Next week, the state Department of Correction will debut a new wellness hotline for incarcerated individuals, as part of its response to a recent rash of suicides at two of its prisons.
The DOC’s existing contracted health care provider, VitalCore Health Strategies, will operate the overnight hotline from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., scheduled to roll out Dec. 1 across all facilities.
DOC Commissioner Shawn Jenkins said the new resource will provide “direct access to qualified mental and medical health professionals when concerns arise and strengthen the continuum of mental health services already in place to support individuals in our care.”
“This added resource improves our ability to identify and respond promptly to individuals in need of support,” he said.
Meanwhile, advocates for the incarcerated say the DOC needs to instead focus on more preventative measures, rather than attempts to address mental health crises after they’ve already begun.
Earlier this month, the DOC announced it is taking “system-wide clinical and safety actions,” including an independent review process led by a forensic mental health expert, after six unexpected deaths have occurred at MCI-Norfolk and Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center since Sept. 20.
- Read more: Answers demanded after rash of ‘unexpected’ deaths in Mass. prisons; DOC initiates review
Four of those deaths are apparent suicides. As of Nov. 4, the DOC said there had been six apparent suicides in custody in 2025 (three at Souza, two at MCI-Norfolk and one at MCI-Shirley). It’s an alarming increase over recent years — there weren’t any in 2024, while 2023 and 2022 each saw one.
Incarcerated people and their advocates, such as Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, have been ringing the alarm over the worrisome concentration of deaths this fall, citing a storm of mental health, substance use issues (primarily the synthetic drug K2 that runs rampant across prisons and jails) and a perceived lack of treatment provided by the DOC to address both.
William Duclos, an incarcerated man who is part of the Norfolk Inmate Council, testified in front of the state Legislature last month about a “sense of hopelessness” that he believes led to at least two suicides of men who were struggling with K2 addiction and placed in Norfolk’s Behavioral Assessment Unit (BAU).
Instead of receiving treatment, Duclos contended, the men were subjected to punitive measures, a claim the DOC has denied.
BAUs are a type of segregated housing currently the subject of a class action lawsuit in Suffolk County Superior Court.
In a Nov. 7 letter where Duclous outlined numerous desired actions to address K2, he advocated for an “outside provider” to offer a substance use disorder hotline in the prisons, as well as a 24/7 suicide hotline.
Dave Rini, executive director for Prisoners’ Legal Services, questioned the hotline as announced by the DOC — because of its reactive approach and operation by VitalCore, the national for-profit carceral health care provider currently in a five-year, $770 million contract with the state of Massachusetts.
VitalCore has contracts in multiple states, including Mississippi, Michigan and Delaware, and has faced legal battles and scrutiny.
“We need reforms that will prevent people from wanting to harm themselves in the first place,“ Rini said. ”Short staffing and copious reports of delayed and poor care from VitalCore raise serious concerns about a hotline’s ability to address the broader crisis of suicidality.“
Rini also raised concerns with reports from clients that the DOC responds to crises by putting them in BAUs, which he called “solitary confinement conditions,” a categorization with which the DOC also disagrees.
“It is unclear how a hotline will be an improvement,” Rini said. “To meaningfully address suicidality, we must increase access to out-of-cell time, adequate mental health and substance use treatment, community connection, and meaningful pathways to release that provide hope.”
Starting in 2018, the DOC was under investigation by the Department of Justice, which ultimately concluded the agency failed “to provide adequate mental health treatment to prisoners experiencing a mental health crisis and instead exposes them to conditions that harm them or place them at serious risk of harm.”
A settlement agreement was reached in 2022, instead of the DOJ filing a lawsuit.
Rini believes more consultation with incarcerated people and their advocates “will strengthen the response to the current crisis.”
What happens when someone calls the hotline?
In addition to mental health crisis services, the hotline will also assist incarcerated individuals with general medical questions and needs, the DOC said.
Available only overnight, the line will be monitored and answered “by live health care professionals,” according to the DOC. Outside of 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., individuals calling the hotline will be notified via an automated message to contact staff within their facility.
The hotline will be accessible from DOC-issued tablets and any of the facilities’ wall phones, the agency said.
According to the DOC, the live health care staff answering calls will create an individualized response based on the issue or concerns reported. Individuals requiring immediate intervention will be brought to the attention of the DOC “in order to assist in facilitating a face-to-face medical interaction at the site,” the agency said.
Jenkins, the DOC’s commissioner, recently told the Boston Globe the department will also start playing an automated message at the start of phone calls with family members, urging them to alert staff to concerns about their loved one hurting themselves.
Asked by MassLive how the DOC responds to concerns reported by a family member, the agency said an immediate referral is placed to a health care professional within the facility. After conducting a comprehensive risk assessment, the provider “may initiate a therapeutic supervision and create a comprehensive individualized treatment plan.”
