Prisoner’s Legal Services of Massachusetts
Prisoners’ Legal Services is a Massachusetts nonprofit legal services office founded in 1972 that provides civil legal assistance to the approximately 20,000 people incarcerated in Massachusetts state prisons (Department of Correction facilities) and county jails and houses of correction. The organization promotes the safe, humane and lawful treatment of Massachusetts prisoners through civil rights litigation, administrative advocacy, client counseling, and outreach to policy makers and the public.
THE CASE
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Prisoners’ Legal Services is challenging the Massachusetts law, M.G.L. c. 123, § 35, that authorizes the involuntary civil commitment of men suffering from alcohol and substance use disorders to Department of Correction prisons. Massachusetts is the only state in the country where men are civilly committed to a correctional institution for substance use. All other states recognize what public health experts know: addiction is not a crime for which people should be punished, but a medical condition that cries out for treatment.
CASE UPDATES SINCE GRANT YEAR
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In March of 2021, the Defendants filed a motion for Partial Judgment on the Pleadings seeking a ruling that Section 35 is not unlawful on its face because a correctional facility, such as MASAC, could at least theoretically be operated as a treatment facility. Plaintiffs opposed this motion on grounds that confinement in a correctional facility for treatment of a disease is inherently stigmatizing and discriminatory. On December 29, 2021, the court issued a rather odd decision holding that Section 35 is not facially unconstitutional, but only because it could be implemented without sending anyone to a correctional facility if DPH created enough treatment beds in the community. Since our position is that only the portion of the statute that allows for incarceration is unconstitutional, we agree with that reasoning. Defendants, however, asked the Court to report the case to the Supreme Judicial Court, but that motion was denied. We are now proceeding with discovery and expect a trial in 2023.
CASE UPDATE - 2021
Since we filed the suit, the Defendants have implemented numerous changes at both MASAC and Hampden County, including removing all sentenced prisoners from the facility, turning all day-to-day operation over to the clinical provider, and expanding treatment. We have filed two amended complaints describing these changes, and the court has certified the case as a class action.
GRANT AMOUNT
$30,000 (2019)