Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Shirley is a medium-security state prison in Shirley

Shirley, Massachusetts

-Demographics:This article describes the town of Shirley as a whole. Additional demographic detail is available which describes only the central settlement or village within the town, although that detail is included in the aggregate values reported here...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. The facility also contains a minimum security section which houses less dangerous prisoners. MCI-Shirley maintains 13 inmate housing units, a 28 bed full service hospital unit, a 59 bed segregation unit, gym, recreation areas, school, industries, laundry, vocational area, and food services/programs. This facility is under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction

Massachusetts Department of Correction

The Massachusetts Department of Correction is responsible for operating the prison system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, US Massachusetts houses over 11,500 inmates throughout 18 correctional facilities and employs over 5,000 employees...

. It is also directly to the north of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center

Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center

Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center is a maximum security prison located at MCI Shirley in Shirley, Massachusetts, United States. The prison opened September 30, 1998 and is one of the most high-tech correctional facilities in the United States....

.

History

MCI Shirley was previously a Shaker colony which was founded by the Wilde family in the 1700s. It was visited by the founder Sister Ann Lee. As the members of the order in the colony declined it at the end of the 19th century was decided that it was no longer viable. The religious order consolidated the remaining members into other colonies and sold the property in 1903. The purchaser was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts which then established it as a reform school. Several of the Shaker buildings are still standing and tours can be arranged.

1995 Riot

On August 24, 1995 fighting broke out between inmates in the dining hall. At least 300 prisoners overturned tables and broke windows before moving into the central prison yard and nearby buildings, where they smashed equipment and torched rooms using cigarette lighters. The Dept. of Correction's Tactical Response Team (TRT) was brought in to quell the disturbance. 42 inmates involved in the riot were transferred to maximum security facilities. The riot caused over $2 million in damage.

Other Incidences

In 1994, a convicted murderer who was held in minimum security shot a Shirley police officer in the chest when the stolen vehicle he was driving was stopped. In 1985, a state trooper shot an escaped minimum-security prisoner during a traffic stop on Route 2. Among other escapees from Shirley's minimum-security prison were the leader of a street gang who terrorized Southeast Asian merchants and a bank robber who was caught nearly a decade after his escape by a woman who recognized him from an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries." In April 2011, Tamik Kirland escaped and went on to shoot a state trooper and Springfield police officer before being shot multiple times by police.

Notable inmates

• Thomas Junta
  Thomas Junta
  Thomas Junta of Reading, Massachusetts was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2002 after he attacked Michael Costin, who later died of his injuries. Costin was the informal referee of a pick-up hockey game involving the men's sons. The fight was witnessed by about a dozen children, including...
  
  : 2002-current
• John Geoghan
  John Geoghan
  John J. Geoghan was a key figure in the Roman Catholic sex abuse cases that rocked the Boston Archdiocese in the 1990s and 2000s and led to the resignation of Boston's archbishop, Cardinal Bernard Francis Law, on December 13, 2002.-Career Summary:...
  
  : Defrocked Priest (Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal). Sentenced January 18, 2002 - Murdered in Souza-Baranowski August 24, 2003.
• Rod Mathews: convicted in 1986 for the beating of Sean Ouilette.
• Neil Entwistle
  Neil Entwistle
  Neil Entwistle is an English man convicted of murdering his American wife, Rachel, and their infant daughter Lillian on 20 January 2006 in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, US.-Early life:...
  
  : convicted in 2007 for the double murder of his wife and baby daughter