2018 Massachusetts General Laws
PART I ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
TITLE VII CITIES, TOWNS AND DISTRICTS
Chapter 40 POWERS AND DUTIES OF CITIES AND TOWNS
Section 34 Town; erection and maintenance of lockup; penalty for noncompliance
Section 34. Each town containing more than five thousand inhabitants shall, and any town may, maintain a secure and convenient lockup to which persons arrested without a warrant may be committed; and a magistrate may commit, for further examination, a prisoner charged with a bailable offence and not recognizing, to the lockup in the town where the prisoner was arrested or to the lockup in a town where the court is held, if he considers it safe and commodious and that expense may be saved thereby. If a town neglects to provide and maintain a lockup as herein required, it shall forfeit ten dollars for each month during which such neglect continues.
For the purposes of this section, the word ''maintain'' shall include the provision of any prescribed medication and nutritionally adequate meals to a person committed to such lockup. Compliance with this section shall be enforced pursuant to section twenty-one of chapter one hundred and eleven.
