We demand that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections incorporate the changes below in their upcoming medical contract. These changes will impose stronger mechanisms for accountability and transparency in the medical systems in MA state prisons.

In the next few weeks, the MA Department of Corrections will release a Request for Responses (RFR) soliciting bids from health care providers, one of which will be chosen to provide medical care to all people incarcerated in MA state prisons. This is a major event that could dramatically improve medical care in Massachusetts prisons, where medical neglect is rampant, or it could enable this neglect to continue. 

Organizers with DeeperThanWater have been working for years to end medical neglect in MA prisons. In 2021, DeeperThanWater released a report describing the horrific medical neglect occurring in Massachusetts prisons. We've also shared stories of medical neglect from incarcerated people on our website.

Over the past year, we worked with people incarcerated in MA prisons to develop demands for change in the language of the upcoming RFR, which is being written by the Massachusetts Department of Corrections and UMass Chan Medical School. DeeperThanWater shared these demands directly with UMass on multiple occasions; however, they have thus far been unable to confirm any amount of its incorporation. 

As always, DeeperThanWater demands that the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MA-DOC) free all incarcerated people. Until that is met, we demand that the MA-DOC impose stronger mechanisms for accountability and transparency by incorporating the following changes in the upcoming Request for Responses (RFR). The specific language requested for each of these points is detailed on our website.

Our demands:

1. Include new language requiring the Contractor to respond to sick slips in a timely manner.
2. Include provisions for incarcerated people to see providers outside of the Contractor/prison.
3. Make fines for not following treatment plans higher.
4. Ensure that staff possess valid credentials and all sites are sufficiently staffed. 
5. Add oversight from people who are currently incarcerated.
6. Increase public transparency. 
7. Change language on “inmate specific equipment and medically prescribed devices.”