FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BOSTON, December 28, 2021 – Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts (PLS) is pleased to announce the employment of Dr. Alice Bukhman as the organization’s first professional healthcare advocate. The Healthcare Advocate position is new to PLS. In her part-time role, Dr. Bukhman is engaged in both individual advocacy and in helping the […]
Prisoner advocates seek overhaul of inmate mental health treatment
June 28, 2021
CommonWealth Magazine
By Shira Schoenberg
State Still Negotiating With DOJ Over Handling Of ‘Mental Health Watches’ In Prisons
Jan 22, 2021
WBUR
By Deborah Becker
The Gene Valicenti Show – Attorney Bonnie Tenneriello
Gene talks with Attorney Tenneriello about Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson’s use of solitary confinement.
Prisoners’ Rights Group Sues Bristol County Sheriff Over Segregation Cells
January 9, 2018 Rhode Island Public Radio By Lynn Arditi A not-for-profit prisoners’ rights group is suing Massachusetts Bristol County Sheriff’s Office for holding prisoners with serious mental illness in segregation cells. The class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Bristol County Superior Court, in Fall River, claims that prisoners with mental illness have been locked in cells […]
Mentally ill inmates sue Bristol sheriff over solitary confinement
January 9, 2018 The Boston Globe By Maria Cramer Three inmates with serious mental illness filed a lawsuit against officials at the Bristol County Jail Tuesday, alleging they were placed in solitary confinement for at least 22 hours a day while receiving little treatment for their conditions. “It should be obvious to defendants and to […]
Patients call Plymouth addiction center a mere jail
December 2, 2017 The Boston Globe By Maria Cramer and Felice J. Freyer In recent years, as the opioid crisis has deepened, the number of people who have turned to the court system for help has skyrocketed. Under a state law known as Section 35, a judge may commit into treatment anyone with an addiction […]
A Turnaround: At last, decency at Bridgewater
September 14, 2017 The Boston Globe By Yvonne Abraham Just like that. For decades, Bridgewater State Hospital was a hellhole, the heinous treatment of mentally ill inmates there the subject of countless exposes and lawsuits. Yet, though this place was the moral shame of Massachusetts, nothing ever changed. Until, quite suddenly, it did. Who knew this could […]
Inmate’s apparent suicide in Bristol County jail renews concerns about sheriff
June 15, 2017 Boston Globe By Chris Burrell and Jenifer McKim Bristol County officials are investigating the apparent suicide of a 47-year-old inmate at the county jail in North Dartmouth, prompting renewed criticism of the jail’s management under Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. The death of Michael Ray, of Fall River, on Saturday is the second suspected […]
Amid State House Debate, Play Confronts Solitary Confinement
March 24, 2017 WBUR By Deborah Becker Massachusetts is one of a handful of states that allows inmates to be held in solitary confinement for up to 10 years. But next week, lawmakers will review changing that. Amid that debate comes a play from a New York playwright that will be staged right on Beacon […]