Massachusetts Corrections Dept. Offers Shorter Sentences To Inmates In Exchange For COVID-19 Shot
An arial view of MCI Framingham, a women s prison hit hard by the coronavirus with 71 confirmed cases on May 3, 2020 in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Boston Globe via Getty Images / Boston Globe
UPDATE: Gov. Charlie Baker has rescinded this program because it is not consistent with the administration’s policies regarding reduced prison terms, according to Executive Office of Public Safety and Security spokesperson Jake Wark.
Hoping to increase the number of incarcerated people vaccinated against COVID-19, the state Department of Corrections is offering a deal: One week’s reduced sentence in exchange for getting vaccinated.
An inmates stands in a cell inside one of Massachusetts county jails. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Negotiations continue between Massachusetts correction officials and the Justice Department over last year s scathing federal report on mental health treatment in the state s prisons.
Andrew Peck, the state s undersecretary for criminal justice, said state corrections officials are working well with the DOJ, and a settlement over the report is in progress.
Last November, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling released the report after a two-year investigation that found the state Department of Correction violated prisoners constitutional rights by not providing adequate mental health care.
Lelling s report focused on detainees placed on so-called mental health watch, a status that typically results in a prisoner being isolated in a cell with few belongings or clothes. The prisoner is then closely monitored by medical staff and correction officers
The first mass vaccination site in Massachusetts is now open at Gillette Stadium for people who qualify for the shot. “It was easy peasy and the people.
The rollout begins about a month after county jails and the Department of Correction experienced the highest number of active COVID-19 cases among prisoners and workers since the state started documenting real-time infections in July.