DOC settles lawsuit for nearly $7 million after prisoners allege ‘retaliatory force campaign’

Boston.com
May 27, 2025
By Molly Farrar

The DOC agreed to pay nearly $7 million to settle a class-action lawsuit after correctional officers allegedly systematically beat and brutalized inmates, particularly inmates of color, during a “violent campaign” for retribution.

The DOC agreed to pay the $6,750,000 settlement, of which $1 million goes to attorney fees, and which is still awaiting court approval. The remaining nearly $6 million will be distributed “in varying amounts” among about 150 plaintiffs who are former and current inmates at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, the DOC said.

“This brutality included beating and kicking prisoners; gouging eyes; grabbing testicles; smashing faces into the ground or wall; deploying Taser guns, pepper ball guns, and other chemical agents; and order K9s to menace and bite prisoners,” the settlement memorandum filed by the inmates’s lawyers said.

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