Prison guards to wear body cameras at Souza

WBURBy Deb BeckerJanuary 27, 2022 Correction officers at Massachusetts’ beleaguered maximum security prison will soon wear body cameras. The state Executive Office of Public Safety and Security announced the pilot program Thursday, saying the cameras will strengthen transparency and accountability at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. “Implementing this BWC (body-worn camera) pilot program reinforces our commitment […]

New lawsuit accuses state officials of retaliatory violence against prisoners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BOSTON – January 10, 2022 – Today, Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts (PLS) and the law firm Hogan Lovells filed a class action lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) and its officials responsible for overseeing Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center (SBCC) during a campaign of systematic, extreme, and unconstitutional violenceagainst more than […]

Correction Department cries out for oversight

With officer brutality and discipline shrouded in secrecy, the need for an independent eye is obvious. The Boston GlobeBy the Editorial BoardDecember 1, 2021 When brutality happens not on a city street but behind prison walls, there’s no citizen with a cellphone to record the abuse of authority, and often no bystander to bear witness […]

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’ […]