AUGUSTA — Advocates for Maine prison inmates are planning a protest rally to commemorate the death of an inmate.

Officials from the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition say 52-year-old Victor Valdez of Portland died under conditions they call disturbing.

Coalition spokeswoman Judy Garvey says the Nov. 17 protest at the Capitol in Augusta will be a memorial.

Valdez was cremated shortly after his Nov. 27, 2009 death in the medical unit of the state prison in Warren. No autopsy was conducted

State officials say Valdez died of kidney disease.

Garvey tells the Bangor Daily News that other inmates have said correctional officers removed Valdez’s dialysis tubes and placed him in solitary confinement eight days before his death.


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