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| Inmates' group files suit against Mass. sheriff |
| By Herald News |
| Published: 09/06/2004 |
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Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services lawyers are asking a Superior Court judge to find Bristol County (Mass.) Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson in contempt of court and force the sheriff to comply with a 1998 court order pertaining to overcrowding and sanitation at the county jails. Suffolk County Judge John Cratsley will hear oral arguments during a court hearing in Boston this week. MCLS Litigation Director James Pingeon said the hearing will address three longstanding issues at the county correctional facilities. Pingeon said much of the arguing will center around problems with overcrowding and a lack of restroom availability for the inmates. The 1998 court injunction barred Hodgson from "triple-bunking" inmates or allowing inmates to be housed in common areas, often forcing them to sleep on the floors. Pingeon said although the court order did not make an order pertaining to restroom access for prisoners, attorneys will ask for the expansion of the injunction to include this issue. According to court documents, prisoners are routinely locked into their cells for nine consecutive hours without any restroom facility. "To go to the bathroom, these men and women have to ask guards, and are routinely reprimanded for doing so," Pingeon said last Tuesday. "People are forced to urinate in their cells, in their pants or into bottles or trash cans. "Sheriff Hodgson cannot put prisoners in this position. The law is clear on that." Various affidavits filed in the case detail the plight of the prisoners without access to bathrooms. The class-action lawsuit brought against Hodgson and the state Department of Corrections Commissioner Michael T. Maloney asserts that the unsanitary conditions that result from urine and feces in the jail are a violation of Department of Public Health and Department of Corrections sanitation regulations. But Hodgson last Tuesday said his office has not violated any court order. |
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