‘We don't feel safe': Attacks on correction officers in Mass. prisons are up, data shows

Correction officers inside our state prisons have been assaulted and doused with bodily fluids at an alarming rate in recent years. The NBC10 Investigators repeatedly requested data and records related to assaults on correction officers but the Massachusetts Department of Correction continuously told us the information didn’t exit. 

After almost one year, the department finally turned over the data that shows an uptick in assaults in the past few years.  The increase comes in the wake of a violent attack on one correction officer that almost ended his life.  

Tears flowed as former correctional officer, Matt Tidman, tried to recall the extremely painful memory of the attack inside the walls of MCI Shirley that almost ended his life on August 31, 2022.  

“I don’t really-luckily remember, but I kind of have an idea. I’m pretty much just thankful to be alive and able to keep thriving,” Tidman said. 

He only had an hour left on his shift at the medium-security prison when he was brutally beaten with a metal bar from the prison gym allegedly at the hands of convicted murderer Roy Booth. Tidmans’s skull was crushed, leaving him with a traumatic brain injury and blind and deaf on one side. He was in a coma for weeks.

When asked about the moment he woke up Tidman told us, “You know my family was there from the day it happened talking with a person that they didn’t know was going to survive or not.”

Tidman’s assault highlights the dangers in our prisons.  Booth was transferred to Massachusetts from Virginia where prison records show he was classified as maximum security, violently assaulted an inmate and had a history of making threats to inmates and staff. Booth pleaded not guilty to the Tidman attack. His criminal case is pending.

The data NBC10 finally received from the Department of Correction shows there have been 711 cases of inmate assaults on staff in state prisons from 2020 to 2023 - 25 with serious injuries. The largest number of assaults happened inside the state’s most secure prison, Souza Baranowski Correctional Center. 

Kevin Flanagan, legislative representative for the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union said, “The uptick in violence has just gone beyond anything we’ve seen before. Officers are continuously getting assaulted with bodily fluid and getting punched and kicked and the constant mental and verbal attacks on our staff.”

The rise in the number of assaults comes five years after the state’s sweeping criminal justice reform aimed at providing rehabilitation for inmates and lowering the incarceration rate.

“I think we can all agree rehabilitation is important but it has to start with that inmate. The inmate has to want to be rehabilitated, that inmate has to be able to follow the rules to keep them safe, to keep our officers safe,” added Flanagan.

While the prison population has plummeted in the last decade from 11,403 incarcerated individuals to 6,148 overtime has skyrocketed.  The department shelled out $22.71 million in overtime in 2013 and $63.21 million last year.  Many officers are forced to work 16-hour days on a regular basis because there are fewer officers on the job.

A veteran officer whose identity we’re protecting said he was assaulted and blamed the reforms for increasing the risk inside our prisons.

“We don’t feel safe. It’s stressful and mentally taxing. A lot of those guys who were doing lengthy time for heinous assaults, whether it was assaulting staff or another inmate are now in general population.” 

He told us his biggest fear is that someone is going to get killed.

According to recent reports obtained by the NBC10 Investigators, an inmate inside Souza threatened to kill correction officers. Other officers reported that four officers were hit with urine and feces in less than a week and that the climate was so dangerous even counselors fear for their safety.

“It’s absolute mayhem in that place and the only thing that we have for ourselves is each other. We’re so demoralized in that place it’s tough to even come to work now,” said the correction officer who wanted to remain anonymous.

A spokesperson for the Department of Correction released a statement that said the department believes one staff assault is too many and they’re committed to the safety of everyone in our prisons.

Advocates for incarcerated individuals told us poor conditions give rise to tension and violence. Jesse White, policy director for Prisoner Legal Services said, “If we value violence prevention, we must improve access to out-of-cell time, programming, education, and health care, and create independent oversight and meaningful pathways to release."

The conditions inside our prisons has led to a call for action from some state lawmakers to try to stem the tide of violence. After Tidman’s attack, State Representative Steven Xiarhos, R -5^th Barnstable, filed a bill to ban free weights and secure gym equipment. 

Xiarhos toured Souza Baranowski with State Rep. Michael Soter, R -8^th Worcester, and others who believe more needs to be done because lives are on the line.  “What I see here is if we’re not proactive somebody is going to get either severely hurt again, somebody is going to lose their life. If we’re going to be reactive it’s going to be too late,” said Representative Soter.

That thought is echoed by Tidman who fought his way back and miraculously survived.

“I remember waking up and they were saying Miracle Matt. I’m hoping that this kind of sheds light on a lot of the things that really happen and the impact.”