reglab/statecodes huggingface dataset:
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 55 - List of Styles, Designs and Qualities of Articles; Arbitration of Differences

Section 55. Annually in September the commissioner shall issue to the officers in charge of the offices, departments and institutions named in section fifty-three a descriptive list of the styles, designs and qualities of said articles and materials. Any difference between the prison officials and the offices, departments or institutions in regard to styles, designs and qualities shall be submitted to arbitrators, whose decision shall be final. One of said arbitrators shall be named on behalf of the prison by the commissioner, one by the principal officer of the other office, department or institution concerned, and one by agreement of the other two. The arbitrators shall be chosen from the official service, and shall receive no compensation for performance of any duty under this section; but their actual and necessary expenses shall be paid by the prison or office, department or institution against which their award is given.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 56 - Annual Estimates of Articles and Materials Needed in Public Offices

Section 56. Annually in November the officers in charge of all offices, departments and institutions named in section fifty-three shall send to the commissioner an estimate of the quantities of the articles and materials needed for their respective offices, departments or institutions during the ensuing year. Said estimates shall generally observe the styles, designs and qualities named in the descriptive list; and if any special style is desired in considerable quantity, the estimate shall contain a request that the commissioner shall arrange for the manufacture of such special articles as may be needed.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 57 - Lists of Prison-Made Articles; Requisitions From Counties, Municipalities and Public Institutions

Section 57. Annually in January the commissioner shall send to the comptroller, to the auditing and disbursing officers of the several counties, and to the auditor and treasurer of each city and town a list of the articles and materials that can be produced by the labor of prisoners for the use of offices, departments and institutions of the commonwealth and of the counties, cities and towns. The requisitions hereinafter provided for shall conform to said list unless it appears that special style, design or quality is needed and shall be on forms provided by the commissioner. The state purchasing agent or the purchasing agent of a city or town shall make requisition therefor to the commissioner; provided, that in the case of articles or materials needed by a state office, department or institution and not required to be purchased by the state purchasing agent, or needed by a county, or by a city or town not having a purchasing agent, the requisition shall be made by the officer in charge of the state, county, city or town office, department or institution in which such articles or materials are needed. The commissioner shall forthwith inform said state, city or town purchasing agent or other officer in what institutions they are produced, and he shall purchase them from any institution so designated. If they are needed immediately and are not on hand, the commissioner shall forthwith so notify him, and he may purchase them elsewhere. No bill for any such articles or materials purchased for the use of said offices, departments or institutions, otherwise than from a prison or from another penal institution, shall be allowed or paid unless it is accompanied by a certificate from the commissioner showing that a requisition therefor has been made and that the goods cannot be supplied from the prisons. Provisions of any city charter contrary to this section shall be void.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 58 - Prices of Prison-Made Articles

Section 58. The price of all articles and materials supplied by the prisons to the commonwealth, counties, cities and towns shall conform as nearly as may be to the wholesale market rates for similar goods manufactured outside of the prisons. Any difference of opinion in regard to price may be submitted to arbitration in the manner provided in section fifty-five.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 60 - Noncompliance With Sections Relative to Purchase of Articles

Section 60. Any officer who wilfully refuses or neglects to comply with the provisions of this chapter relative to the purchase of articles and materials from the prisons shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 61 - Establishment of Industries

Section 61. The commissioner shall endeavor to establish in all institutions under his jurisdiction such industries as will enable prisoners employed therein to learn valuable trades.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 66 - Purchase of Tools and Materials for Correctional Institutions; Approval

Section 66. Subject to appropriation from the General Fund, the tools, implements and materials required for use in manufacturing in any of the correctional institutions of the commonwealth, and such necessary machinery to replace any which becomes unfit for use or is destroyed by fire or by malicious acts of prisoners or to establish new trades or industries, may be purchased through the state purchasing agent as provided by section twenty-two of chapter seven, or with his approval as provided by section fifty-two of chapter thirty, or by or under the direction of the purchasing bureau as provided in section fifty-one of chapter thirty, by the commissioner, or by the superintendent, or any agent appointed by such superintendent with the approval of the commissioner.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 66a - Purchase of Tools and Materials for Jails and Houses of Correction; Approval

Section 66A. The tools, implements and material required for use in manufacturing in any jails or houses of correction, and such necessary machinery to replace any which becomes unfit for use or is destroyed by fire or by malicious acts of prisoners or to establish new trades or industries, may be purchased for any jail or house of correction by the superintendent or keeper, or any agent appointed by such superintendent or keeper, under supervision of the commissioner, and subject to any applicable provisions of law relative to purchases for the county, city or town, as the case may be, after estimates or requisitions, in such form as the commissioner shall require, have been approved by him.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 67 - Sale of Prison-Made Goods; Proceeds

Section 67. Goods manufactured in any of the institutions named in section fifty-one shall, with the approval of the commissioner, be sold by the superintendent of the correctional institution of the commonwealth, the superintendent or keeper of the jails or houses of correction thereof at not less than the wholesale market price prevailing at the time of sale for goods of the same description and quality. The proceeds of such sales shall be paid by the purchasers to the respective institutions from which the goods are delivered.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 68 - Appointment of Selling Agents; Removal

Section 68. In the correctional institutions of the commonwealth the commissioner, and in jails and houses of correction the superintendent or keeper, with the approval of the commissioner, may appoint agents who under such regulations as the commissioner shall establish shall sell, subject to the provisions of section sixty-seven, goods and services produced therein. Any such agent may be removed at the pleasure of the officers by whom he was appointed.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 69 - Report Relative to Labor of Prisoners

Section 69. The superintendent or keeper of each institution named in section fifty-one shall make a full report to the commissioner relative to the labor of the prisoners whenever he requires it.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 71 - Receipts From Sale of Products, Services, or Labor of Committed Offenders; Disposition

Section 71. At least once each month all money received from the sale of products, by-products, or services of committed offenders shall be credited on the books of the commonwealth to a fund to be known as the Correctional Employment Fund. Subject to appropriation the commissioner may employ such fund to defray operating expenses of employment programs, including cost of materials, supplies, and equipment, maintenance of industrial facilities and compensation to committed offenders gainfully employed.
At the end of each fiscal year the unexpended balance remaining in the correctional employment fund of the state correctional facilities shall be transferred to the General Fund. At least once in each month the receipts from the labor of committed offenders in county correctional facilities and from charges for services rendered by a sheriff, superintendents and deputy superintendents of a county correctional facility to persons visiting such a facility shall be paid to the county. So much thereof as is necessary to pay the expenses of maintaining the industries in said county correctional facilities shall be expended from the county treasury for that purpose, but not until schedules of such expenses have been sworn to by the administrator and approved by the commissioner. Whenever, in the opinion of the administrator of a county correctional facility and the county commissioners and county treasurer, the accumulated funds in the county treasury from the receipts from the labor of committed offenders in county correctional facilities exceed the sums necessary to pay the expenses of maintaining the industries by which they were produced, the administrator of a county correctional facility and the county commissioners and the county treasurer shall direct that the surplus shall be transferred into the general revenue of the county. The administrator of a county correctional facility shall, as often as he has in his possession money to the amount of five thousand dollars received from the labor of committed offenders in such county correctional facility, pay it into the county treasury.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 72 - Payment of Salaries and Bills for Tools, Machinery and Materials; Schedules

Section 72. Subject to appropriation, the bills for tools, implements, machinery and materials purchased for, and the salaries of persons employed in, the correctional institutions of the commonwealth, under sections fifty-one to fifty-eight, inclusive, sections sixty, sixty-one, and sixty-six to sixty-nine, inclusive, shall be paid monthly by the commonwealth, upon schedules prepared and sworn to by the superintendents and approved by the commissioner. Bills for tools, implements, machinery and materials purchased by, and the salaries of persons employed in, the jails and houses of correction under said sections shall be paid monthly by the county, upon schedules prepared and sworn to by the superintendent or keeper and approved by the commissioner. The schedule of bills for tools, implements and machinery and of bills for materials and salaries shall be kept separate from each other and from the schedules of bills incurred for the maintenance of the correctional institutions of the commonwealth, jails or houses of correction.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 73 - Suits on Contracts by and Against Principal Officers; Arbitration

Section 73. The superintendent or keeper of any institution named in section fifty-one may sue or be sued upon any contract of purchase or sale made by him under sections fifty-one to seventy, inclusive. No suit shall abate by reason of a vacancy in any such office, but the successor of any such officer may, and upon motion of the adverse party shall, prosecute or defend it. The superintendent or keeper may submit a controversy relative to such contract or an action thereon to the final determination of arbitrators or referees, who shall, if the claim or suit is made or brought by or against the superintendent of a correctional institution of the commonwealth, be approved by the governor, or, if made or brought by or against the superintendent or keeper of a jail, a house of correction, or any other penal or reformatory institution, be approved by the county commissioners.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 83 - Outdoor Labor of Inmates

Section 83. During all times when outdoor labor is practicable, inmates of penal institutions required to labor shall be employed, so far as is possible, in the reclamation of waste places and in cultivating lands for raising produce to be used in public institutions, and in the reforestation, maintenance or development of state forests. Prisoners so employed shall be at all times in the custody and under the direction of the prison officers.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 83a - Establishment of Camp for Male Prisoners for Reforestation; Approval; Hearing.

Section 83A. The commissioner is hereby authorized to establish, on land under the control of the department of environmental management or of the metropolitan district commission and upon sites approved by the commissioner of conservation and recreation, camps to which male prisoners, including male prisoners sentenced to life who have served twelve years, except those serving a sentence for life for first degree murder, may be removed for employment, as designated and approved by the commissioner of conservation and recreation, in reforestation, maintenance and development of state forests, who have shown by their conduct and disposition that they would be amenable to less rigorous discipline and would benefit from work in the open air; provided, however, that only one such camp may be established on land within the urban parks district. Before any site for any such camp shall be approved, a public hearing shall be held by the commissioner of conservation and recreation, in a city or town situated within a radius of ten miles of the proposed site.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 83b - Removal of Prisoners to Camp; Permit to Be at Liberty; Escape

Section 83B. The commissioner may remove to any camp so established any prisoner held in a correctional institution of the commonwealth except the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham, and sentenced prisoners in jails and houses of correction, including male prisoners sentenced to life who have served twelve years, except a prisoner serving a life sentence for first degree murder, or a sentence imposed for violation of sections twenty-two, 22A, 22B, 22C, twenty-three, 23A, 23B and twenty-four of chapter two hundred and sixty-five and for attempt to commit a crime referred to in said sections, who, in his judgment, may properly be so removed and may at any time return such prisoners to the prison from whence removed. Prisoners so removed shall be entitled to a permit to be at liberty as provided under the provisions of sections one hundred and twenty-eight, one hundred and thirty-two and one hundred and thirty-three of chapter one hundred and twenty-seven.
If a prisoner escapes or attempts to escape from a prison camp all deductions from the sentence he is then serving shall be thereby forfeited. A prisoner who is entitled to have the term of his imprisonment reduced shall receive from the parole board a certificate of discharge and shall be released from the prison camp on the date which has been determined by such additional deduction from the maximum term of his sentence or sentences.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 83c - Escapes From Prison Camp

Section 83C. A prisoner who escapes or attempts to escape from any prison camp or from land adjacent thereto or from the custody of the officer thereof or while being conveyed to and from any such camp may be pursued and recaptured and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years or by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than two and one half years.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 83d - Director of Prison Camps; Offices and Positions; Appointments; Duties

Section 83D. The commissioner shall appoint a director of prison camps and such other prison camp officers as he shall deem necessary. All offices and positions in the prison camps shall be filled in accordance with the provisions of chapter thirty-one, except that offices and positions which require the care, custody and control of prisoners shall be filled by promotion or transfer from among the employees of the department of correction in accordance with the provisions of said chapter.
The director of prison camps shall have the care, custody and control of all prisoners removed to any camp. Purchases and sales on account of any camp shall, if authorized by the state purchasing agent, be made by the director with the approval of the commissioner.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 83e - Establishment of Camps for Prisoners Prior to Release on Parole; Transfer; Training for Release

Section 83E. The commissioner is hereby authorized to establish, on land under the control of the department of environmental management and upon sites approved by the commissioner of environmental management, or wherever authorized by the governor and council, camps to which male prisoners may be transferred prior to their release upon parole. The commissioner may transfer to any camp so established any prisoner whose parole has been approved by the parole board unless otherwise recommended by the parole board. Such camp shall provide such training and preparation for release as will best enable the prisoners to attain successful readjustment within the community.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 84 - Purchases or Lease of Land for Improvement by Prison Labor; Payment to County

Section 84. The county commissioners of any county may purchase or lease land, with funds specifically appropriated therefor by the general court, for the purpose of improving and cultivating the land by the labor of prisoners from a jail or house of correction; and the said commissioners may also make arrangements with the department of highways or with the officials of a town to employ said prisoners on any highway or unimproved land, or with the director of the division of forests and parks in the department of environmental management for the reforestation, maintenance or development of state forests, or with a private owner to improve waste or unused land, or land used for agricultural or domestic purposes, by means of such prison labor. When prisoners are so employed they shall be in the custody of the sheriff of the county. When land that is not the property of the county or is a public way or state forest is so improved, the owners thereof or those having the way or forest in charge shall pay the county such sums as may be agreed upon between the county commissioners, sheriff, and the other parties in interest for the labor of any prisoners employed thereon.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 86g - Work Release Programs; Suffolk County

Section 86G. In Suffolk county the penal institutions commissioner of Boston shall have the same powers and duties with respect to the house of correction at Deer Island, and the sheriff of Suffolk county shall have the same powers and duties with respect to the Suffolk County Jail, as are vested in the sheriff of any county, except the sheriff of Suffolk county, under the provisions of section eighty-six F, and the exercise of such powers and duties, in each instance, shall be subject to the same terms and conditions as are provided in said section eighty-six F. The work release supervisor or supervisors in Suffolk county shall be placed in such grade of the classification and pay plan for said county as the city council of the city of Boston, subject to the provisions of the charter of said city, shall from time to time determine.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 86h - Public Speaking Engagements; Inmates of State Correctional Facilities

Section 86H. The commissioner of correction may permit an inmate to leave a state correctional facility to address a public gathering, provided that the commissioner receives a request in writing from the sponsor of the public gathering desiring such an address, the inmate selected to present the address is recommended by the committee established under the provisions of section forty-nine A, the inmate leaves the correctional facility in the custody of an officer or employee of the department and remains in such custody until returned to the facility by said officer or employee, and the sponsor of the public gathering bears the cost of transportation for the inmate and the officer.
An inmate shall, at all times during his absence from a correctional facility under this section, be considered as in the custody of the officer having charge of the correctional facility, and the time away from the facility shall be considered as part of the term of the sentence.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 86i - Public Speaking Engagements; Inmates of County Correctional Facilities

Section 86I. The administrator of a county correctional facility may permit an inmate to leave such facility in order to address a public gathering, provided that the administrator receives a request in writing from the sponsor of the public gathering desiring such an address, the inmate is selected after a careful screening process, the inmate leaves the facility in the custody of an officer or employee of the facility and remains in such custody until returned to the facility by said officer or employee, and the sponsor of the public gathering bears the cost of transportation for the inmate and officer.
An inmate shall, at all times during his absence from a correctional facility under this section, be considered as in the custody of the officer having charge of the correctional facility, and the time away from the facility shall be considered as part of the term of the sentence.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 87 - Correspondence of Inmates

Section 87. (a) Every inmate of a correctional institution or any other penal institution in the commonwealth shall be allowed to send mail to the President or Vice President of the United States, a member of the Congress of the United States, the Attorney General of the United States, the director or any agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, any judge, attorney, clerk, probation officer, or parole officer the United States or of the commonwealth, the governor of the commonwealth, a member of the general court of the commonwealth, the attorney general of the commonwealth, the colonel of the state police, the commissioner or any deputy commissioner of correction, and the superintendent of the institution in which the inmate is confined. A locked letter box shall be placed in each institution, into which the inmates may deposit sealed mail to the above-listed officials at their official addresses. The commissioner may provide that such mail be marked to indicate to the addressee that it has not been inspected or opened, and may also require as a condition of delivery that the mail bear the inmate's name and return address. The mail shall be delivered or conveyed to the federal postal authorities for delivery.
(b) Every inmate of a correctional institution or any other penal institution in the commonwealth shall be allowed, consistent with such regulations as are necessary to protect legitimate governmental interests, to send mail to persons not listed in subsection (a).
(c) The commissioner shall promulgate rules and regulations to effectuate the purpose of this section.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 87a - State Correctional Facility, State Prison or County Correctional Facility; Voice Communication Services

[ Text of section added by 2023, 64, Sec. 1 effective December 1, 2023. See 2023, 64 Sec. 3.]
Section 87A. (a) For the purposes of this section, the terms "state correctional facility'', "state prison'' and "county correctional facility'' shall have the same meanings as those terms are defined in section 1 of chapter 125.
(b) The department of correction and sheriffs shall provide any person committed to a state correctional facility, state prison or county correctional facility, including a jail or house of correction, with voice communication services, including phone calls, free of charge to the person initiating and the person receiving the communication; provided, however, that voice communication services shall be maximized to the extent possible and no facility shall offer access to voice communication services less than were offered and available at such facilities on July 1, 2023; provided further, that the department of correction and sheriffs shall ensure adequate infrastructure for voice communication services; and provided further, that nothing in this section shall prohibit in-person contact visits.
(c) The department of correction and sheriffs may supplement voice communication services with other communication services, including, but not limited to, video and electronic communication services; provided, however, that other communication services shall not replace voice communication services; and provided further, that other communication services shall be provided free of charge to the person initiating and the person receiving the communication.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 88 - Religious Services

Section 88. An inmate of any prison or other place of confinement shall not be denied the free exercise of his religious belief and the liberty of worshipping God according to the dictates of his conscience in the place where he is confined; and he shall not be required to attend any service or religious instruction other than that of his own religious belief, if religious services and instructions of his own belief are regularly held at the institution; and he may, in illness, upon request to the superintendent, keeper, receive the visits of any clergyman whom he may wish. The officers having the management and direction of such institutions shall make necessary regulations to carry out the intent of this section. This section shall not be so construed as to impair the discipline of any such institution so far as may be needful for the good government and the safe custody of its inmates, nor prevent the assembling of all the inmates, who do not attend a regularly held religious service of their own belief, in the chapel thereof for such general religious instruction, including the reading of the Bible, as the officer having charge of the institution considers expedient.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 89 - Maintenance of Sabbath Schools and Schools for Instruction

Section 89. The superintendent of any correctional institution of the commonwealth, with the consent of the commissioner, may cause a sabbath school to be maintained in the institution for the instruction of the inmates in their religious duties, and may permit such persons as he considers suitable to attend it as instructors, under such regulation as the commissioner may establish. The superintendent may also, except on Sunday, and subject to the approval of the commissioner, maintain schools of instruction for the prisoners.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 90 - Appropriations for Religious Instruction and Services

Section 90. The department or officers having charge of any prison or other place of confinement shall include as a separate item in their annual requests for appropriations such sums of money as they deem proper to carry out the two preceding sections and section forty of chapter one hundred and nineteen, relating to the religious instruction and free exercise of their religious beliefs by inmates of all the correctional institutions of the commonwealth. The amounts appropriated and spent for said purposes shall appear as a separate item in the reports of said department or officers.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 92 - Instruction in Jails and Houses of Correction

Section 92. The county commissioners may include, among the items requested to be appropriated for their respective counties, an amount to cover the expenses of furnishing instruction for one hour each evening except Sunday, in reading and writing to prisoners in jails and houses of correction who may be benefited thereby and who wish to receive it. In the county of Suffolk, the mayor of Boston may include such an item in his annual budget submitted to the city council.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 92a - General Education Development Tests; Age Requirement; No Fee

Section 92A. The department of education shall permit an inmate of a correctional institution of the commonwealth who is eighteen years of age or over to take the general education development tests, and said department shall not charge an application or testing fee to any inmate desiring to take said tests.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 93 - Appropriations for Moral and Religious Instruction in Jails and Houses of Correction

Section 93. The keeper or superintendent of a jail or house of correction shall in his statement of his requirements submitted to the county commissioners under section twenty-eight of chapter thirty-five include a sum to cover the expenses of providing a copy of the version which he wishes of the Bible or of the New Testament for each prisoner in his charge who is able and wishes to read, which may be used by him at proper seasons during his confinement, and such keeper or superintendent may also include therein a sum to cover the expenses of providing books and papers for such prisoners. The county commissioners may include such amounts, and an amount to cover the expense of providing moral and religious instruction for prisoners in jails and houses of correction within their county, among the items requested to be appropriated for their respective counties.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 94 - Light for Reading

Section 94. In the assignment of cells to prisoners in a house of correction, due regard shall be had to the accommodation of those who are able and wish to read; and from October first to April first, all prisoners confined to labor during the day shall be provided with sufficient light to enable them to read for at least one hour each evening.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 96a - Disposition of Unclaimed Money of Former Prisoners; Claim

Section 96A. So much of any funds as represent monies belonging to, or deposited for the benefit of, inmates who have died or have been discharged or have escaped from any correctional institution of the commonwealth, which shall have remained unclaimed for more than two years, shall be paid by the superintendent of such institution to the state treasurer to be held subject to be paid to the person establishing a lawful right thereto. After six years from the date when any such monies were paid to the state treasurer the same or any balance thereof then remaining in his hands may be used as a part of the ordinary revenue of the commonwealth. Any person may, however, establish his claim after the expiration of the six years above mentioned, and any claim so established shall be paid from the ordinary revenue of the commonwealth. Any person claiming a right to money deposited with the state treasurer under this section may establish the same by a petition to the probate court; provided, that in cases where claims amount to less than fifty dollars, the claims may be presented to the comptroller, who shall examine the same and allow and certify for payment such as may be proved to his satisfaction.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 96b - Disposition of Unclaimed Property of Former Prisoners; Sale; Proceeds

Section 96B. Property belonging to, or deposited for the benefit of, former inmates of any correctional institution of the commonwealth, which shall have remained unclaimed for more than one year, shall be disposed of as hereinafter provided, by the superintendent of the institution and a representative of the department of correction designated by the commissioner, acting as a special board for said purpose, but only if all known next of kin of the former prisoner shall have been notified in writing by said superintendent. The board shall ascertain whether the property has any sale value, and, if so, shall solicit from at least three reputable dealers in like property offers for the purchase thereof, and shall sell the same to the dealer offering the highest price. The proceeds of such sale shall be disposed of as provided in section ninety-six A. The board may dispose of such of said property as, in its opinion, has no sale value, or any of said property for which no offer, solicited as aforesaid, has been received, in such manner as it may deem proper. A complete record of each transaction hereunder shall be made and signed by both members of the board and filed with the other records at such institution relating to the former prisoner whose property shall have been disposed of as aforesaid.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 97 - Transfers From and to Correctional Institutions; Approval

Section 97. The commissioner may transfer any sentenced prisoner from one correctional institution of the commonwealth to another, and with the approval of the sheriff of the county from any such institution except a prisoner serving a life sentence to any jail or house of correction, or a sentenced prisoner from any jail or house of correction to any such institution except the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Cedar Junction, or from any jail or house of correction to any other jail or house of correction. Prisoners so removed shall be subject to the terms of their original sentences and to the provisions of law governing parole from the correctional institutions of the commonwealth.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 97a - Transfer of State Prisoners to Federal Institutions; Reciprocal Agreements

Section 97A. The commissioner may, with the approval of the appropriate officials of the federal government, transfer any prisoner sentenced to state prison to any available or appropriate correctional institution maintained and supervised by the federal government within the confines of continental United States. The commissioner may, subject to the approval of the governor, enter into reciprocal agreements, contracts or other mutual plans to accomplish such transfers.
Prisoners so removed shall be subject to the terms of their original sentences to the state prison and to the provisions of law governing discharge and parole from the correctional institutions of the commonwealth.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 97b - Treaties; Transfer of Prisoners to Other Countries

Section 97B. If a treaty in effect between the United States and a foreign country provides for the transfer or exchange of a prisoner to the country of which said prisoner is a citizen or national, the commissioner may, with the written consent of such prisoner, subject to the approval of the governor, and in accordance with the terms of such treaty, consent to the transfer or exchange of any such prisoner and take any other action necessary to initiate the participation of the commonwealth in such treaty.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 111a - Removal of Defective Delinquents

Section 111A. He may remove any person committed to a department for defective delinquents established at any institution under the department of correction under section one hundred and seventeen of chapter one hundred and twenty-three, from such department to a like department at any other institution under the department of correction.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 113 - Removal of Prisoners Convicted and Sentenced by United States Court

Section 113. The commissioner may remove from one jail or house of correction to another, or to any correctional institution of the commonwealth a prisoner convicted and sentenced by a United States court and thereafter transferred by the Attorney General of the United States to such jail or house of correction.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 115 - Removal of Prisoners From One Jail to Another by Sheriff

Section 115. The sheriff in any county, except Suffolk, may remove prisoners from one jail to another or from a jail to a house of correction or from a house of correction to a jail in his own county.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 116 - Application of Original Sentence of Prisoner Removed or Returned

Section 116. A prisoner who is removed or returned under any provision of sections ninety-seven to one hundred and fifteen, inclusive, shall be held in the place of imprisonment to which he is so removed or returned under the terms of his original sentence, unless sooner discharged, and the period for which he is so removed shall be reckoned as a part of the term of his imprisonment.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 117 - Placement in Hospital or Medical Facility for Medical, Dental, or Similar Professional Treatment

Section 117. Whenever the physician of any state correctional facility certifies that any prisoner held therein requires medical, dental or other similar professional treatment which cannot safely or properly be given in such state correctional facility or the hospital at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Norfolk, the commissioner may temporarily place such person in an appropriate hospital or medical facility to receive such treatment.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 117a - Temporary Placement of Prisoners in Hospital or Medical Facility

Section 117A. Whenever the physician of any jail or house of correction certifies that any prisoner held therein requires medical, dental or other similar professional treatment which is not available in such jail or house of correction, the sheriff or, in the case of the house of correction in Suffolk county, the penal institutions commissioner of the city of Boston may temporarily place such prisoner in a hospital or medical facility to receive such treatment.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 119 - Hospital Confinement as Term of Sentence

Section 119. Any prisoner placed in a hospital or medical facility under section one hundred and seventeen, one hundred and seventeen A or one hundred and eighteen shall, during his absence from prison or the jail or house of correction, be considered as in the custody of the officer having charge of the prison, jail or house of correction, and the time of confinement in said hospital or medical facility shall be considered as part of the term of sentence.
2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XVIII - Prisons, Imprisonment, Paroles and Pardons › Chapter 127 - Officers and Inmates of Penal and Reformatory Institutions. Paroles and Pardons › Section 120 - Order of Removal; Transfer of Mittimuses and Processes With Prisoner

Section 120. Every order of removal of the commissioner shall be signed by him or his designee and shall be directed to the officer by whom it is to be executed. All mittimuses, processes and other official papers by which a prisoner is committed or held, or attested copies thereof, shall at the time of such removal be transferred, with the order of removal, to the institution to which the prisoner is removed, and be kept therein as if he had been originally committed thereto; but if he is returned to the place from which he was removed, they shall be returned with him.