MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A 68-year-old man died in his cell at Graterford Prison on Sunday.
According to Cynthia Link, superintendent of the State Correctional Institution at Graterford, Arthur Phillips was found unresponsive at approximately 2:50 p.m. A facility physician pronounced him dead at 3:20 p.m. after prison staff, unsuccessfully, provided life-saving measures.
A spokesman for the state police barracks at Schwenksville confirmed to The Mercury News that it was a suicide.
Phillips, a former school aide who sexually assaulted a student, was serving a 10-to-20-year sentence for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 16 years of age, officials say.
Per protocol, the prison notified Pennsylvania State Police which will conduct an investigation.
An official cause of death ruling is pending.
