STOP SUFFOLK REGIONAL LOCK UP
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Breakdown of Response From Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department
BACKGROUND & WHAT’S HAPPENING
On November 1, 2023 the Boston Police Department began enforcing the Wu administration’s ban on encampments. Although Mayor Wu claims no one has been arrested under this ban, the City themselves have shared that Boston Police officers have conducted 283 arrests in the immediate area around Mass. and Cass between November of last year and February 2024, according to Detective Sergeant John Boyle. Community members have been arrested for trespassing outside their assigned shelter and for open containers - charges that are included in the ordinance, and for public consumption, possession, or hand-to-hand transactions in the Mass and Cass area - which BPD began enforcing at the onset of the ban. Arrests for the use, manufacture, selling or possession or drug paraphernalia increased by 22%, and arrests for drinking in public went up by 19%, according to a GBH News analysis of police arrest data.
The Material Aid & Advocacy Program, The Mass Bail Fund, CourthWatchMA, and Families for Justice as Healing began observing and hearing from our members that those arrested were being booked at Nashua Street instead of BPD precincts at a shady, newly-created central booking and lockup specifically for unhoused people who use drugs in the Mass and Cass area, and others arrested on drug-related offenses. We quickly learned people are being denied access to bail, and have inadequate access to healthcare - including psych meds due to "staffing issues".
County jail population numbers in Massachusetts have decreased in the last seven years, but the biggest drops have been among the sentenced population. Looking at annual snapshots on January 1st from official data, the Suffolk County jail population decreased from a total of 1,413 people in January 2017 to 1,097 people in January 2023. However, in that same period, the pretrial population has decreased and then increased–in part because of the move of dozens of women held pretrial and serving county sentences from three other counties from the women’s state prison, MCI-Framingham, in October 2019 to the Suffolk House of Correction.
Still, many thousands more people churn through the jail on short periods of detention every year, and the vast majority of people held in the Suffolk jails are held pretrial–merely accused of criminal allegations and nominally presumed innocent–and are disproportionately Black and Brown. In the history of the regional lock up and related events (check out this timeline here), there have been many attempts by the Suffolk Sheriff's Department to build up the jail population. We know that this is another such attempt.
After collecting concerns over the past month about the harms this process was creating, and in our urgency to stop preventable deaths from happening, we sent Mayor Wu, Sheriff Tompkins, and Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox questions and demands, with copies also sent to Boston City Council members. It’s an utter disappointment and shame that we have received no response or acknowledgement from Mayor Wu’s office, City Council, or the Boston Police Department.The only response we received was on December 8, from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department General Counsel, which included a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an effective date of October 31, the day before Mayor Wu’s encampment ban began being enforced, for a detention agreement between BPD and the Suffolk County Sheriff. The weekly count sheets of jail populations show that, in anticipation of this change, dozens of people were moved from Nashua Street Jail to the Suffolk House of Correction between October 30 and November 6. The MOU enables SCSD to accept, detain, and house those arrested by BPD at Nashua Street Jail for $150/day. Also included in the SCSD email response was an agreement from September 1, 2023 between the MA State Police (MSP) and Suffolk County Sheriffs’ Department for a similar arrangement for people arrested by MSP to be held pre-arraignment.
Let’s break down Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office response:
From General Counsel of Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department Allen Forbes received 12/8/23
I’m writing in response to your correspondence concerning detainees held by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD).
The SCSD recently agreed to house people arrested by the Boston Police Department (BPD) as they await arraignment on criminal charges. That agreement (attached) is similar to one reached earlier this year with the Massachusetts State Police (attached).
- Why would the City of Boston want this process and why would SCSD agree to this? The City of Boston and Boston Police Department want to minimize “liabilities”, specifically medical emergencies, injuries or death in Boston Police Department’s custody. The MOU outlines that Suffolk Sheriff’s Department will get paid $150/per person, per day to incarcerate people and takes on the liability in exchange for money. Meanwhile, the Suffolk Sheriff's department has had 7 deaths in their custody over the last three years and no accountability or changes to their practices.
Due to some misconceptions in your letter, it is important to note what these agreements do not permit. The agreements explicitly forbid the detention of people taken into protective custody by the police under General Laws Chapter 111E §9A. These agreements were not formed to criminalize addiction or to coerce treatment. In fact, the vast majority of the arrestees brought to our facility by the BPD were arrested on non-drug-related charges.
- No booking information or data has been shared with us that Mr. Forbes is referencing. However, we have seen multiple arrests of people for minor matters like drug possession, trespass, and drinking alcohol in public who showed up overnight at the Nashua Street Jail before being released on personal recognizance, or having their case entirely dismissed at the request of the prosecution, the next day in court.
The Sheriff’s Department has no involvement in the decision to arrest any of the individuals brought to our facility; we simply house those persons at the Suffolk County Jail until they are released on bail or are brought to court. Also, the Sheriff’s Department does not accept arrestees in need of immediate medical attention, as they are transported by the arresting agency to a local hospital.
- The Sheriff’s Department is not “simply housing”, it is incarceration. Nevertheless, the Sheriff’s department has the responsibility to facilitate the process of booking and bail prior to incarcerating a person. The Detention Acceptance Checklist contained shared by SCSD creates a presumption that it is the Boston Police Department’s responsibility to call the bail commissioner before bringing someone to the jail, insofar as the form asks why that hasn't been done yet. Additionally, the language in the form mentions Sheriff will "facilitate on-site bail with appropriate court documentation" -- what does this mean for people pre-arraignment who have yet to go to court? The checklist also outlines that Boston Police Department does the medical screening and we have not heard back from BPD in answer to our questions about how and by whom and what criteria these medical screenings take place.
Please note that none of the people held in the SCSD’s custody are asked to sign agreements “in exchange for treatment or housing” as your letter suggests. Women are held separately from men.
- We will continue to have ears on the ground and will continue to demand transparency from these agencies after hearing from trusted community partners that people being arrested and brought to South Bay HOC may be kept there with an expectation that the city of Boston or Suffolk Sheriff's Department will help them with housing.
The SCSD’s agreement with the BPD keeps arrestees safer by ensuring they are supervised by staff with specific training and experience in monitoring the health and safety of people in custody and that they have access to on-site medical care and treatment that would not otherwise be available to arrestees held in local police lockups. These agreements also support safer communities by ensuring more police officers are on the street and available to respond to calls rather than sitting in their lockups watching the arrestees.
- We fully reject this copaganda. The medical care being offered at Nashua Street Jail is wholly inadequate for the influx of detainees the jail is taking on. The medical director is on site Monday-Wednesday, so there are major gaps in access to prescriptions, particularly for substance use and mental health. We have received accounts of people being held in overflow cells because the medical unit is full as well as people being denied access to their medication. If people do not receive medications at Nashua Street, and then are transported to court and sent to another county on an outstanding warrant, their prescriptions will not follow them to their next location even if they were receiving a stable prescription in long-term community care. More police officers on the street do not make us safer, cost more of taxpayer’s money, and increase the possibility of surveillance and arrest into this horrible process that the city and Suffolk Sheriff’s Department are colluding on.
Criminalization is costly and counterproductive - yet it is always funded! We demand an end to the central booking & regional lock up and criminalization of our community and for resources to be diverted and invested in the evidence-based solutions our community needs: permanent low-threshold housing decoupled from sobriety and shelter, the establishment of overdose prevention centers, and increased voluntary treatment on demand. Our solutions are possible!
TALKING POINTS
- A regional lock up was created on the false premise that it will “save lives” when in fact it will cause harm - potentially death.
- A regional lock up is used to pass liability from risk of overdose, injury or death of people in custody from one law enforcement department to another
- 6 people died in Sheriff Tompkins’ custody between 2021 and 2022, including multiple people who were medically neglected after drug use arrests or involuntary commitment for a substance use disorder.
- ANOTHER person has passed away in SCSD custody on 12/27/23 allegedly after a fight with another incarcerated person. Carl Taylor was transferred to the medical housing unit for observation INSTEAD of being transferred to a hospital for care and was found unresponsive 5 minutes after treatment.
- The risk of fatal overdose is 120 times higher among people recently released from correctional settings, largely due to reduced tolerance to opioids and a failure to initiate effective medication treatment, like people are experiencing at the regional lockup.
- There is no evidence this process will keep people safe and a central booking process has already been implemented and failed in 2001 due to abuses and mistreatment.
- In their MOUs the SCSD notes they gives themselves the authority to civilly commit people they are detaining who have criminal charges - MA Department of Public Health data show that people who have experienced civil commitment were more likely to die from overdose than those who sought treatment voluntarily
- Harming people who have been detained
- Reduced recreation time
- Medical unit full
- Opaque & happening behind closed doors with no public process
- Prevents people from finding their loved ones
- Creates illusion of progress in addressing “problems” in the Mass and Cass area and beyond by disappearing people into jails and making it harder to find them
- No reported numbers of people booked into central booking and what is happening to them
- Illegal
- Although a Suffolk County Regional Lock Up has been proposed and repeatedly rejected by the legislature in nearly every legislative session since 2013, in 2021 former Gov Baker slipped $1.8M into the Suffolk Sheriff's budget to allow for a negotiated detention agreement. This has been included in their budget each year since. However, there is no express legal authorization for the process beyond the negotiated detention agreements. While G.L. c. 126, (s) 4. Of the MA General Law is inferred to be the legal authorization for this lock up - there is no proof that the lock ups in Boston are “inadequate” therefore requiring a lock up facility.
- People not able to access bail when they are legally entitled to having their bail set - court clerks are being told to not set bail for those who have “incomplete information”
- People are being denied access to medical care, including denial of known medications, as the Medical Director only works Monday-Wednesday
DEMANDS
- Respond to ALL inquiries by concerned organizing groups
- Stop the regional lock up process that has no legal authorization
- Reallocate the $1.8M in retained revenue towards non-carceral evidence-based solutions including: permanent low-threshold housing decoupled from sobriety and shelter, the establishment of overdose prevention centers, increased voluntary treatment on demand, and other community-based support.
- Stop arresting people for drug use and for being unhoused!
- Refuse creation of coercive treatment facility authorization or expansion of section 35 to South Bay House of Corrections or Nashua Street Jail
- Stop the sweeps & criminalization of unhoused people - end the survival ban ordinance!
- Shut Down South Bay! Close this house of corrections that has been harmful to our community for decades, has killed people and NO replacing this jail with another.
TAKE ACTION
Take action! Criminalization in our vulnerable neighborhoods affects us all. Email and call Mayor Wu, Commissioner Cox, Sheriff Tompkins and Boston City Council today and demand they stop their deadly central lockup and criminalization of unhoused people who use drugs. Demand that they instead fund evidence-based solutions. We are mobilizing 200 emails and calls to the departments in question to demand answers and stop this dangerous process!
EMAIL CONTACTS
- Boston City Councilors
- ruthzee.louijeune@boston.gov // 617-635-4376
- henry.santana@boston.gov // 617-635-4205
- Julia.Mejia@Boston.gov // 617-635-4217
- erin.murphy@boston.gov // 617-635-3115
- Gabriela.Coletta@boston.gov // 617-635-3200
- ed.flynn@boston.gov // 617-635-3203
- john.fitzgerald@boston.gov // 617-635-3455
- brian.worrell@boston.gov // 617-635-3131
- enrique.pepen@boston.gov // 617-635-4210
- benjamin.weber@boston.gov // 617-635-42200
- tania.anderson@boston.gov // 617-635-3510
- sharon.durkan@boston.gov // 617-635-4225
- liz.breadon@boston.gov // 617-635-3113
Mayor’s Office- 617-635-4500
- michelle.wu@boston.gov
- tiffany.chu@boston.gov
Suffolk Sheriff’s Department- 617-635-1000
- stompkins@scsdma.org- 617-635-1000 x 2100
- aforbes@scsdma.org
- wsweeney@scsdma.org
- mcolwell@scsdma.org
Boston Police Department- 617-343-4500
- michael.cox@pd.boston.gov
- gregory.long@pd.boston.gov
EMAIL & CALL SCRIPT
Hi, My name is __________ and I am a resident of _______ (Boston District). I am (share anything you feel is relevant about yourself). I am reaching out to demand Mayor Wu and her policing partners stop criminalizing unhoused people who use drugs and stop the creation of a regional lock up.
I am extremely concerned with the opaque creation of a regional lock up that is booking and disappearing our community members into a jail. Our community members are facing due process infringements as well as inaccess to resources such as medical care and treatment that are being justified to create the lock up. Arresting people for drug use, being unhoused and for the crime of being poor is counterintuitive and costly! Your constituents want to see city and state funding to be invested into evidence-based solutions to homelessness and evidence-based services for people who use drugs. The $1.8M allocated to negotiated detention agreements is a great start to reallocate towards these solutions. I am also asking you to respond to the inquiries made by organizing groups who care immensely about our community members. Our communities deserve insight into unilateral decisions made about a regional lock up that are deeply affecting their lives.
INSERT ANY TALKING POINTS, QUESTIONS, OR SOLUTIONS THAT YOU FEEL MOST RELEVANT
Thank You,
NAME
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