Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center

Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center

History

At 1:00 am on the morning of November 6th, 1998, 493 medium-security prisoners from the Southeast Correctional Center in Bridgewater were quietly transported to the new maximum security prison in Shirley, constituting the largest single inmate transfer in Massachusetts state history. Built to relieve the overcrowding of Walpole, the other maximum security prison in the state, Souza-Baranowski is the state's largest prison, with a capacity of 1,024 beds. The relocation took place because the old prison at Bridgewater was undergoing renovations that would make it a more "safe and secure" environment.

Notable prisoners

Notorious child molester John G. Geoghan, who had been convicted of molesting about 150 boys while being a priest for the Catholic Church, was admitted to Souza-Baranowski's protective custody unit in.... In August of 2003, he was attacked by a fellow inmate, bound, gagged, and stomped on. The inmate then strangled him to death with either his t-shirt or his bedsheets, and tightened the ligature around his neck with his shoelace.

Even though Souza-Baranowski is the state's most modern and allegedly most secure facility, stiffer security measures such as video surveillance or adequate staff supervision were not in place to prevent the attack. The assailant, having followed Geoghan back to his cell after the lunch period had ended, had chosen a period when there was only one guard working the protective custody shift; after attacking Geoghan, he wedged a stick into the doorframe of Geoghan's cell, preventing the guards from gaining immediate access.

In addition, correctional officials failed to properly distance Geoghan from his killer, Darrin Smiledge, a white supremacist "homosexual-hater," well before the attack occurred. Both inmates were confined to protective custody, meaning that both inmates had frequent direct contact with one another. Further endangering the situation was the opportunity for Geoghan's killer to change his name before being admitted to prison, concealing his notoriety from the guards for a long enough time to use it to his advantage. To the guards, he was known as "Joseph Druce," but his real name was Darrin Smiledge, who murdered a 51-year old in an impulse of "gay-bashing." There were also allegations that Geoghan had been harassed by prison guards, and cited with erroneous and unnecessary disciplinary infractions that eventually resulted in his relocation to maximum security.

There have been numerous calls to increase the number of staff both in the protective custody unit and the rest of the prison following Geoghan's death, as well as increases in the number prisoners, many of them electronically-monitored, released on parole.

Also housed in the same protective custody unit as Geoghan after the priests controversial death is workplace spree-killer Michael "Mucko" McDermott, who murdered 7 people in 2000 at his workplace at Wakefield's Edgewater Technology. It was the deadliest workplace massacre in Massachusetts history.

Springfield serial killer Alfred J. Gaynor is also currently staying at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, serving four consecutive life sentences for raping and murdering four Springfield women in 1997 and 1998. In November of 2005, Gaynor's coloured pencil drawing of Jesus Christ sold at an auction for $250 (see it at: www.fortunesociety.org). Unlike most states, Massachusetts does not have what is known as a "Son of Sam" law, a regulation that requires prisoners to redistribute proceeds from sold items to victims and state organizations.

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