Fires with no functioning sprinklers to put them out. Tear gas used against individuals in confinement. Individuals being denied access to basic medication. Amputations due to a lack of care and supplies. Year-long delays in access to recommended treatment. Retaliation against individuals who submit grievances.

All of these happen in Massachusetts’s prisons, regularly with little scrutiny or corrective action.

There are many steps needed for robust accountability and a top-to-bottom rethink of the criminal justice system.

But there’s one that can happen now: your state legislators can start actually visiting prisons themselves.

State legislators, who vote to provide funding for the Department of Correction, should view it as incumbent upon themselves to follow up about how that funding is being used, not used, and misused. And they should be willing to listen to and meet with their constituents who are behind the wall when they raise the alarm about inhumane conditions.

Can you ask your state rep and state senator to commit to visiting a Department of Correction prison at least once before the end of the session?

Only a few state legislators visit prisons at all. Even fewer do so unannounced, a statutory right that all state representatives, senators, and governor’s councillors have and a more potent tool for accountability.

Massachusetts also allows ICE detention in our state. Your legislators can be doing more.

The Plymouth County Correctional Facility, which maintains a detention contract with ICE, has been rife with systemic abuses for decades, well before the current administration.

Since Trump took office, the number of detentions have gone up, and the standards and conditions are getting worse.

Our state legislators should not be looking away from what is happening.

Write to your state legislators and tell them to visit Plymouth as a vital tool for accountability.