SHIRLEY, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Sixteen inmates at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley have been charged in the January 10 attack that left four corrections officers injured, according to the District Attorney's office.
All of the inmates are being charged with two counts of assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and four counts assault and battery on a corrections officer.
In addition, ten face additional charges, like aggravated kidnapping and assault and battery with dangerous weapons ranging from shod feet to wooden canes.
All four corrections officers were hospitalized after January's attack. Only one has returned at work since.
Previously, a group of inmates from Souza-Baranowski alleged they endured civil rights and physical abuses at the hands of prison staff after the attack.
Several inmates claim in a lawsuit that prison staff kept them from legal counsel and paperwork and physically abused them, and that they did so in retaliation for the January 10 assault.
Souza-Baranowski Prisoners Allege Abuses Following January Assault
The inmates will be will be arraigned in Worcester Superior Court, although the dates have not been set yet.
The prison has a recent history of violence. Earlier this month, a female corrections officer was assaulted at Souza-Baranowski; In August, five corrections officers were injured in an inmate assault; dozens of inmates rioted there in January 2017.
It is also the same facility where former New England Patriot and accused murderer Aaron Hernandezhanged himself in 2017.
(Photo: State Rep. Mike Connolly)
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