Discussions about a Friday night incident at the Bristol County House of Correction were on Gov. Charlie Baker's "to-do list" on Monday, Baker said.
Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson's office said a group of 10 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees refused to get tested for COVID-19 despite reporting symptoms, then "rushed violently" at the sheriff and damaged their unit.
Groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition have called for an investigation into the incident that resulted in the hospitalization of three detainees. U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and Reps. William Keating and Joseph Kennedy, noting that the detainees said they were "handled violently, unnecessarily pepper-sprayed, and denied access to counsel," also called for an external investigation.
"What I would say is, there is a whole series of back-and-forths going on with respect to what happened there and people need to be careful about drawing conclusions one way or another," Baker said when asked about the incident at his Monday press briefing. "We've run into situations and a number of nursing homes where we have not been able to get people who we would think would want to get tested, tested."
Baker said he thinks people should "embrace testing," especially those in essential jobs and front-line positions.
"We've had to discipline some people for not being tested in places where they should probably be tested," he said. He declined to elaborate, describing it as a "personnel matter."
"But the fact of the matter is, not everybody wants to be tested, even people who you would think would consider that to be an appropriate thing given their role and their responsibility," Baker said.
