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Harm or Help: September 20th Conference |
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Responding to the Criminalization of Mental Illness and Substance
Abuse. If you haven't yet registered to attend the upcoming
conference, please visit our website and do so. The CJPC is now able
to accept registrations and donations through the secure website of
the Wainwright Bank and Trust. For more details see the link below.
Conference Details
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Legislative Updates: |
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Citizens Review Board: Kay Khan and other members of the house were
successful in getting the house to pass a modified version of the
CRB. This bill, now numbered 4969 and called the Correction's
Citizen Advisory Board is currently in front of the senate and may
come up for a vote the week of July 19th. So please be prepared to
call your senators. Keep an eye out for a listserve action alert.
Unlike Kahn's bill, the Harshbarger report is calling for the
creation of an Advisory Board that would only report to the
Executive branch.
Creem's Bill: Cynthia Creem's bill to establish the possibility
of parole for non-violent drug offenders after serving 2/3rds of
their sentence has passed the senate as an attachment to the Senate
version of the budget.
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Mandatory Minimums and the Sentencing Guidelines |
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The Massachusetts legislature is currently considering five bills
that would loosen current mandatory minimum sentences for drug
offenses. Four of the bills carry sweeping new criminal sentencing
guidelines and would establish some degree of judicial discretion in
mandatory drug cases. Another bill would create parole eligibility
after completion of two-thirds of a mandatory drug sentence. None of
the bills would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences, but each
would significantly change the application of current mandatory
sentencing.
To learn more about the proposed changes check out the full story
posted on our website (see link below.)
Full Article on Mandatory Minimums
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More on the Norfolk Lifers Group |
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You can now find the mission statement of the Norfolk Lifer's Group
on our website. In dialogue with the Lifer's group, we have decided
to include information and continue to convey their sentiments to
our membership as a statement that information continue to pass in
both directions over the wall.
In addition we wanted to inform you that members of the
Governor's Commission on Correction Reform visited the Norfolk
Prison twice in the previous months to conduct focus groups. Members
of the Lifer's group were invited to participate.
Norfolk Lifer's Group Mission Statement
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Harshbarger Commission Report |
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The Harshbarger Commission Report was finally released on June 30th.
The Commission has been renamed as the Governor's Commission on
Correction Reform (GCCR). We are currently working on a critique of
the report for our members. To read the full report, see the link
provided below.
GCCR Full Report
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