New Braintree, Mass., a rural town of 800 persons, is fighting to prevent the conversion of a vacant religious academy into a 500-bed medium-security prison. Its opposition is not toward the prison per se but toward the siting of any large institution in the town that will threaten the quality of the environment and overburden limited public services. New Braintree residents complain that the State officials recommending the sitting of the prison in the town have not conducted proper environmental studies nor rationally addressed citizen concerns about the negative consequences of the prison siting. The town perceives that State officials are anxious to relieve prison overcrowding in the easiest, quickest way possible without bothering to measure the consequences of their actions. New Braintree citizens organized to combat the prison have filed a class action suit charging the State with violating State regulations designed to ensure fairness and avoid the appearance of corruption in State construction projects. Later this year the State will assess the environmental impact of the prison on New Braintree, and the inspector general's office will rule on the propriety of the State's intended purchase of the site.