Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center

Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center is a maximum security prison in Lancaster, Massachusetts (though it receives mail through a post-office box in the town of Shirley. It is operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction. It is close to the medium-security prison Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Shirley, which is directly to the north over the town border. Souza-Baranowski opened on September 30, 1998 and is among the most technologically advanced prisons in the United States.[1] Currently, the facility houses just over 1,000 maximum-security adult-male inmates.

Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center
Location in Massachusetts
LocationLancaster, Massachusetts, United States
Coordinates42°31′24″N 71°38′53″W
StatusOperational
Security classSupermax
Capacity1,024 (Houses 1,042)
OpenedSeptember 30, 1998
Managed byMassachusetts Department of Correction
DirectorSuperintendent Stephen Kenneway

The prison is named in honor of a corrections officer, James Souza, 29, and an instructor Alfred Baranowski, 54, who were shot in July 1972 by an inmate whose wife had smuggled in handguns into what was then the Norfolk Prison Colony.

Souza-Baranowski is the only post-conviction maximum-security state prison in Massachusetts.[2] Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Cedar Junction operates a pre-trial maximum-security "reception and diagnostic center",[3] and the Federal Medical Center, Devens operates at all security levels, including maximum.

Incidents

A riot involving 46 inmates on January 9, 2016, was triggered after they were denied showers before returning to their cells from exercise.[4]

On January 10, 2020, a guard was surrounded in the N1 unit (north side) and severely injured.[5] Three other guards were taken to the hospital, six inmates were immediately moved to other facilities, and criminal charges were filed against 16 inmates.[6] In complaints and a lawsuit which triggered an investigation by state legislators, inmates alleged that corrections officers retaliated in the following weeks, including against uninvolved inmates. The complaints included unprovoked beatings and use of stun guns, positional torture, ripping out of hair, underfeeding, confiscation of all clothing, deprivation of personal property, denial of access to lawyers and legal paperwork, failure to follow procedure by videotaping raids and documenting injuries, and use of personnel from other facilities who hid their identities.[7][8]

On February 11, 2020, an officer was doused with liquid and grabbed through a food slot, and then the attacking inmate set items in his room on fire.[9]

During the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts, inmates were only allowed out of cells in small groups to shower and make phone calls. Under these conditions, two inmates were stabbed in a fight on April 6, 2020.[10]

Notable inmates

Current

Former
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References
  1. Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center. Commonwealth of Massachusetts: Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. Accessed May 2015.
  2. Massachusetts Department of Correction Locations, page 2
  3. Massachusetts Department of Correction Locations, page 1
  4. Mass. prison riot began over a demand for showers
  5. Correctional officer attacked at state prison in Shirley
  6. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/02/20/metro/16-inmates-facing-criminal-charges-linked-attack-correctional-officers-souza-baranowski-prison/ 16 inmates facing criminal charges linked to attack on correctional officers at Souza-Baranowski prison]
  7. Inmates at Mass. prison denied full access to attorneys, face abuse from correctional officers, lawsuit says
  8. Brutal crackdown on inmates alleged at Shirley prison
  9. Female officer at Souza-Baranowski assaulted by inmate, DOC says
  10. Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center on lockdown after two inmates stabbed
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