Boston, February 5 (RHC)-- In the U.S., prisoners at a maximum-security prison in Shirley, Massachusetts, say guards have beaten and tasered them, as well as withheld food and denied them access to lawyers over recent weeks, as retaliation for an attack on correctional officers last month.

A lawyer who interviewed prisoners at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center says several had to be hospitalized because of the severity of their injuries.  A lawsuit has been filed against the Massachusetts Department of Correction over the prison’s refusal to let inmates meet with lawyers.

Defense attorney Lisa Newman-Polk, who represents an affected prisoner, told Boston Public Radio: “Targeting the prison as a whole through collective punishment is not only an ineffective strategy to shape behavior, it’s criminal.”