Massachusetts Correctional Institution – Cedar Junction

Massachusetts Correctional Institution—Cedar Junction

Location	Walpole / Norfolk, Massachusetts (South Walpole postal address, ZIP code 02071)
Coordinates
Security class	Level 6 (Maximum)
Capacity	633
Population	785
Opened	1955
Managed by	Massachusetts Department of Correction
Director	Superintendent James Saba

The Massachusetts Correctional Institution—Cedar Junction (MCI-Cedar Junction), formerly known as MCI-Walpole, is a maximum security prison with an average daily population of approximately 800 adult male inmates under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Department of Correction. It was opened in 1956 to replace Charlestown State Prison, the oldest prison in the nation at that time. MCI-Cedar Junction is one of two (the other one being Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center) maximum security prisons for male offenders in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. MCI-Cedar Junction also houses the Departmental Disciplinary Unit (DDU). During the 1970s, Cedar Junction (then known as Walpole) was one of the most violent prisons in the United States. It is located on both sides of the line between the towns of Walpole and Norfolk, and has a South Walpole mailing address. (South Walpole is not a political entity.)

In 1988, the prison was host to Mother Teresa for two hours on her tour through the state's prisons.

As of June 2009, MCI-Cedar Junction is now the Department of Correction's reception and diagnostic center which receives all new male court commitments within the Commonwealth.

Notable prisoners

• Aaron Hernandez, former professional football player for the New England Patriots, convicted on April 15, 2015 of first degree murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the Murder of Odin Lloyd. Following sentencing, he was received for intake at MCI Cedar Junction and assigned inmate number #W106228. He was later transferred to the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts. MCI Cedar Junction is located a mile and a half northwest of Gillette Stadium, where Hernandez played home games during his NFL career with the Patriots.
• Tom Manning, convicted of the murder of a police officer during a routine traffic stop. Manning was a member of the United Freedom Front (UFF) who bombed a series of US military and commercial institutes in the 1970s and early 1980s.
• Stanley Ray Bond, bank robber, died in prison.
• Albert DeSalvo, otherwise known as the Boston Strangler, was imprisoned at Walpole in the old Departmental Segregation Unit. He died of multiple stab wounds at the prison in the medical ward. His murderer was never caught.
• Richard Colvin Reid, the "Shoe-bomber", was held at Cedar Junction, while awaiting federal prosecution.
• Joseph Druce was sentenced to life in prison, later becoming known for murdering convicted sex offender John Geoghan while incarcerated.
• Tony Costa was sentenced to life in prison, where he later killed himself, for the murders of three Cape Cod women in 1969.
• Clark Rockefeller convicted in June 2009 of the kidnapping of his daughter off the streets of Boston; he has many aliases all over the world and was convicted of two 1985 murders in Los Angeles County in 2013.
• Barry Locke, former Mass. Secretary of Transportation, sentenced for corruption.
• Paul DeMayo, American IFBB professional bodybuilder.
• John C. Salvi III, an abortion opponent who carried out fatal shootings at two Planned Parenthood reproductive health clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts, on December 30, 1994, killing two and wounding five. These were the subject of intense media coverage. He was convicted, and later died in 1996 of an apparent suicide.

External links

• MCI-Cedar Junction—Mass. Executive Office of Public Safety