When 45-year-old Tricia Cooper decided to hang herself at the Luzerne County Prison on July 25, her biological daughter was also behind bars in the same building, according to relatives and records.
Cooper’s mother and stepfather said they had one glimmer of hope that something positive could result from this horrific scenario because a prison employee had informed them the facility was trying to arrange for Samantha Fisher to visit her mother in the hospital.
Seeing Cooper on life support and restrained to a hospital bed at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital could jolt Fisher into making different choices in her future, said Cooper’s stepfather, Allen Moss, as his wife and Cooper’s mother, Carol Moss, nodded in agreement.
“Our goal was to have Samantha see her mother in that physical state. Is this kid destined to mimic the life of her mother?” Allen Moss said.
Fisher, 21, of Sugarloaf Township, was adopted as a child due to her mother’s addiction, according to family members. She was lodged in the county prison in connection with a 2016 robbery involving a knife at a Hazle Township gas station, according to police records and relatives.
The Mosses said they called the prison Monday morning in an attempt to speed up the visit because it was clear their daughter did not have much time.
Unable to immediately speak to a prison employee, they decided to visit the prison in person and complained the worker who manned the entrance declined their repeated requests to speak to a supervisor.
Allen Moss said the worker at the entrance desk kept insisting their only recourse was to obtain a lawyer and seek a court order to obtain a one-hour furlough for Fisher.
The Mosses said they would have retained a lawyer for this purpose if they had more time. Cooper, of Kingston Township, died Monday afternoon, although she was kept on a respirator because she was an organ donor, relatives said.
They blame the prison for robbing them of time, saying they didn’t learn their daughter was in the hospital until July 28, when Cooper’s sister, Tara, pieced together the information on her own after seeking a news article about an unnamed female inmate’s attempted suicide.
County Correctional Services Division Head Mark Rockovich has said the person identified as next of kin was contacted, but the contact number listed for this man was no longer accurate. As Cooper’s condition deteriorated, the facility was in the process of researching other relatives to notify when Tara contacted the facility, Rockovich said previously.
The Mosses had immediately packed up and headed to Wilkes-Barre from Florida on July 28 and arrived in Wilkes-Barre the next day.
Rockovich said Tuesday he was unaware of any prison communications about an attempt to arrange a hospital visit for Fisher.
While he was researching specifics, such furloughs typically require a court order unless the inmate is on work release, which Fisher was not, said Rockovich. Family members requesting the furlough often must pay the cost of transport, he added.
The Mosses are not defending past criminal activity by Cooper and Fisher but said a visit could have made a difference for Fisher.
“Would it have been worth a shot? I think so,” Allen Moss said in a statement.
Carol Moss urged family members of addicts to hold out hope and push for new rehabilitation options. Cooper was in rehabilitation several times, to the degree that she could “teach rehab,” Allen Moss said.
“There are always going to be some who can’t be helped, but I hope more could be helped if they looked at things differently,” Carol Moss said. “To some people, my daughter was just a number, but she was my flesh and blood.”
