ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997 TAG: 9704140061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Audrey Berryman was convicted on three bad check charges and was serving a 5-year sentence, a spokesman said.
An inmate apparently hanged herself Friday at the Virginia Correctional Center for Women where she was in maximum security for violent behavior, the Department of Corrections said.
The body of Audrey Berryman, 34, was discovered at 11:55 a.m., said spokesman David Botkins.
``The preliminary indication [is that] it appeared to be self-inflicted, possibly by hanging,'' he said.
Officials had no further explanation of how or when Berryman died and said the matter is under investigation. Her body was sent to the medical examiner in Richmond for an autopsy.
Berryman, whose home town was not immediately available, was convicted on two bad check charges in July in Chesterfield County and one bad check charge in August in Richmond, Botkins said. She was serving a combined five-year sentence.
Botkins said she had been placed in maximum security for exhibiting abusive and violent behavior and for saying she wished to escape.
The Goochland County prison, built in the early 1930s as a men's prison, has about 700 inmates and is the largest of four women's facilities.
Last May, Del. Marian Van Landingham, D-Alexandria, called the lower level unit of the maximum security unit where Berryman was held a ``dungeon'' for the mentally ill.
Prison officials said the area is for inmates who pose a threat to themselves or others, and denied it was inhumane or that it resembled a dungeon.
LENGTH: Short : 44 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB