Inmate, 80, dies at Deer Ridge state prison

An 80-year-old inmate at the Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras, serving time for a Lane County manslaughter conviction, collapsed and died Wednesday afternoon, the Oregon Department of Corrections reported.

As with all unanticipated deaths in state prisons, the Oregon State Police Criminal Investigations Unit is conducting an investigation.

Around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Eldridge Maready collapsed in a day room. DRCI staff immediately administered CPR, officials said, and Maready was taken off-site for medical care. He was pronounced deceased at 3:23 p.m.

Maready entered DOC custody on January 31, 2012, on one count of second-degree manslaughter out of Lane County. His earliest release date was February 5, 2018.

Officials said next of kin has been notified, and no other details are available.

Maready was arrested in November of 2011 on manslaughter and DUII charges, accused of driving the wrong way on Interstate 105 near the Willamette River bridge. His truck collided with another car, killing Gerald Brooks, 53, of Florence.