Two state lawmakers are calling for action from the state’s Department of Correction following a violent attack of five correction officers Wednesday night. Two officers were stabbed and three more were injured at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, the state’s only maximum-security facility.
“Twelve times stabbed in the back. He was lucky and fortunate that he survived this attack,” Dennis Martin, president of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, said in a press conference Thursday. Speaking from outside the prison, he said one of the injured officers is hospitalized with a punctured lung.
The Massachusetts Department of Correction launched an investigation into the incident in coordination with the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office and is also conducting a full security assessment.
The union has repeatedly asked the Massachusetts DOC for safety changes, Martin said. Union leaders are asking the state to install tactical units at prisons to prevent and quell such attacks.
“We’ve been warning them that this was going to continue to happen until they do something drastic,” Martin said.
State Sen. Peter Durant, a Republican from Spencer, and state Rep. Michael Soter, a Republican from Bellingham, said they stand with the union, asking for accountability from the Department of Correction and for action to be taken to keep correction officers safe in their workplace.
“There is a complete breakdown, and enough is enough. We’ve had enough of this. We almost lost two officers today,” Soter said. “And my heart goes out to the families of these officers. And no one should have to do that. And we’ve been sounding this alarm, and nobody wants to do anything.”
“This is not the first time we have seen serious injuries inflicted on corrections officers by inmates and the time has come to act,” Durant said. “The administration has kicked this can down the road too many times and there is no reason why our corrections officers should have to come to work fearing that they will leave their shift in an ambulance.”
The Department of Correction modified operations at the correctional center Thursday during a comprehensive investigation and will conduct a thorough security assessment and review of protocols to ensure the safety and security of all who work and reside there.
“Our correction officers perform an essential and difficult job. Their safety is our top priority,” said DOC Interim Commissioner Shawn Jenkins. “Violence against DOC staff is unacceptable, and we will take the steps necessary to ensure those responsible are held accountable under the law.”
Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts Litigation Director Jim Pingeon said the state needs to do more to change the violent culture at the prison by meeting people’s basic needs and establish an environment that better supports rehabilitation.
“The people who live and work at Souza-Baranowski have been plagued by violence there since it was opened,” Pingeon said. “PLS deplores all violence and hopes the people who have been injured have a swift and full recovery.”
Jenkins said the incarcerated males identified to be involved in this incident have been transferred to other DOC facilities.
“The DOC’s [and union’s] insistence on creating ever more restrictive and punitive conditions of confinement, despite the Legislature’s attempts to curb such deprivations through the Criminal Justice Reform Act, has worsened the climate at the prison and puts all people there at risk,” Pingeon said.
But Soter took the opposite tack. He called out criminal justice reform as part of the problem — saying that it was supposed to make jails safer, and that’s not happening.
“I think what we need to do is take a hard core look at criminal justice reform,” the state representative said. “Obviously follow the federal guidelines, but also put things in place so that there’s repercussions for things that they do.”
