A few days later, after collapsing in his cell, Singh died of lung and heart failure caused by starvation.
"He was committing suicide right in front of them and they did nothing," said Romero, chairwoman of the corrections oversight committee, who visited the prison Tuesday to review medical and custody logbooks and to interview the letter-writer and four other inmates who shared a cellblock with Singh.
Romero provided their accounts to The Times on the condition that the inmates' names be kept confidential for fear of staff retaliation.
"As I left the prison, I kept asking myself, 'How could this have happened?' Whether it was intentional or sheer neglect, how could they let a man die right in front of their faces?" Romero said. Romero and others questioned why officers from the Corrections Department's Investigative Services Unit still had not interviewed the five inmates. After a prison hands over an incident report, investigators said, they are supposed to move quickly to gather statements from staff and inmates. This is done to make sure recollections are fresh and untainted.
"I can't imagine any excuse for not interviewing officers and inmates right away," said one longtime corrections investigator in Sacramento. "That should have been done weeks ago."
Martin Hoshino, head of the Investigative Services Unit, acknowledged the delay but said his investigators were now moving quickly to interview the inmates and others.
"The original shape of this case was medical in nature, but recent information and developments suggest that it may be more serious than that," he said. "We're now moving very quickly to collect all the pertinent information."
Patrick Hart, chief deputy prosecutor for Kings County, said his office would pursue any criminal allegations growing out of the corrections probe. "If their investigation uncovers criminal neglect or other criminal conduct, we won't hesitate to get involved," he said.
In the days after Singh's death, corrections officials in Sacramento said he had been depressed since arriving at the prison in late 2001, protesting his child molestation conviction and refusing to eat a diet that didn't conform to his vegetarian practices. The official account was that he died after a series of "on and off again" hunger strikes.
