Bobby Dellelo

Massachusetts prisoner-organizer and chapter president of the National Prisoners Reform Association (NPRA) at MCI-Walpole. In March 1973, after a prolonged hunger strike and growing prisoner self-organization, the state withdrew uniformed correctional officers from inside Walpole; for the next three months — until the state forcibly retook the prison that summer — Walpole was effectively self-governed by NPRA prisoners. Dellelo helped maintain order, organize work crews, mediate disputes, and run inmate-led programs in what is widely considered the most sustained experiment in prisoner self-government in U.S. history. When the state retook the prison, Dellelo was beaten and held in solitary confinement; he subsequently spent decades in maximum-security and supermax isolation. Co-founded the Coalition for Effective Public Safety and led prisoner-rights litigation in Massachusetts for the rest of his life.