Newly obtained video of the gruesome murder of a 72-year-old inmate at a state prison is raising questions about whether older, ill and disabled inmates should be better protected behind bars. In August 2014, William Sires was 40 years into a life sentence at the maximum security Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, when surveillance footage showed him engage in a scuffle with another prisoner in the common room. Just minutes later, as seen in the video exclusively obtained by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, Sires was ambushed and dragged into a cell, where he was viciously beaten to death.
Sires’ death is the fifth homicide in a Massachusetts prison since 2000, but some now say it points to the dangers the state’s aging prison population faces. Jenifer McKim, a senior investigative reporter with the New England Center for Investigative Reporting, joined Adam Reilly, in for Jim Braude, to discuss.
