Shirley Corrections Officer Fighting For His Life After Convicted Murderer Shipped Here From Virginia Due To Attacks On Guards Beat Him With Weight Equipment
Editor’s Note: We have a follow-up to this story.
Last week the media briefly touched on a story at Shirley Medium Security Prison where an inmate beat a corrections officer with a barbell in the prison’s gym. The report stated that he was knocked unconscious, but not much else was mentioned, including the name of the prisoner or the CO who was attacked. That’s because they don’t want you to know the reality of what is happening in jails across this state as a result of “prison reform.”
Matt Tidman is currently in critical condition and fighting for his life after a prisoner named Roy Lindsey Booth hit him unprovoked. He was put into a medically induced coma. A GoFundMe has been set up that has raised $80K.
The media failed to report that Booth was a prisoner in Virginia serving a life sentence for the 2001 murder of Melissa Tanner. He was recently shipped to Massachusetts as a result of numerous staff assaults, because apparently in Massachusetts we don’t have enough problems so we decided to import violent offenders from other states.
The DOC is closing Cedar Junction in Walpole, as part of their plan to empty the jails and create equity. They’ve turned Souza-Baranowski maximum security prison in Shirley into the state’s intake unit. This has bumped high risk, violent offenders like Booth into the medium security prison next door. Thanks to the work of prisoner reformers like State Senator Jamie Eldridge, people like Booth get access to free range weights in the gym, because sitting in their cells alone wasn’t working out well for them. It was working out great for Matt Tidman, but not for the convicted murderer, whose priorities were deemed more important.
Corrections officers who reached out to us under the condition of anonymity have told us that their superiors have told them not to speak to the media about that. Luckily a whistle blowing former CO, who lost her job for refusing to get the jab, has been quite vocal about it on social media.
This woman was too dangerous to be in a Massachusetts prison, but the vaccinated convicted murderer wasn’t.
Science.
Senator Eldridge had the audacity to post this on his Facebook page after the attack:
You did this Jamie Eldridge. This is entirely your fault. Your misguided belief that giving violent prisoners more privileges will help to rehabilitate them won the day, and consequently Roy Booth was able to access gym equipment that he was able to turn into a weapon. The rest of your Facebook page is filled with posts about how horrible solitary confinement is for people like Roy Booth.
Oh no, the murderer might get anxiety by being alone! Someone get him a volleyball to talk to like Tom Hanks in Castaway! Here’s a thought – maybe he should’ve thought about that before he killed an innocent woman.
I expected nothing less from the this shameless hypocrite who responded to vicious attacks on three CO’s at Shirley in 2020 by advocating for the prisoners responsible for the attack. After visiting Souza-Baranowski prison and refusing to meet with CO’s or their union, he instead met with several prisoners, took their word as Gospel, and held a press conference with family members of incarcerated inmates where they complained that prison isn’t fun anymore.
Sen. Jamie Eldridge says he and other lawmakers who made unannounced interviewed more than a dozen inmates. He says there’s a “deeply disturbing culture” and that inmates reported encounters with tactical teams that “surprised inmates in their cell without any notice.” pic.twitter.com/YRqLyyiVTA
— Steph Solis (@stephmsolis) February 3, 2020
The Democratic Party under the leadership of people like Jamie Eldridge doesn’t pretend to represent working class, law abiding, taxpaying citizens like Officer Tidman. He spends the majority of his time advocating for violent felons, because ultimately that is who he cares about more than anyone. He doesn’t care about the cost of groceries, the fentanyl epidemic, the public schools, or any other issues that affect the day to day lives of the people he represents. He cares about people like Roy Booth, because that’s who he really represents.
Editor’s Note: We have a follow-up to this story.
