Ambulance Calls at Boston Jail Have Tripled Since 2010
Calls for emergency health care at the Nashua Street Jail (NSJ), a Boston jail with a capacity of approximately 700 detainees, shot up to 328 last year, a nearly 50% increase from 2024. And since 2010, The Boston Globe reported, ambulance calls to the jail have tripled.
While an exact cause for the uptick is unclear, “illness”—listed without further explanation—was recorded as the most common reason for Boston Emergency Medical Services to respond to incidents at the NSJ. “Other,” a broad category that includes behavioral problems, was the second-most common reason cited for a response.
Many of the EMS visits were prompted by injuries, which have tripled since 2023 and rose to 54 in 2025. This trend raises concerns about the competency of the jail’s overseers, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. “It causes us to immediately question if there have been increases in staff brutality, failures to adequately treat substance use disorders, mental health needs, or if there have been other increases in deficient medical care,” Dave Rini, executive director of Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, told The Boston Globe.
The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, on top of the EMS trends, is facing a number of crises including an August 2025 indictment of Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins for two counts of extortion under color of official right. Prosecutors allege that Tompkins extorted a cannabis company twice in a stock purchase and buyback scheme. Tompkins, who has had no previous law enforcement experience, did not swipe his access card to NSJ over a five-month period last year, The Boston Globe reported.
Additionally, under Tompkins, annual overtime has tripled due to chronic overstaffing, a detainee at NSJ died after a fight with guards in December 2025, and, in April of this year, a guard with the department was held without bail on child rape and human trafficking charges.
Source: The Boston Globe
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