By Elizabeth Plese
Boston University News Service
Legislation targeting what advocates call a “humanitarian crisis” in Massachusetts prisons would enhance educational opportunities, mental health services, and other standards across the system, advocates say.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Brandy Fluker-Reid of Mattapan, would create universal standards for conditions that would apply in state prisons, county jails, and houses of correction, said Jesse White, a policy director for Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts.
Under the proposal, inmates would spend at least eight hours per day outside of their cells. “It’s really aimed at shifting our correctional culture, which right now is really a culture that centers around punishment and deprivation,” said White.
Educational and vocational programs would also be modified to fit the needs of modern businesses as a way to better equip inmates to become productive members of society when they are released.
The current population of Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, the state’s only maximum security prison, is 75 percent people of color who have little access to programming, said White. Most inmates are in their cells for up to 20 hours a day.
“Souza Baronowski is arguably the most restrictive and operationally dysfunctional facility of all,” said Geoffrey Reese, a prisoner at the center, in his testimony for the Legislature’s Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security.
He said out-of-cell time is restricted to less than four hours, depending on where in the facility the inmate is housed. This is slightly more than inmates who are housed in restrictive units.
Research shows that activities among inmates that promote cooperative and productive behavior can improve mental well-being, while isolation can worsen mental health and hinder rehabilitation, said Sophia Leggio, the marketing and communications coordinator from the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Massachusetts.
“A major issue is that, in effect, we still have a solitary confinement system,” said White. “The Department of Correction and many county correctional facilities stated that they eliminated restrictive housing, but what they did, in actuality, is they created units that they claim fall outside the definition of restrictive housing.”
The bill establishes minimum standards for health care and mental health care that align with the community standard of care. Mental health treatment will tackle the addiction and suicide rates plaguing the system, particularly related to the drug K2.
“[The prison system is] only about punishment: loss of contact visits, loss of family contact, loss of community support, fines, fees, etc. This brings a sense of hopelessness,” said William Duclos, an inmate at MCI Norfolk in his testimony before the legislative panel.
“Unfortunately,” he added, “in the last few weeks, this hopelessness created two suicides of men that were under the influence and were struggling with K2 addiction.”
Massachusetts has one of the oldest prison populations in the country, with 30 percent of the population over 50, according to White, who noted that imprisonment is known to cause faster aging, which contributes to the trauma of confinement.
The Massachusetts Department of Correction declined to comment on the legislation.
“If we are serious as a Commonwealth about improving re-entry outcomes and reducing recidivism, it is imperative that we support policies and practices that foster personal growth, connection, and resilience during incarceration,” said Leggio.
This article originally appeared in the Dorchester Reporter.
