| Location | Shirley, MA |
|---|---|
| Security class | Level 4/3 |
| Capacity | 969 |
| Population | 1423 |
| Opened | 1991 |
| Managed by | Massachusetts Department of Correction |
| Director | Superintendent Duane J. MacEachern |
Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Shirley is a medium-security state prison in Shirley, Massachusetts. 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. It is also directly to the north of the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.
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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. [1]
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.
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.