Prison union shares surveillance video of attack on correction officers inside Massachusetts prison
By: -----
Video recorded by a surveillance camera inside a Massachusetts prison shows a violent attack that resulted in two correction officers being stabbed and three others being injured on Wednesday.
A copy of the video was distributed Friday by the union that represents the officers. The group is advocating for security reviews across all state prisons.
It shows an officer in a dark uniform walking between a row of tables and a series of cells. The officer slows for a moment next to the final table, where one inmate is sitting, and is attacked from behind by an inmate who was standing in a cell door.
One other inmate joins in the fight about six seconds later, and a second officer rushes into the frame about 10 seconds after the initial attack begins. A third officer ran in about 15 seconds later.
While the officers wrestled on the ground with the two inmates, a third inmate joined in the scuffle.
About 60 seconds after the attack began, at least 10 additional officers rushed into the room.
"The video shocks the conscience," the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union Executive Board said in a statement accompanying the video.
One correction officer was stabbed 12 times in the back, another was stabbed in the head, and three others suffered assorted injuries in the incident inside a cell block of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster.
"These men who were assaulted fought for their lives," the union's statement said. "They fought for themselves, they fought for one another, they fought to go home to their families, and they survived as a result of it."
Since the assault, union officials have repeatedly expressed concern about the safety of officers inside state prisons. On Friday, the group said they want a full security assessment and review of security policies inside each of the facilities.
"We have been warning the DOC of something like this. Our Officers are continuing to get hurt. This horrifying video speaks for itself. Change has to come, and it has to come swiftly," the union statement said.
Senator Peter Durant, of Worcester, and union officials previously suggested that weapons used in the attack may have come from computer tablets issued to the inmates.
"They are tablets that they are able to smash," Durant said. "And there's a metal strip that exists within the tablets, which then they turn into a sharpened implement, a sharpened knife or something to stab with."
The state began providing tablets to inmates in 2022 for education and job training. The devices are not connected to the internet.
According to state officials, prisoners associated with the incident were transferred to other facilities.
"We need to do all that we can to support those who are working in the facilities and those who are incarcerated in the facilities because we had another incident a few weeks ago involving an inmate," Gov. Maura Healey said on Thursday.
Healey also promised a full security review at the prison.