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Connecticut inmate Daniel Ocasio hangs himself with prison-issued coronavirus face mask amid massive outbreak

Inmates are required to wear face masks when they exit their cells or cubicles and also when they enter a common area at the Corrigan Radgowski Correctional Center

MONTVILLE, CONNECTICUT: An inmate in Connecticut this week had hanged himself using a coronavirus mask. The mask had been handed out to inmates as a means to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the state's chief medical examiner said. The prisoner, Daniel Ocasio, had passed away on Wednesday, August 12. The state's Department of Correction shared that he was found at around 5.07 am with a ligature mark around his neck as he sat on a bunk at the Corrigan Radgowski Correctional Center in Uncasville, Connecticut. 

The ligature had been made from one of the distributed face masks, The New York Times reports. According to the chief medical examiner Dr James Gill, Ocasio's death had been ruled as a suicide. The 32-year-old had been held in prison since August 5 on an outstanding charge of third-degree burglary, officials revealed. 

Ocasio had been unable to post the bond amount of $10,000. Connecticut prisons have seen a massive outbreak in the coronavirus among inmates and corrections officers. Ocasio's death is being investigated by the Connecticut state police. 

According to a spokesperson for the agency, such types of investigations are routine when an inmate dies while in custody. A spokeswoman for the state prison system had shared in an email that investigators would leave no stone unturned during their investigation. 

The spokeswoman Karen Martucci had written in an email that they would be examining the cloth material that Ocasio had used to make the ligature. Martucci had shared, "With that being said, there are all sorts of authorized materials that could be used to self-harm."

"We are not going to have a knee-jerk reaction here," Martucci added. The Department of Correction revealed that approximately 1,344 inmates out of 9,596 inmates in the state's prisons have contracted coronavirus. There has been seven coronavirus related deaths so far. 

Martucci added how inmates are required to wear face masks when they exit their cells or cubicles and also when they enter a common area. 

A County Jail in Huntsville, Alabama, has been facing a lot of criticism after they began to stop inmates from wearing masks and confiscating them. A Madison County sheriff spoke to a local website, AL.com, and said that inmates could harm themselves or others with the metal nose pieces on masks. 

They also said that the masks could be tied together to make ropes. The spokesman, Brent Patterson, shared, "You give them face masks (with) a nose piece — metal pieces in them — they’re going to eat them. They’re going to swallow them."

The leader of the corrections officers' union in Pittsburg was sent home as he refused to wear a mask with 17-inch strings attached to it, saying the strings could be used to choke someone. 

Social media users took to Twitter to comment on the news of Ocasio's death. One user had written, "The ingenuity of inmates never ceases to amaze me." Another Twitter user commented and wrote, "I have some extra masks if they need #goodriddance."

Yet another shared, "He was arrested for burglary. Are you that heartless?"

"Good, one less dirt bag !!" another Twitter user also commented on the news.