CourtWatchMA
@courtwatchma
Community volunteers supporting neighbors + shifting power dynamics in #MApoli #bospoli courts by exposing decisions of judges & prosecutors. #ShutDownSouthBay
Related story here in #mapoli from @binjreports.bsky.social on education access in prison: "In Massachusetts, you can see that the correct response is to increase programming, education, vocational training, [and] out of cell time,” White of @plsma.bsky.social said. binj.news/2026/04/08/t...
While the number of people incarcerated falls across Massachusetts, the number of people put into settings mirroring solitary confinement in the DOC has increased, disproportionately among Black and Hispanic people, who are already at baseline overrepresented in the state prison system. #mapoli
LUCE is organizing a Week of Action: ICE Out of MA Courts! from March 16-21. Get involved! www.lucemass.org/courts #MApoli should do everything in its power to stop our courts from being used as staging grounds for targeting, hunting & kidnapping community members by federal immigration officers.
Spread the word! Show up for Steve next week: 🗓 𝗪𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟰 🕘 9am 📍 John Adams Courthouse, Courtroom 1, 1 Pemberton Square, Boston The hearing will also be streamed on YouTube The DA's Office is shamefully appealing after promising to honor the judge's decision (bsky.app/profile/cour...)!
Community members online say that at least one CO in this video has assaulted incarcerated people in the segregation cells at South Bay. The culture of violence in the jail endures from 25 years ago. Read the history: linktr.ee/ShutDownSout... #AllEyesOnSouthBay #ShutDownSouthBay #bospoli
OPAT issued a statement acknowledging Shacoby Kenny's death & saying "we are paying attention." This is more than @mayorwu.boston.gov @wutrain.bsky.social or many on @bostoncitycouncil.bsky.social, whose constituents witnessed his killing & are still tormented by the same COs at South Bay. #bospoli
The demand to shutter a jail isn't new or radical. #bospoli #ShutDownSouthBay A federal judge wrote this 53 years ago in Inmates of Suffolk Cnty Jail v. Eisenstadt, 360 F. Supp. 676 (D. Mass. 1973). Pretrial detainees are tortured by violence & a climate of terror at South Bay. Empty the jail.
The current demands and suggested action items are here: bit.ly/southbayactionhour There is also another toolkit available here: bit.ly/ShutDownSouthBay And there will be another in-person stand out at the Roxbury courthouse on Warren Street this Tuesday, 2/10 at 10 AM. #bospoli
From Minnesota to Massachusetts, the people are undeterred! Join us: MONDAY, Feb. 2 | 3 PM South Bay jail Please RSVP: bit.ly/AllEyesProtest More than 40 people gathered in 20° weather on Dec. 15. The temperature goes down, but our numbers go up! #AllEyesOnSouthBay #bospoli #ShutDownSouthBay
A statement on the killing of Renee Good but none on the killing of Shacoby Kenny in your own city, @ruthzee.bsky.social. Read the testimonials of traumatized men who witnessed a murder & then watched the killers/their captors waltz in the next day as if nothing happened. #bospoli #ShutDownSouthBay
In FY25, prosecutors brought more than *33,000* charges for non-public-safety driving offenses, like driving unlicensed or on a suspended license. These charges ALONE comprised ~13% of the #mapoli criminal caseload. Police disproportionately target people of color for arrest on these charges.
Senator, can you lift up the killing of Shacoby Kenny by guards in Boston's South Bay jail on Dec. 7 in equal measure? His loving family needs your voice. He was taken to the ground in a brutal gang assault until he couldn't breathe. In his last words he begged someone to pray for him. #bospoli
Already the Fourth Amendment only protects some people in some communities. We have to stop acting like this is brand new. It's not. In 1992 a Boston judge described BPD policy as *martial law* imposed on Black youth in Dorchester, Roxbury & Mattapan on the pretext of gang association. #bospoli
ALL EYES ON SOUTH BAY ACTION HOUR An online action hour for community to demand accountability for Shacoby Kenny's murder by guards at South Bay on top of years of violence, abuse, and civil rights violations. We say no more. Thursday, January 29 1-2 PM on Zoom Sign up: bit.ly/alleyesactio...
On December 7, at least eight jail guards killed Shacoby Kenny, a 32-year-old man held pretrial on $2,500 bail right here in Boston's South Bay jail, in nearly the exact same way -- in a violent group assault, held down, choked to death. Still no ME report. COs haven't even been suspended. #bospoli
Oh? In 2017, the MA State Auditor determined the Medical Examiner's Office didn't complete autopsy reports within national standards of 90 days in 58% of cases! This slows investigations, prevents closure, harms families. The COs still haven't been suspended! #mapoli #bospoli #ShutDownSouthBay
As of 1/5, 892 people are in South Bay jail: 758 men + 134 women. Source: www.mass.gov/doc/weekly-i... TWO THIRDS (66.6%) in SCSD custody are held PRE-TRIAL! Source: www.mass.gov/info-details... Legally, they're in "administrative detention". On 12/7, COs killed a presumed-innocent man. #bospoli
This story ran in the @bostonglobe.com on the front page on New Year's Eve. How have @mayorwu.boston.gov @wutrain.bsky.social @massgovernor.bsky.social and @massago.bsky.social still not publicly acknowledged a presumed innocent man killed in Boston by COs charged with his care? #mapoli #bospoli
Young person whose father was picked up by ICE and deported to Brazil responded to that trauma of violent family separation by becoming organized and joining LUCE. We need each other. #MeltICE #AbolishICE #FreeThemAll #mapoli #bospoli @universalhub.com
As Fatema uplifted, Shacoby Kenny was killed a month ago by guards in South Bay jail. @mayorwu.boston.gov @wutrain.bsky.social STILL has NOT acknowledged this state violence in #bospoli, by guards paid in part by City tax dollars. His last words were "say a prayer for me." #ShutDownSouthBay
Shout out to Fatema Ahmed, ED of the Muslim Justice League, for knitting together so beautifully the shared experience of people being targeted by ICE, by police, by the US military, and by prison guards. All people targeted by state violence must stand in solidarity. #bospoli #ShutDownSouthBay
#MeltICE #ShutDownSouthBay #mapoli #bospoli Say their names: Shacoby Kenny Renee Good Ayesha Johnson And so many more in Boston and beyond who have been killed through force or neglect by state violence & carceral punishers. All our struggles must tie in together #FreeThemAll @universalhub.com
Meet CO Tejan Lewis-Rosario In 2023, Lewis-Rosario graduated top of his class at the CO Training Academy On 9/5/24, he became eligible for MA State Police (www.mass.gov/doc/the-merg...) On 12/7/25, on the SERT team, he slammed Shacoby Kenny into a wall & beat him while he was restrained face down
Learn more about the #ShutDownSouthBay COs involved in the brutal killing of Shacoby Kenny Meet CO Thierno Diallo On 5/2/25, SCSD gave him the Drill Instructor Award & the Defensive Tactics Award On 12/7/25, he pummeled a mentally ill pretrial detainee & called the assault the "South Bay Special"
Here's an anonymous message about a beating witnessed within the last week, by the same SERT team that escalated & participated in killing Shacoby Kenny on Dec. 7. During the assault of Kenny, one CO said "That's the South Bay Special." THEY'RE PROUD OF THE CULTURE OF VIOLENCE & IMPUNITY. #mapoli
Tremendous reporting by @globespotlight.bsky.social, including many examples of cops lying about the existence of CIs to obtain search warrants, cops coercing female CIs into sexual and romantic relationships, and a 99.8% approval rate of search warrant applications by clerks... #mapoli #bospoli
A man was lynched on Sunday, 12/7 by COs at the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department and @wutrain.bsky.social has yet to make a statement 20 days later. @boston.gov is paying SCSD on a contract $150 per arrestee per day. Your taxpayer dollars are funding killers. Where are you, @mayorwu.boston.gov?
Oh we will be there! #bospoli #ShutDownSouthBay And we will be chanting Justice for Shacoby Kennny. Say his name. Are you going to cancel the contract with SCSD? bsky.app/profile/cour...