Sentinel & Enterprise May 14, 2018 By Katie Lannan, State House News Service BOSTON — A month after Gov. Charlie Baker signed a major criminal justice overhaul into law, debate around the issue is not yet settled, and prisoners’ rights advocates on Monday urged lawmakers to reject some of Baker’s recommended changes to the new […]
Lawsuits add up over Bristol County jail inmate suicides
March 9, 2018 The Boston Globe By Jenifer McKim and Chris Burrell Barbara Kice wants justice for her son, who hanged himself in 2015 in the Bristol County House of Correction. The jail, all by itself, accounts for more than a quarter of county inmate suicides statewide, and Kice thinks she knows why so many die: […]
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 […]
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’ […]
The Deplorable State Of Solitary Confinement In Massachusetts
By Bonnie Tenneriello and Daniel Medwed WGBH February 22, 2016 In late January, President Obama announced historic changes in how the federal prison system uses solitary confinement—or “segregation” as it is euphemistically called within Massachusetts’ prison system. He cited research showing that the practice can lead to “devastating, lasting psychological consequences.” Solitary confinement, he said, “doesn’t […]