Immigrant Detainees' Threat of Hunger Strike Wins Meeting with Suffolk Jail Officials

BOSTON/Dorchester - Behind the barred windows at the South Bay House of Correction, undocumented immigrants held in detention there waved at supporters and held signs indicating their thanks and their broken hearts.

 The nearly 40 detainees at the jail threatened to go on hunger strike Thursday morning, but the protest was called-off when officials at the facility agreed to hear their grievances. Supporters outside the facility held a rally to protest the incarceration of family members for nonviolent offenses, to highlight what they say are “substandard and unsanitary” conditions, and to demand improvements in food safety, access to programs and services, and visitation rights.