An incarcerated man who died from a “medical emergency” at a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts on Tuesday has been identified.
Joseph Eaton, 36, was identified as the man who died at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley on Oct. 28, according to the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office.
Eaton died at a hospital early Tuesday morning after he had a “medical emergency” at the prison, and “staff immediately began to administer life-saving measures and called 911,” a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) said.
His death is under investigation by state troopers with the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office, in coordination with the DOC.
Eaton is the fifth incarcerated individual who has died in a Massachusetts prison system from a “medical emergency” in just over one month. This includes another incarcerated man who died at Souza-Baranowski on Oct. 3 and three people who died at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk on Sept. 20, Sept. 27 and Oct. 20.
Eaton was serving his sentence in Massachusetts after killing his parents and their two friends in Bowdoin, Maine, in 2023, then embarking on a shooting spree in Yarmouth on Interstate 295, according to reports from WABI and WGME, two Maine outlets.
He had been serving a life sentence at the time of his death, according to WGME. Just days before killing his family, Eaton had been released from another prison sentence into their care, the outlets reported.
The Maine DOC did not immediately respond to MassLive for comment.
According to a public records request submitted by MassLive, the Massachusetts DOC saw 19 in-custody deaths in 2024, 21 in 2023 and 28 in 2022.
Eaton’s death at Souza would bring this year’s reported death numbers to 20. Based on the official causes of death the DOC has received from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner so far this year through June 15, three are listed as suicides. Five are listed as “unexpected.”
In 2024, there weren’t any confirmed suicides, but 10 deaths were listed as “unexpected.” Two were homicides.
The DOC has only categorized the most recent five deaths as “medical emergencies,” and issued a statement that emphasizes the department’s commitment to “comprehensive mental health and substance use services.”
Hadley Barndollar and Luis Fieldman contributed to this reporting.
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