Suit Filed Against Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord for Overcrowding

    ~from: Celie Ives 
New England Committee 

naacp Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc, 

Box 154 

Lincoln, Massachusetts 01773 

(617) 259-8667 

Contact: Barbara Shapiro (617) 723-4688 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

BOSTON, MASS., April 22--Inmates and members of the Advisory Board 

at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord are chall- 

enging the overcrowded conditions at that State penal institution in 

a Federal law suit. The suit is scheduled for trial in Federal Dis- 

trict Court before Judge Andrew A, Caffrey by the naacp Legal Defense 

and Educational Fund the week of April 255 1977 ~ 

The suit, by the naacp Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was 

filed in 1975 against the Departments of Corrections, Human Resources 

and Public Health. In June of 1976 a decree was entered by the Court 

to the Department of Public Health ordering the Department to adopt 

regulations to develop sanitary conditions in all State prisons. 

The law suit is now going against the remaining defendants, including 

the Department of Corrections. 

The plaintiffs claim that overcrowding at Concord has become 

increasingly severe over the past four years. Men sleep two to a 60 

sq. ft, cell or in one of ten triple bunk beds in a hospital designed 

for 18 men, They are kept in their cells (or in the hospital) nearly 

20 hours a day, for a two to three month classification period. In 

addition to these intolerable living conditions, the suit alleges 

that the overcrowding at M,C,I. Concord has resulted in the virtual 

collapse of all rehabilitation and medical treatment. This has 

occurred in an institution for our youngest adult offenders, the 



flajority of whom are between the ages of 17 and 25. 

The Advisory Board, which is composed of both inmates and 

members of the local community, has frequently brought these 

conditions to the attention of the defendants but, the Board alleges, 

no relief is forthcoming. Therefore, the local residents on the 

Board have taken the unusual step of joining with the inmates to 

bring this lawsuit. 

The original complaint charged that between January 1973 and 

March 1975 the population at M.C.I. Concord has consisted of approxi- 

mately 410 men, despite the fact that the maximum housing capacity of 

the institution has not exceeded 365 during that period. In 1977 

the average population at Concord was 500. Since men have been 

assigned to sleep in the hospital, there has been no adequate medical 

care at Concord for over three years. 

M.C.I. Concord is the only State prison facility with such over- 

crowded conditions. The plaintiffs claim that the overcrowding in 

the classification area is unnecessary. 

The plaintiffs claim that the conditions deny the men protection 

of the law as compared to men at other State institutions. They also 

claim that forcing them to live under these conditions impedes re- 

habilitation and is consideréd cruel and unusual punishment in violation 

of the U. S. Constitution. 



NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS 

PLEASE DO NOT CONFUSE the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) with 

the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. 

They are entirely separate organizations. The NAACP Legal 

Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., (to use its full title) was 

originally established by the NAACP in 1939, but the two groups 

have long since separated. The LDF continues to use the initials 

NAACP in its title to show its origin. 

NAACP or the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund," because that is wrong. 

The LDF has a national staff and headquarters in New York 

City and it works on over 1,000 cases with 400 cooperating 

attorneys throughout the country. In the past 35 years, the 

LDF has led the battle for equal justice under the law in this 

country, winning hundreds of legal victories over discrimination 

in employment, public accommodation and education. The LDF has 

argued more cases before the U. S. Supreme Court than any other 

law office other than the U. S. Solicitor General's office.