2010

Archived 6/17/10
The Pew Center on the states has released a new Prison Count report showing that for first time in 38 years the number of prisoners held in state prisons decreased. Massachusetts was part of this decrease with 252 less prisoners at the end of 2009, a decrease of 2.2 percent. Other states have shown much bigger decreases, mainly for budget reasons. At the present time the Executive Office of Public Safety is planning a “maintenance” budget for the Department of Correction (DOC). Over the past two years according to Secretary of Public Safety Mary Beth Heffernan and Commissioner of Correction Harold Clarke the DOC has cut its budget by $65 million dollars [out of approximately $1.2 billion dollars]. These cuts have been in health and mental health care services. Not a single guard has been laid off because of the contract with the Massachusetts Correctional Officers Union. Meanwhile the total budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year is reported to be $2 billion dollars to balance a $28 billion dollar budget, and the legislature is proposing a $200 million dollars cut to local aid, which will result in laying off teachers, firefighters and local police.

Can corrections cost in Massachusetts be cut? Texas of all places provides one model of how to do this. “In January 2007, Texas faced a projected prison population increase of up to 17,000 inmates in just five years. Rather than spend nearly $2 billion on new prison construction and operations to accommodate this growth, policy makers in Texas reinvested a fraction of this amount—$241 million—in a network of residential and community-based treatment and diversion programs” (Pew Center Report p. 3.) Even better models for cutting corrections costs are contained in two reports published by the National Institute of Corrections of the United States Department of Justice during the Bush Administration: Evidence Based Practice to Reduce Recidivism and Re-engineering Probation. The choice is between maintaining very costly and ineffective prison system for sake seeming to be tough on crime, at the expense of other basic services including education, roads and public safety in the community; or implementing evidence based practices which will actually reduce recidivism and thereby reduce crime. This will require the political will to take on entrenched special interests, especially the guards union, and groups that seek harsher punishment for the sake of punishment.

Archived 6/17/10
Compassionate Release and the Current Issue of the CJPC Newsletter
The current issue of the CJPC newsletter is dedicated to an important, but largely quiet issue: compassionate release. The lack of compassionate release is a great example of how criminal justice issues are not always designed by common sense or reason. Understandably, no one wants to give an inmate a "free pass." But compassionate release is not that. Persons who would qualify would do so only because they are so sick or nearing life's end. Releasing someone to be treated medically is not, then, a free pass. As a society, we have an obligation to care for incarcerated individuals; compassionate release simply redefines how we do that. Because persons released pursuant to compassionate release would still be monitored by parole, there is no merit to the idea that we are "freeing" them. Rather, we are simply redefining their custodial status. Compassionate release saves money, it saves resources, and it is a morally right answer to a medically complicated question. Compassionate release should be the kind of straightforward issue that everyone can support. However, because few people talk about it, the issue has little momentum. Given the recent pledges for common sense criminal justice practices by the Governor and others, the time for compassionate release may be near. CJPC encourages everyone to start a dialogue about this issue. We have provided a how-to list, along with compelling stories and statistics. We hope this will give you the motivation needed to make the hope of compassionate release a reality. We forgot to mention in the Newsletter that CJPC drafted a bill which provides for compassionate release, among other reforms. That bill is House Bill 1712 which Representative Byron Rushing filed at the request of CJPC. (See the third paragraph on page 5 of House Bill 1712 which would allow parole of any prisoner so old or disabled as to pose no threat to public safety.)...

Archived 6/17/10
Senate version of CORI and Sentencing Reform
The Massachusetts State Senate at the very end of the 2009 legislative session passed a 55 page version of CORI and sentencing reform. The full text of Senate Bill 2220 is available here. The version of CORI reform contained in this bill is significantly different from what proposed by the Coalition for CORI Reform, the bill also includes provisions for mandatory post release parole. For a relatively short summary and analysis of this important legislation please click here. For a relatively short summary of this important legislation please click here. For a side by side summary each section of the bill with with the full text along side of each summary please click here...

Archived 6/17/10
Major new report on Massachusetts prison costs
The Crime and Justice Institute in collaboration with the Boston Foundation has released a major new report Priorities and Public Safety: Reentry and the Rising Costs of our Corrections System. To view the full report click here...

Archived 2/21/10 Today the U.S. Senate voted to enact its version of the proposed Stimulus Bill, H.R. 1. A conference committee will meld the House and Senate versions for the President's signature. Among a number of items relating to criminal justice the following funding will be distributed among all of the states More...

2009

Archived 12/16/09 In Memoriam: Richard Nethercut: The members of CJPC mourn the passing of Richard Nethercut. Dick was a strong and steady supporter of criminal justice reform. He was a past president of the Alternatives to Violence Program, a member of the Concord Prison Outreach Program, a guiding spirit for the Gates Unbarred Prison Fellowship program in Shirley and a member of CJPC. More...

Archived 12/16/09 "And Still We Rise": We want to thank everyone who came to the wonderful performance of "And Still We Rise." We especially want to thank the performers themselves for a moving performance.

Archived 9/22/09 Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act (“Act”) in 2006 in an attempt to bring sweeping changes to how the federal government and the states dealt with sex offenders. The Act included provisions altering federal practice and financial incentives for states to follow suit. The two main areas of reform were registration and civil commitment. Three years later, much of what the Act set out to accomplish has not come to fruition. See article link at The Adam Walsh Act: Still Gridlocked

Archived 9/22/09 Testimony submitted 6/30/09 to the MA Joint Committee on the
Judiciary regarding 50 proposed bills relating to Sex Offenders

Archived 9/22/09 Freeing Bernard Baran- a retrospective Bernard Baran never committed any crime, but in 1985 he was convicted of multiple sex offenses against various children at the Early Childhood Development Center in Pittsfield, MA, where he had worked.

Archived 9/22/09 The Failure of the War on Drugs: Charting a New Course For the Commonwealth

Archived 3/12/09 Washington State faced with the prospect of an ever-expanding prison population has examined evidence based alternatives. For more information on these alternatives click here.

Archived 3/12/09 Childhood lead poisoning turns out to be a major preventable cause of criminal and anti-social behavior. For more information on this click here.

Archived 3/12/09 Annual Meeting: Highlights the Need for Eye Witness Identification Reform to Avoid Wrongful Convictions. To read more, click here.

2008

12/22/08 Hearing on new EOHHS CORI regulations. To see the full text of the proposed regulations including how they differ from the current regulations please click here. For a summary of the new proposed regs please click here.

12/19/08 Annual Meeting: Highlights the Need for Eye Witness Identification Reform to Avoid Wrongful Convictions. To see the full text of Professor’s Fisher’s recent article in the Massachusetts Law Review: Eye Witness Identification Reform please click here.

Administrative Investigation: The facts and circumstances surrounding the events which led to inmate John Geoghan’s death on August 23, 2003

10/23/08 SAVE THE DATE: 2008 Annual Meeting Criminal Justice Policy Coalition

The Legislature Passes New Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Some Sex Offenses

Governor Patrick Acts on CORI Reform

8/21/08 A Restorative Justice Approach to Sexual Abuse

8/14/08 End of the 2007 - 2008 Legislative Session

7/28/08 The Pros and Cons of House Bill 5004: A Summary and Analysis.

7/25/08 Today's Update on the Judiciary Committee's Criminal Justice Bill.

6/12/08 Governor Patrick convened a working group in September to study possible changes to the Commonwealth's current Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) system...MORE

6/12/08
CJPC Co-Sponsored NASW Conference "Sexual Offending: Prevention and Management for Families, Agencies and Communities"

6/12/08 Action Alert: Treatment of Prisoners with Mental Illness

6/12/08 "Even people who believe that prisons exist solely for punishment should not abide a system that forces prisoners with diagnosable mental illnesses to spend 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, where they grow crazier, more desperate and more dangerous by the day." --editorial in The Boston Globe: "Prison, The New Madhouse" Dec.10, 2007... MORE

1/11/08 Governor Patrick issues Executive Order and Proposed Legislation to Reform CORI system. Read the Press Release Here

2/26/08 Judiciary Hearing On Sex Offender Bills

3/18/08 Click here for Governor Patrick’s CORI testimony before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee in support of his own bill for CORI reform.

4/9/08 New Commissioner of the Mass. DOC, Harold Clarke visited Concord.

2007

11/17/08 Event held at Boston College, Chestnut Hill. See conference brochure here.

11/7/07 CORI Working Group Announces Public Hearing.

Following Up on the September 18 Judiciary Committee Hearing

New Executive Director Joins CJPC

Public Safety Act 2007-2008 and other Re-Entry Legislation

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Reform News: New Boston Globe Article from 4/15/07

Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Reform News: New Boston Globe Article from 4/15/07

Proposed DOC Regulations, prisoner classification regulations and analysis

Proposed DOC Regulations, prisoner classification regulations and analysis

Action Alert To Pass CORI Reform Bill H2874

Action Alert To Pass S.929

Coalition to Increase Access to Addiction Treatment Lobby Day

UPDATE: 11/22 Hearing On CORI REFORM Bill H. 2874
AND S. 929 Parole Eligibility/Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Reform

Action Alert:
PSA 2006 Provisions at Stake in Budget Conference Committee

UPDATE: CORI Reform and Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Reform advocates unite to pass the Public Safety Act of 2006!