Relatives Call for Inquiry After Prisoner Dies : Penology: MCC Inmate did not get the care he needed for health problems, his mother says.

Relatives of a 24-year-old inmate who died at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center this weekend have called for an investigation of prison conditions and medical care.

William A. Pelletier, awaiting trial on federal drug charges, for years had suffered chronic health problems related to steroid abuse, said his mother, Donna Pelletier. When his condition began to deteriorate in prison, his cries for medical help went unheeded, she contends.

Pelletier was pronounced dead at 3 a.m. Saturday at UC San Diego Medical Center. He was taken to the hospital after suffering seizures and heart failure, a spokesman for the county medical examiner’s office said.

The official cause of death will be released after laboratory tests are completed within a month, the spokesman said.

An MCC official said Tuesday that a prison investigation will be conducted, as is the practice for all inmate deaths. The official declined to comment specifically on Pelletier’s case, citing federal laws that protect inmates’ privacy.

The official did say, however, that medical attention at the prison is adequate and “consistent with community standards,” and that Pelletier was receiving standard medical care.

Pelletier was being held on charges of selling 5 pounds of cocaine to undercover drug agents. His trial was scheduled to begin in January. His wife, Elisa Pelletier, was also arrested on suspicion of possession and distribution of cocaine, she said. She was released from MCC on Monday after posting $100,000 bail. The couple lived in San Diego when they were arrested in October. Pelletier’s mother is from Providence, R.I.

While in prison, Elisa Pelletier said, she tried to appeal for medical attention for her husband. She said she received no response from prison officials.

A four-day transfer to the U.S. penitentiary in Lompoc may have aggravated her husband’s condition, she said. Pelletier and 200 other inmates were transferred to other facilities in California and Arizona in response to an inmate hunger strike, said Gavin O’Connor, an MCC spokesman. Prison officials sought to disperse the inmates before the strike spread through the facility, O’Connor said. The temporary transfers were not punitive, O’Connor said.

Pelletier supported the hunger strike, which was in protest of maximum sentencing guidelines for drug traffickers, but did not participate, Elisa Pelletier said. She said prison officials transferred her husband to intimidate him into disassociating himself from the hunger strike.

Pelletier complained of headaches and bleeding last week after he was taken to Lompoc. Upon returning to San Diego on Friday, he suffered stomach pains and internal bleeding, his wife said. Within 24 hours, Pelletier was dead.

Donna Pelletier said her son’s condition was brought on by five years of steroid use during which he suffered high blood pressure, stomach ulcers, uncontrolled bleeding, severe acne and hair loss.

His steroid use began in 1986, when he began body building with his brother and friends. With regular steroid injections, the 5-foot, 10-inch Pelletier went from 140 pounds to 260 pounds within two years. He was convicted in 1989 in Warwick, R.I., on a steroid trafficking charge and received a five-year deferred sentence.

Pelletier had not used steroids in the year before his death, his wife said. However, she believes Pelletier’s seizures were brought on by stress and harassment from prison officials at Lompoc and MCC, she said. At Lompoc, Pelletier was assigned to a maximum-security cell block, which he shared with convicted prisoners, she said.

Donna Pelletier said Tuesday that she is drafting letters requesting the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the FBI to investigate her son’s death.

“I’m not looking for revenge,” Pelletier said. “I’m just trying to bring the federal prison system out of the Dark Ages.”