Boston Globe June 28, 2018 By Yvonne Abraham How meaningful is the state’s new compassionate release law if it doesn’t help a man for whom it seems to have been designed? That’s the question that must be asked in the case of Alexander Phillips, the first inmate to apply for medical release under the state’s […]
Bill restricts use of solitary confinement
November 24, 2017 The Salem News By Christian M. Wade BOSTON — Massachusetts has some of the nation’s harshest solitary confinement rules, allowing inmates to be placed in segregated units for as long as 10 years. But the state is now poised to ease its restrictive policies as part of a wide-ranging criminal justice bill […]
Is 10 years in Massachusetts solitary confinement torture?
October 18, 2017 The Boston Globe By Joshua Miller Massachusetts legislators attempting a sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system are grappling with one of the toughest questions in corrections: How long is too long for a prisoner — even one who has harmed a guard or a fellow inmate — to be punished with solitary […]
Following Hernandez’s Death, A Discussion Of Suicide In Custody
April 19, 2017 WBUR By Deborah Becker Leslie Walker, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services, joins WBUR to discuss Aaron Hernandez’s suicide in his prison cell. Listen here or on the WBUR website:
Aaron Hernandez’s reported mode of suicide unusual for prison
April 19, 2017 The Boston Globe By Eric Moskowitz The executive director of the statewide inmate-advocate organization said she believes Aaron Hernandez’s death is the first reported successful suicide by an inmate hanging a sheet from a window at the maximum-security Souza-Baranowski prison, as authorities say Hernandez did. Leslie Walker, executive director of the nonprofit Prisoners’ […]
It’s time to fix solitary confinement, before more abuse occurs
By Adrian Walker The Boston Globe January 9, 2017 The enduring appeal of solitary confinement as an option is easy to understand. It seems to make sense that removing troublesome criminals from the general population might deter bad behavior, or at least make it easier to manage. But that isn’t what the evidence suggests. States […]
Critics: Hodgson’s plan to send inmates to build Trump’s wall ‘absurd’
By Brian Fraga Enterprise News January 6, 2017 FALL RIVER – Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s offer to have inmates build President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed border wall generated national headlines and plenty of reaction Thursday in the press and in social media. The sheriff’s critics say that was all by design. “It sounds to me […]
Advocates: Mass. unlawfully isolates mentally ill inmates
By Maria Cramer and Jenna Russell The Boston Globe December 31, 2016 One inmate, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, became so distraught after months in the prison’s isolation unit that he began talking to himself and counting compulsively. Another, who suffers from schizoaffective disorder, declined so much in isolation that he smeared himself with feces. A third, […]
Proposed changes to privileges, regulations have prisoners on edge
By Milton Valencia The Boston Globe October 12, 2016 series of proposed changes to Department of Correction guidelines has prisoner rights-advocates, and specifically the prisoners themselves, on edge. The proposals include changes to department policies in prisoner mail, telephone and visitation privileges, including at the maximum security prison in Shirley, known as the Souza-Baranowski Correctional […]
Report blames state government for suicide of mentally ill inmate at Bridgewater State Hospital
By Shira Schoenberg MassLive June 27, 2016 On April 7, 2016, Leo Marino tried to commit suicide by choking himself with toilet paper. The staff at Bridgewater State Hospital, where Marino was confined, ordered that his access to toilet paper be curbed and he be placed under 24/7 suicide watch. A specially trained observer was sent […]