Advocates say Souza prison was deteriorating before violence

Advocates say they’re not surprised that violence erupted at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center last week because they’ve been monitoring complaints about conditions inside the maximum security prison for months.

Massachusetts Department of Correction officials have told the correction officers union that it’s taking steps to improve safety at the prison and conducting daily searches for contraband.

Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts staffers visited the prison in August because the advocacy group received a high number of complaints about alleged mistreatment and excessive use of force by correction officers. A 2020 lawsuit filed by the group over violence at Souza is still pending.

“The major issue at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center relates to long-standing issues around draconian conditions of confinement that have only gotten worse with time,” said Jesse White, Policy Director for Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts.

White said her group received 32 excessive force complaints from men held at Souza in August and September, as well as reports of deteriorating conditions at the facility. When staff visited last month, she said the prisoners they interviewed complained about several issues including: more restrictions on out-of-cell time; a lack of programming and education; unenforced body camera policies; and arbitrary disciplinary infractions, which she said “coupled with a culture of punishment, contribute to a culture of violence at the prison.”

The prison, holding about 1,000 men and located on the Shirley/Lancaster line, remains locked down after five correction officers were hurt in last week’s attack.

The Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union released a video showing prisoners attacking officers inside a general population unit at Souza on Sept. 18. Union leaders said one of the officers was stabbed a dozen times and had to be hospitalized. Four other officers who tried to intervene were treated for injuries. The state Department of Correction said the unidentified officer has been released from the hospital.

The prisoners involved were transferred to other correctional facilities. The Worcester County District Attorney’s Office said it is still reviewing whether criminal charges will be filed against the prisoners.

The union has asked for a security assessment and a review of “all security related policies,

procedures and protocols inside all Massachusetts prisons in order to ensure the safety of every staff member and inmate.”

“We have been warning the DOC of something like this,” the union’s executive board said in a statement. “Change has to come, and it has to come swiftly.”

Although the prison has been locked down since the attack, prisoners are now permitted to use phones, access email and consult with attorneys. Outside visits are not permitted, and some of the men held there and their families say much of their movement remains restricted, with six prisoners allowed out of their cells at a time for 15 minutes twice a day.

A man incarcerated at Souza who said he witnessed the attack told WBUR that there have been hostilities between some officers and the prisoners for quite some time. Charles Diorio, who has been incarcerated at Souza for about a decade, said that some officers refuse prisoners requests for services such as medical and mental health assistance, yard recreation and visits to the library, creating what he called a “tinderbox.” Diorio also said he filed a grievance, which was denied, alleging that some officers deliberately mistreat the men and taunt them with slurs.

“What I have witnessed is neglect by prison authorities isolating and ignoring inmates legitimate needs and concerns,” Diorio said. “Inmates services are refused and grievances are routinely denied. Inmates feel isolated and ignored.”

Diorio disputed the correction officers union’s claim that prisoners’ computer tablets have been turned into makeshift weapons, which may have been used in last week’s attack. Diorio said the tablets are inspected weekly by prison staff and are too valuable to prisoners because they allow them to email, make phone calls and access programs.

Diorio has filed suit against Souza staffers alleging that he has been denied the ability to store some of his property at the prison.

In a letter to the correction officers union Wednesday, interim Department of Correction Commissioner Shawn Jenkins said a Special Operations Team has been deployed to Souza to “conduct multiple targeted searches of problematic units.”

The letter also said the department will increase staff training in self defense and de-escalation techniques and questioned the extent to which prisoners computer tablets may be misused. He wrote that the prisoners tablets “strengthen the Department’s delivery of meaningful programs to advance rehabilitation and support successful reentry.” His letter also said that as of January of this year, “the DOC has discovered that approximately 35 of 4,650 (less than .8%) of the tablets have been misused.”

“The recent assaults on correctional officers are deeply troubling and underscore the urgent need for a proactive, collaborative, and strategic approach to addressing safety concerns,” Jenkins’ letter said.

In response, the union wrote to the department that Jenkins’ letter is “inadequate” and there needs to be more urgency.

Allegations of retaliation and violence by prison staff are not new at Souza and have resulted in several lawsuits. The state recently settled a civil suit from two prisoners who said they were brutally abused by special tactical officers sent in to search the facility after three correction officers were hurt in an attack in an attack in January of 2020. The settlement amount was not disclosed.

Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts has filed a class action suit alleging that dozens of prisoners were mistreated and abused by the special tactical teams of officers called in after the 2020 attack. That suit is still pending. Another lawsuit alleging that prisoners were unconstitutionally barred from meeting with their attorneys in 2020 resulted in a set of conditions prison staffers are directed to follow regarding prisoners’ access to legal counsel.

Those conditions have not always been followed, according to attorney Rebecca Jacobstein, with the state public defender agency, the Committee for Public Counsel Services, which has been monitoring the conditions. Jacobstein said that attorney visits and phone calls have not been a problem, but an institutional culture of punishment remains, as well as lingering tensions over the 2020 violence.

“The changes that they instituted as a result of 2020 have not resolved the underlying issues and have made things worse in many ways,” Jacobstein said.

Even before 2020, Souza was known for violence. Former Patriots player Aaron Herandez committed suicide at the prison in 2017, highlighting the problem of drug use within the prison. In 2002, defrocked Catholic priest John Geoghan, convicted of sexually abusing children, was killed by another prisoner at Souza. The facility is named after correction officers James Souza and Alfred Baranowski, who were fatally shot by a prisoner in 1972.

“Violence has been a persistent issue there since it opened,” said Jesse White of Prisoners Legal Services. “It’s definitely time to do something different at the prison, and certainly, what we need to do is not make conditions worse than they already are.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.