Council Orders Review of Police-Sheriff Booking Deal That Charges the City $150 Per Detainee Per Day

Boston city councilors have called for a public hearing on a 2023 agreement that allows Boston Police Department arrestees to be booked and held by the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department at the Nashua Street Jail and the South Bay House of Correction, an arrangement under which the city pays the sheriff $150 for each detainee for each day or part of a day in custody, according to the council order.

The order, Docket 2026-1965, was filed on Oct. 21 by Councilor Miniard Culpepper, with Councilors Ed Flynn and Henry Santana added as original co-sponsors and eight other councilors listed as co-sponsors. It was referred to the Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice at Wednesday's meeting, according to the council's Legistar record. No hearing date had been posted as of Friday morning.

According to the order, the Boston Police Department and the Sheriff's Department entered into a Memorandum of Agreement on Oct. 31, 2023. Under it, the sheriff may accept and detain adults arrested by Boston police pending their first court appearance, must provide space for up to two Boston police booking stations at the Nashua Street Jail, and, depending on operational needs, may house some detainees at the House of Correction at South Bay.

The order summarizes the division of duties in the agreement. Boston police are responsible for transporting each detainee, conducting a medical pre-screening, documenting visible injuries and known medical, mental health or substance-use concerns, and handing over arrest, booking, identification, property and medical paperwork before custody can transfer. A transporting officer may not leave until the sheriff formally accepts custody. After that, the sheriff is responsible for booking, medical intake when the detainee permits it, suicide-risk assessment, property storage, food, water, clothing, hygiene supplies, telephone access, transportation to court, casework and discharge planning.

Councilors wrote that the $150-per-day payment creates "a need for public information concerning the number and demographics of individuals detained under the agreement, the facilities in which they are housed, the duration of their detention, the services they receive, and the total cost to the City of Boston." The order does not state how much the city has paid under the agreement.

The order also revisits concerns first raised in a 2024 council hearing order. That earlier order, according to the new filing, documented reports from community advocates that people arrested during enforcement in the area known as Mass and Cass had been taken directly to county jails without first being processed at a district station, and that the change had been made "without adequate public notice," contributing to confusion among families, attorneys and service providers about where people were being held. GBH News reported on advocates' questions about the new lockup arrangement in December 2023.

The filing ties the review to deaths in county custody. It states that "over 20 people have reportedly died in the custody of the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department since 2020," a figure the order attributes to reports and does not document further. It cites Shacoby Kenny, who died in December 2025 following an altercation with correctional officers at the House of Correction; the order says the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined the manner of death to be homicide, with the cause identified as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy resulting from resuscitated cardiac arrest during physical restraint by correctional officers.

It also names Ayesha Johnson, who the order says was found unresponsive in a holding cell at South Bay while awaiting transport on a civil commitment for alcohol treatment under Section 35, and Edward Isberg, who it says was found unresponsive in a medical unit the same day and later pronounced dead. The order does not allege that any of those deaths involved people booked under the police agreement.

The hearing order asks the committee to examine the agreement's current status and any extensions or amendments; when arrestees are taken directly to county facilities instead of district stations; booking, medical screening, custody transfer, notification, access to a bail magistrate and discharge procedures; whether information about where a person is held is available and accurate; the number and demographics of detainees; costs to the city; standards for medical and mental health care, suicide prevention and use of force; how injuries, deaths and complaints are reported and investigated; and how the agreement can be amended, renewed or ended. It also proposes considering a council site visit to the facilities, and says representatives of the Police Department and Sheriff's Department will be invited.

A related hearing is already scheduled. The council's Committee on Public Safety and Criminal Justice will meet Monday, Oct. 26, at 2 p.m. in the Iannella Chamber at City Hall on Docket 0870, an order sponsored by Culpepper, Mejia and Worrell "to examine the circumstances surrounding in-custody deaths at the Suffolk County House of Correction and systemic factors contributing to mortality in custody," according to a public notice posted Oct. 15. That docket was referred to the committee on April 29. The public may testify in person or virtually, and the hearing will be streamed at boston.gov/city-council-tv, the notice says.