$7M Settlement Reached In Delco Inmate's Suicide: Reports

A multi-million dollar settlement was reached in a lawsuit filed against Delaware County's prison after an inmate hanged herself in 2015.

According to multiple reports, the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, the prison used by Delaware County, agreed to pay out $7 million to the family of Janene Wallace, a 35-year-old Upper Darby woman who hanged herself while locked in solitary confinement for about a month and a half.

Wallace was in the prison on a probation violation in 2015, according to Philly.com.

As she was held in solitary confinement for 52 days, her mental health was deteriorating, according to CBS Philadelphia.

She told a guard she was going to choke herself. He allegedly told her to do it. A supervisor later found her hanged to death. That initial guard was fired.

The Wallace family's attorneys filed the suit two years ago and announced the settlement Thursday, Nov. 9.

Recently, a 23-year-old inmate died at the Montgomery County Prison.

“Nothing will bring back Janene, obviously,” Janene Wallace's mother Susanne Wallace told CBS Philadelphia. “But we don’t want another family to go through what we went through.”

The group that operated the George W. Hill Correctional facility, the for-profit prison company Community Education Centers, no longer runs the prison. The GEO Group now controls the facility in Glen Mills.

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