WARREN — A 28-year-old Lewiston man had asked to be moved to another room for his safety shortly before he died at the Bolduc Correctional Facility, according to another inmate who has since been released from the facility.

Dana R. Bartlett died just before 6 p.m. June 24 at the prison farm.

The cause of his death has not been released.

The state is releasing few details.

Jason Palmiter, who was released July 6 after serving nearly nine years for robbery, said he spoke with Bartlett the day he died.

Bartlett had gone to a corrections officer and asked to be moved to another cell because he was being threatened, Palmiter said. The other people in his cell had suspected him of stealing some cigarettes, according to Palmiter.

Bartlett voiced his concern to Palmiter, commenting that the guard did not seem concerned and did nothing, Palmiter said.

Three sources have reported that multiple inmates from Bolduc were transferred to the maximum-security Maine State Prison, also in Warren, after Bartlett died.

No one has been charged with a crime related to Bartlett’s death.

After Bartlett was found dead, inmates were moved to the gymnasium while Maine State Police investigated, Palmiter said. The inmates spent much of the night in the gym.

There are four people to a room at the Bolduc Center, which has a capacity of 220 inmates with a staff of 65.

Palmiter said Bartlett was a kind man, noting he offered compassion when Palmiter’s daughter died recently in a car crash.

A former roommate of Bartlett’s also said Bartlett was a kind man.

“He had the biggest heart of anyone I knew, hands down,” said Daniel Mosier-Barbour.

The two were roommates in Lewiston for a year before Bartlett was arrested for the offenses that sent him to prison.

Bartlett had been sentenced March 22 in Androscoggin County Superior Court to 16 months in prison for driving a motor vehicle after his license had been revoked as a habitual offender.

He was scheduled to be released March 28, 2019.

Bartlett suffered from diabetes and did not work in the year the two were roommates, Mosier-Barbour said.

“It just kills me to think that he’s gone,” he said.

Maine Department of Corrections Commissioner Joseph Fitzpatrick did not comment on whether any administrative actions have been taken against the corrections officer.

An email to Fitzpatrick on Thursday morning requesting a response to Palmiter’s comments was not answered.

Dana Bartlett

Copy the Story Link