Council Hearing on Suffolk Jail Deaths to Resume in December After Sheriff’s Office Skips First Session

A Boston City Council hearing on deaths in custody at the Suffolk County House of Correction is set to continue in December, after Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department officials did not attend the first session on Oct. 26, 2026, according to the lead sponsor, Councilor Miniard Culpepper. The order behind the hearing, Docket #0870, stayed in the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee at the council’s Oct. 28 meeting, the minutes show.

20+ deaths in Suffolk custody in five years, per the hearing order · 67% of South Bay detainees held pretrial, per the ACLU · $150 a day the city pays per booking detainee, per the Massachusetts Bail Fund · December planned follow-up

What the hearing order asks

Culpepper, Councilor Julia Mejia and Councilor Brian Worrell filed the order on April 29, 2026. It says there have been “over 20 deaths in custody across Suffolk County correctional facilities” in the past five years, including several at the House of Correction on Bradston Street in the South Bay area. It asks the council to examine use of force, access to medical and mental health care, and jail policies, with a focus on the December 2025 death of Shacoby Kenny.

Kenny, 32, died Dec. 8, 2025, after an altercation with correctional officers, Boston 25 News reported. In July 2026 the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death a homicide. A homicide ruling describes how a death happened and does not by itself mean anyone will be charged. Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s office said in July that it was leading “an active criminal investigation.” No officer has been charged, according to the Dorchester Reporter.

What was said at the Oct. 26 hearing

Kenny’s mother, Druesilla Brown, testified. “How is there no accountability for this?” she asked councilors, GBH News reported. Councilors Mejia, Henry Santana and Ed Flynn also attended. Santana opened by saying, “a single in-custody death is unacceptable, one instance of guard brutality is unacceptable,” according to GBH.

No correctional officers testified. Culpepper had asked the Sheriff’s Department to let detainees who witnessed Kenny’s death testify by video. The department’s general counsel, Melissa Garand, wrote in an Oct. 23 letter that “numerous logistical issues” would need to be worked out first, the Dorchester Reporter reported. Culpepper said the request was made in April; the department’s attorney said it came two weeks before the hearing.

The officers’ status is in dispute. In July, the Sheriff’s Department told Boston 25 News that the officers were working in posts without contact with detainees while the investigation continues. Prisoners’ Legal Services released a September letter saying the officers still have contact with detainees and are allowed to use force, GBH reported.

By the numbers

Testimony focused on who is held at the jail. Katy Naples-Mitchell, justice policy counsel for the ACLU of Massachusetts, told the committee that 54% of all incarcerated people in Massachusetts are in county jails, that 62% of county jail detainees statewide are awaiting trial, and that the share is 67% at the Suffolk County House of Correction, according to the Dorchester Reporter. By The Boston Report’s calculation, the Suffolk pretrial share is 5 percentage points, or about 8%, higher than the statewide county average she cited.

The Massachusetts Bail Fund said the Suffolk Sheriff’s Department reported 19 deaths in its jails from 2019 to 2025 in response to a public records request, and the group counts one more death this year. Eight of the state’s 14 sheriff’s departments answered the fund’s statewide request and reported 47 deaths, executive director Jasmin Borges said. Those figures come from the advocacy group and have not been independently verified by The Boston Report.

What advocates asked the council to do

The Bail Fund asked councilors to use subpoena power to get records on misconduct, to open a civil rights inquiry into conditions at the South Bay and Nashua Street jails, and to suspend the Boston Police Department’s central booking agreement with the Sheriff’s Department. Under that agreement, the city pays $150 a day per detainee, the Dorchester Reporter reported. Culpepper said the council should take another look at the agreement.

The sheriff’s response

Sheriff Steve Tompkins, who returned to office in September and was not in office when Kenny died, said in a statement that the death is being investigated by the attorney general, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and the Boston Police Department. “We are awaiting the conclusion of their independent investigations,” he wrote. He said his office takes reports of abuse seriously, and added, “just because someone says it doesn’t make it so.”

The same committee is also holding a separate order on resources for the Boston Police Crime Laboratory. Both orders are listed in the council’s Oct. 28 meeting results and on the Boston City Hall Tracker.

Sources

• Docket #0870 hearing order, City of Boston (PDF)
• City of Boston: Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee hearing notice, Docket #0870
• Boston City Council minutes, Oct. 28, 2026
• GBH News: Advocates demand answers for in-custody deaths (Oct. 26, 2026)
• Dorchester Reporter: Calls for reform aired at council hearing (Oct. 28, 2026)

Additional sources

• Boston 25 News: Suffolk County jail inmate’s death ruled homicide (July 23, 2026)
• Boston Globe: Shacoby Kenny’s in-custody death ruled a homicide (July 21, 2026)
• Boston.com: City councilors turn up pressure on South Bay jail (Oct. 29, 2026)