Inmates at Massachusetts prison say they’re facing retaliation after speaking out about lack of programs

By Cheryl Fiandaca

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    GARDNER, Massachusetts (WBZ) — Inmates at a prison in Massachusetts claim the Department of Correction retaliated against them for speaking out earlier this year about a lack of programs there.

Back in March, a WBZ-TV I-Team report revealed that, in some cases, training and education programs listed in the Department of Correction (DOC) brochure weren’t available to everyone or never existed. Advocates for prisoners say inmates are leaving prison unprepared with no skills.

Inmates file lawsuit

Inmates at the North Central Correctional Institution, a medium/minimum security prison in Gardner, filed a lawsuit about the lack of programs there.

Weeks after the I-Team report aired, the DOC revised its list of programs. But inmates in Gardner said the DOC has limited access to the programs that were available. They are calling it retaliation.

Waitlists “in the thousands”

“The Department of Correction is essentially not doing what it says. Our latest records request shows that the programming waitlists are in the thousands,” Aaron Steinberg of Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts told WBZ-TV.

Mac Hudson is a former inmate who now advocates for incarcerated people. He spent more than thirty years behind bars and now works for Prisoners’ Legal Services. He told the I-Team that inmates are purposely being set up to fail and that there’s not much opportunity for rehabilitation in prison, which means inmates are leaving unprepared.

“I do know that since the piece has been released that a bunch of guys have been cracked down on by the administration. They deprived them of the program access that they are supposed to be getting by making it hard for them to access, not just that program, but anything,” said Hudson.

The Department of Correction has a budget of $800 million for fiscal year 2024. The I-Team found that just two percent of it is set aside for education and re-entry programs.

“Our understanding is that the Department of Correction population continues to fall, their budget continues to rise. There’s not a lot of transparency around where that money goes,” Steinberg said.

Harder for parole

According to DOC records, there are 5,765 sentenced inmates. More than 60 percent are African American or Hispanic. Advocates for inmates say it’s difficult for them to get parole without access to education or enrichment programs.

“It’s typically what happens to Black and Brown folks all the time. It’s discrimination at its highest peak. It’s institutional racism, you know, structural racism,” Hudson said.

The Department of Correction said it does not comment on pending litigation, but in court filings, the department denied allegations of retaliation.

The DOC also said that an incarcerated individual’s personal program plan is based on the department’s assessment of identified educational, work, and substance use treatment needs as well as programmatic availability at various facilities.

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