WORCESTER, Mass. -- The prison inmate accused of murdering defrocked priest John Geoghan was formally indicted on murder charges on Thursday. But there are new questions being raised about the circumstances that allowed the crime to happen in the first place.

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Amalia Barreda Reports On Indictment

Newscenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Thursday afternoon, there were calls from Legislators who make up a prison task force that Gov. Mitt Romney must add an independent voice to the panel he has appointed to investigate the Department of Corrections.

The call comes two weeks after convicted killer Joseph Druce, 38, allegedly beat and strangled former priest and convicted child molester John Geoghan at a state correctional institute in Shirley, Mass. Geoghan's murder is not the only blemish in the department's recent history.

Kelley Jo Griffen's three children will grow up without a mother because she died without explanation the first night she was held at MCI Framingham, exactly one month before the murder of Geoghan.

"Regardless of what the circumstances were related to Kelly Jo Griffen, her children do not deserve growing up without a parent," said Rep. Deborah Blumer.

Task force members chose their words carefully on Thursday to reflect their frustration about getting information from a department whose culture is a closed one.

"And we are concerned with the pattern of secrecy. A year ago we protested new regulations from the (Department of Corrections) making it harder for the media to have access to the prisons. And by the media not having access that means the public doesn't have access," said Rep. Ruth Balser.

As to the DOC's budget, figures indicate the commonwealth's prison population has decreased 7 percent over the last 10 years, but per prisoner spending has increased 75 percent. The money is not going to education, which has seen only a $22 increase in spending per prisoner.

The task force thinks the money is going toward the transfer of prisoners to higher security facilities, where it is more expensive to house them.

"In many, many cases, the department overrode its own objective criteria in order to place people in higher security than would be mandated by any objective standard," said Rep. Patricia Jehlen.

Another unanswered question the panel faces is why a frail old man like Geoghan was classified in such a way as to require him to be housed with a convicted killer like Joseph Druce, who had a well known hatred of homosexuals and a notorious reputation for violence.