A 33-year-old New Havener named Gamboy Guaranda died at the Whalley Avenue jail Thursday — marking the sixth death of an incarcerated person in state Department of Correction (DOC) custody since February. DOC spokesperson Andrius Banevicius sent out an email press release Friday about Guaranda ’s death at the New Haven Correctional Center. He wrote that, at around 8 a.m. Thursday, “while conducting a routine tour, a correction officer came upon a cell window that had been covered, obstructing the view into the cell. After failing to receive a response from outside the cell, the door was opened and the officer witnessed the incarcerated individual – unresponsive, with a bed sheet tied around his neck. The other end of the sheet was fastened to the cell door. The individual was alone in his cell.” Banevicius wrote that responding staff “immediately removed the ligature, and initiated emergency and life saving measures.” Paramedics from a local ambulance company also arrived on scene and transported the individual, identified as Guaranda, to a nearby hospital. Guaranda was pronounced dead by a hospital physician at 8:37 a.m. Thursday. The state police and the state inspector general are investigating his death. State court records show that Guaranda was arrested by New Haven police on Aug. 13, 2025, on felony charges of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child. He had pleaded not guilty to those charges, and was being held on a $250,000 bond. His next court hearing was scheduled to take place on June 2. Friday’s press release states that the exact cause of Guaranda’s death will be determined by the state medical examiner’s office. Guaranda’s death comes less than a month after another incarcerated New Havener, 45-year-old Craig Whyte, who was being held at Osborn Correctional Institution. Whyte, a Jamaican immigrant and devoted sibling known to friends and family as “Sizzla,” was found unresponsive in his cell on March 22, and was later pronounced dead. State police are also investigating his death. All the while, prison-reform advocates from across Connecticut — including in New Haven — have stepped up their critiques in recent months of the state prison system’s failures. Click here to read about one such advocacy effort, by longtime Hill resident Lisa Velasquez-Torres, to shine a light on her brother’s experience with mice, mold, and insufficient medical care at Osborn. Gov. Ned Lamont also recently announced that the state’s embattled Department of Correction (DOC) commissioner plans to step down from his role in May amid growing concerns with the state’s prison system. The post Another Prisoner Dies, This Time In New Haven appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less