FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Newton, MA – July 1, 2024 – Today, the Boston College Law School Civil Rights Clinic, Holland & Knight LLP, and Prisoners’ Legal Services filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of hundreds of incarcerated individuals in solitary confinement units within the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC). The lawsuit alleges the oppressive conditions in these units violate Massachusetts and federal law.

This lawsuit was filed after months of unsuccessful advocacy to DOC officials by incarcerated individuals following a hunger strike, along with efforts by civil rights organizations and lawmakers to compel the DOC to improve the conditions of confinement in these units and comply with the law. When individuals have spoken out and complained about unlawful treatment, the DOC has retaliated against them by imposing unlawful sanctions, transferring them to different facilities, and in some cases, brutalizing them.

“I’ve visited the men in SAU IV on an unannounced visit to SBCC with a fellow legislator,” said Representative Erika Uyterhoeven. “It is clear the conditions they are held in is unconscionable and running afoul to the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018. There is simply no place for solitary confinement in Massachusetts and we must end this cruel and unusual practice without delay.”

The Massachusetts legislature, with near unanimous support, passed the landmark Criminal Justice Reform Act (CJRA) in 2018, which was designed to restrict the DOC’s use of prolonged solitary confinement, also known as restrictive housing (RH), by requiring placement reviews at least every 90 days to determine if an individual could be released from RH. The law also requires that those in RH have the same rights to visits, telephone calls, canteen access, and programming as those in the general population consistent with safety of the units to mitigate the known physical and mental harms of solitary confinement. Unfortunately, the DOC has failed to comply with the law. In July 2022, incarcerated people in the then-Disciplinary Detention Unit (DDU) at MCI-Cedar Junction sued the DOC to assert their right to RH protections under the CJRA. See Perry v. DOC, 2284 CV 01667. In June 2023 however, the DOC abruptly shut down the DDU, transferred most of the plaintiffs to equivalently restrictive units, and claimed that the commonwealth no longer operated any RH units.

Rather than ending the use of RH as they had purported to do, the DOC merely rebranded the practice under new names: the Secure Adjustment Unit-IV (SAU-IV) and Behavioral Adjustment Units (BAUs). There are approximately 40 individuals in the SAU-IV at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center and approximately 150 individuals in Behavioral Assessment Units statewide in different DOC prisons. Prison officials refer to the SAU-IV as the new “DDU” and refer to BAUs as “the hole.”

“DOC is not above the law and this lawsuit is simply about getting DOC to comply with the CJRA once and for all,” added Sam Hodgkins-Sumner, a student attorney with the Civil Rights Clinic working under the supervision of Clinic Director, Reena Parikh, “DOC cannot be permitted to continue their bait and switch operations by transferring incarcerated individuals from one facility to the next and slapping new names on units like the SAU-IV and BAUs, all while leaving most of the oppressive conditions of the DDU intact.”

The SAU IV and BAUs are segregated housing units separate from the general population where the DOC confines individuals for many months or years at a time without any meaningful review process or opportunity to be released to general population. Plaintiffs Tykorie Evelyn and Jerome Meade have been in the SAU IV for 15 and 17 months, respectively, and have spent months at a time in different BAUs. Plaintiff Emmitt Perry spent 12 months in the SAU-IV and many months in BAUs at a time. Plaintiffs Peter Bousleiman and Charles Miles have spent four and six months in BAUs, respectively, since they have been incarcerated. Plaintiff Emmanuel Biaggi struggles with mental illness, but was locked in the BAU earlier this month instead of receiving mental health support.

Individuals in the SAU IV and BAU spend nearly 24 hours in some kind of cell or cage; they are given approximately ninety minutes of so-called “out-of-cell time” in a small outdoor cage alone and approximately ninety minutes at an indoor table, sometimes alone, with both legs and one hand shackled to a table. The DOC characterizes these 3 hours as “out-of-cell time,” thereby circumventing restrictive housing protections under the CJRA which applies to those in a cell for more than 22 hours per day. Plaintiffs have developed severe anxiety and discomfort around other people, have lost certain communication and social interaction skills, and suffer from panic attacks, strong feelings of depression, helplessness, and nightmares since being in solitary confinement.

“The enduring inhumanity of solitary confinement in Massachusetts prisons so many years after the Legislature passed the CJRA demonstrates that judicial intervention is now necessary,” explained Jim Pingeon, Ligation Director at Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts. “DOC’s decision to try to end-run the CJRA by simply changing the name on the door of the solitary units is the latest in its long history of attempts to avoid compliance with the statutory and constitutional protections governing those in its custody. It is not only unconscionable and unsafe, but also illegal.”

The plaintiffs are not merely seeking legal remedies; they are also demanding a transformation in the way the DOC operates, aiming to dismantle the systemic issues that have led to egregious violations of human rights.

The case caption and docket number are 2484CV01746 Evelyn, Tykorie et al vs. Jenkins, Shawn et al.

###

Aaron Steinberg, Communications Director
Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts
asteinberg@plsma.org
(617) 482-2773

Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts’ mission is to challenge the carceral system through litigation, advocacy, client counseling, partnership with impacted individuals and communities, and outreach to policymakers and the public in order to promote the human rights of incarcerated persons and end harmful confinement.

Sam Hodgkins-Sumner, Rule 3:03 Certified Student Attorney
Civil Rights Clinic
Boston College Legal Services LAB
hodgkisa@bc.edu
(214) 718-7096

The BC Law Civil Rights Clinic is part of the Boston College Legal Services LAB, a fully-functioning law firm within BC Law that provides legal services in the community to clients with a variety of legal issues.

About Holland & Knight LLP
www.HKlaw.com
Holland & Knight is a global law firm with more than 2,200 attorneys practicing in over 250 areas of law, throughout our 34 offices in the United States and abroad. The hallmark of Holland & Knight’s success has always been and continues to be legal work of the highest quality, performed by well-prepared lawyers who revere their profession and are devoted to their clients.