Legal advocacy group alleges pattern of force at South Bay after inmate’s death ruled homicide

An investigation by Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts reveals what it calls a repeated pattern of excessive and prohibited force at South Bay House of Correction, months after an inmate died following an altercation with corrections officers at the facility. 

The findings come after the death of Shacoby Kenny, 32, was ruled a homicide in July. Kenny died at a hospital Dec. 8, 2025, one day after the confrontation inside South Bay. The state medical examiner determined he died from a condition in which his brain did not receive enough blood and oxygen. 

PLS, a nonprofit that provides legal services and advocates for the rights of incarcerated people, said its investigation also found that officers involved in the use of force against Kenny continued working in positions that put them in contact with incarcerated people. 

“What we found is a facility where leadership is kind of not present,” PLS Executive Director Dave Rini told Boston.com, “and they’re not maintaining the procedures and policies that a well-functioning facility ought to have.” 

PLS shared its findings in a letter sent to the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department on Aug. 31. 

The organization is asking the department to suspend the officers involved in Kenny’s death pending an independent or third-party-conducted investigation and to make changes to its use-of-force practices and procedures, Rini said. 

“There needs to be an immediate review of all the use-of-force incidents that have taken place since his death … and discipline needs to follow appropriately from there,” Rini added.

What the investigation found

PLS said incarcerated people at South Bay repeatedly reported officers using chokeholds, kneeling on people’s necks, and kneeling on people’s upper backs in ways that restricted breathing or blood flow — practices prohibited under the Sheriff’s Department’s use-of-force policy. 

The organization also said that at least one officer who was involved in Kenny’s death used a “breath-restricting technique” on another incarcerated person in the same unit, approximately two months after Kenny died. 

PLS said it “consistently receives complaints” about officers bending incarcerated people’s wrists to the point of severe pain. They also have received reports that handcuffs and keys have been used as weapons during physical altercations. 

“That’s for the purpose of sending a message and not for the purpose of maintaining an orderly facility,” Rini said of these practices. 

The group says it has reviewed documentation of at least two incidents in which injuries allegedly caused by handcuffs required staples or stitches. At least one documented injury allegedly involved the person’s face, PLS said, which is directly prohibited in department policy. 

PLS additionally said it identified eight specific officers, including a sergeant and lieutenant, who either staffed the unit where Kenny was involved in an altercation or responded as a member of the Sheriff’s Escort and Response Team the day of the altercation. 

Based on witness accounts, PLS alleges those officers “escalated or directly participated” in the force used against Kenny. 

The Sheriff’s Department said publicly April 30 that the officers in question were working in “non-inmate/detainee contact posts” while the investigation into Kenny’s death continued. The department repeated that statement July 21, according to PLS. 

But PLS alleges that the department’s statement did not accurately describe the officers’ subsequent assignments and said it is aware of officers involved in Kenny’s death working positions involving direct contact with incarcerated people. 

“It’s neither controversial nor particularly unusual for officers that are involved in something significant like this to be suspended pending an investigation,” Rini said. “The fact that the sheriff’s department has been so aggressive in claiming that that’s not what’s happened when their own records seem to indicate otherwise is surprising to me.”

How PLS gathered the information 

Kenny’s death was a “real eye-opener” for PLS and prompted the organization to conduct a broader review of the Sheriff’s Department, Rini said, adding the organization has also received complaints from incarcerated people about the Sheriff’s Department before the death.  

As part of the investigation, PLS said it spoke with more than 30 people who were or are incarcerated at South Bay. 

Rini said PLS attempts to corroborate accounts with public records, incident reports, work assignments, and hospital records. In this case, they obtained numerous records through Massachusetts’ Criminal Offender Records Information system, according to Rini.  

But he noted the organization often faces limitations in obtaining records. Some requested records do not exist, Rini said, while others are withheld under claimed exemptions. 

Rini also said cameras at the facility have “blind spots” and that some officers do not file reports. In its letter, PLS urged the Sheriff’s Department to remove or reduce these “blind spots.”  

What comes next 

PLS has not yet received a response from the Sheriff’s Department to its letter, Rini said. 

“We’ll continue following up with them to see sort of what their action steps are going to be and what they intend to do to address the challenges that we outlined,” he said. “My hope is that we will receive some responses and that they’ll be public in their intentions of how they will address these problems.”

The department did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Boston.com.

The state Attorney General’s Office is leading a criminal investigation into Kenny’s death. 

“My prayers are with Shacoby Kenny’s family and loved ones as they continue to grieve,” Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement Thursday. 

She said she could not provide further information “out of respect” for the criminal investigation.