A group of Massachusetts lawmakers made a surprise visit to the state's maximum security prison over the weekend amid allegations that prisoners are being beaten and abused by officers in retaliation for last month's attack on correction officers.

The five lawmakers spent several hours at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in northern central Mass. Sunday to talk about reports that correction officers are retaliating against the prisoners following the Jan. 10 attack that hurt three officers.

They met with prison officials, prisoners and Department of Correction Commissioner Carol Mici.

"The allegations are very serious, and it was important for us to make our presence known," said state Rep. Mike Connolly. "We as legislators are concerned, and we want to see that people are treated humanely and appropriately."

Connolly and state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, who also was at Souza Sunday, said most of the abuse allegations involved officers with so-called "tactical teams" that were brought to the prison in response to the last month's violent incident. Those teams are comprised of correction officers from around the state.

WBUR spoke with a man who has been incarcerated at Souza for about a year and a half. His name is not being used out of concern for his safety. In the first week after the violence, the prisoner said men were locked in their cells almost constantly. About 11 days after the violence broke out last month, he said officers in tactical gear ordered dozens of men to remove most of their clothing, moved the prisoners to cells in a different part of the prison and took away their personal belongings.

"They literally took all of our clothes off, stripped us to our underwear and shackled and cuffed us and beat us up," he told WBUR. "Officers just started tasering me, beating me, punching me, calling me the N-word. And I went to the outside hospital," he said. "I got stitches across my face. I have a black eye, busted lip, and my hands are still shaking."

The group Prisoners Legal Services of Massachusetts said it has interviewed about 40 men incarcerated there who have similar complaints. The group also heard from attorneys who said access to their clients has been restricted since Jan. 10 — although they were recently allowed limited no-contact visits.

"Targeting the prison as a whole through collective punishment is not only an ineffective strategy to shape behavior, it's criminal," said defense attorney Lisa Newman-Polk, who represents a client incarcerated at Souza and worked there as a mental health clinician. "This requires full investigation by an outside party."

A group of attorneys filed suit against the Department of Correction (DOC) late Friday, alleging that the prisoners' constitutional rights are being violated because they cannot appropriately meet with legal counsel. The suit seeks a preliminary injunction and alleged the DOC is denying prisoners access to their lawyers and legal materials. The suit also alleged that prisoners have been abused since the violence last month. It was filed by the state public defender agency and the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.