesses get inadequate oversight, contributing to an increase in suicide attempts. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the Disability Law Center Inc. claims one-quarter of the 11,000 inmates in the state prison system are mentally ill, and criticizes the DOC for keeping hundreds of inmates in isolation for too long.

The state's inmate suicide rate was about 27 per 100,000 inmates during the 10-year-period that ended in 2006, according to a state-commissioned report issued in February. That was nearly twice the rate nationally, according to data for 2002, the report said.
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/04/18/prisons_chief_dennehy_leaving_post/