Four inmates to face charges in Middlesex jail flooding
Damages start at $400,000
CAMBRIDGE - Four days after a jail uprising led to evacuation of more than half of the inmates at the Middlesex County Jail, Sheriff James V. DiPaola said yesterday that four inmates will face charges related to the disturbance, which caused at least $400,000 in damage.
DiPaola told reporters the four inmates will be charged with malicious destruction of property in the breaking of several sprinkler heads in the fire protection system and in the flooding of the jail Sunday.
He said that at least two of the inmates may face assault charges for scuffling with correction officers.
DiPaola also used yesterday’s press conference to address the issue of overcrowding at the jail, saying that it played a part in the upheaval and that the Legislature and the Patrick administration need to address the matter before another incident occurs.
“The overriding issue is overcrowding, and we’ve filed legislation to attack some of the problems of jail overcrowding at houses of correction throughout the Commonwealth,’’ he said.
Some of the measures DiPaola is pushing include allowing pretrial detainees to remain free while wearing monitoring bracelets that would track their movement and reducing from 30 to 20 the number of days a judge is able to extend a court case.
“We’ve not just sat back and said ‘we’re overcrowded’ and not done something about it,’’ said DiPaola.
The Middlesex jail is located on the upper floors of a high-rise building at 40 Thorndike St., the former home of the Middlesex district attorney’s office. The building was found to contain unsafe levels of asbestos, prompting relocation of the district attorney’s office last year.
DiPaola allowed a tour of the lockup yesterday to illustrate the overcrowding and to show the damage done when inmates set off automatic water sprinklers Sunday. In several wings of the jail, where heavy blue iron doors usually remain closed on prisoner cells, the spaces were vacant and the gray-painted floors were bubbled with water damage.
In the jail chapel, about a dozen makeshift beds were on the floor, with other “bed-pods,’’ plastic structures resembling toboggans, stacked nearby.
DiPaola estimated the damage at $400,000, but said “the calculator has not stopped running.’’ Jail superintendent Scott Brazis, who led the tour, said the damaged ceiling sprinklers gushed 40 gallons per minute for 80 minutes, enough to send waves of water cascading down halls and rushing down elevator chutes.
Authorities say the incident arose after rumors that the H1N1 virus was going through the jail. Although some inmates exhibited flulike symptoms, only one was determined to be infected with the swine flu virus that has killed hundreds of people worldwide.
The jail’s capacity, determined in 1989, is 200, but the facility houses up to 440, the number there Sunday.
Close to half of the inmates, or 203, were evacuated. DiPaola said that about 30 inmates, housed at other county lockups, have returned, and that more will return as damage to the jail is fixed.
