​Synopsis of House Bill H2853

(Revised-4/28/04)
Act to Create a Citizen Review Board for the Department of Corrections- H 2853

1). ​Board to be within the Dept. of Public Safety but not subject to it. One member each appointed by Governor, Senate President, House Speaker, Chief Justice of the SJC, Parole Board, Public Health Commissioner, MA ACLU, MA Taxpayers Foundation, MA League of Women Voters, MA Council of Churches, and Suffolk U. Center for Restorative Justice.

2). Members have access to all MA Correctional institutions and all inmates.

3). Board purview includes:             

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​a). medical and mental health services and educational and rehabilitation programs;
b). reviewing annual DOC budgets and make formal comments to the legislatives committees regarding same;
c). reporting on the general state of correctional facilities and inmates, administration policies and practices, and the impact of the foregoing on recidivism;
d). reporting on the working conditions of DOC employees;
e). holding quarterly meetings;
f). making recommendations for policies to DOC and report on DOC compliance with Legislative and judicial mandates;
g). issuing annual public reports to the DOC and the Legislature;
h). creating 10 Subcommittees of five members each, with each subcommittee responsible for one of the states correctional facilities. The subcommittee members shall not be Board members and shall have at least one African-American heritage and one Hispanic heritage member. Subcommittee members will have a demonstrated interest in corrections. Each Subcommittee will have responsibility for one of the following: Bay State Correctional Center, MA; Treatment Center at Bridgewater; MCI- Cedar Junction; MCI- Concord; MCI-Framingham; MCI-Norfolk; MCI- Shirley Medium; North Central Correctional Institution at Gardner; Old Colony Correctional Center and the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center at Shirley.​

4). Each Subcommittee shall have access to the DOC facility and its inmates to which it is assigned, visiting the institution twice a year minimally, and shall:

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a). study the medical and mental health services and educational and rehabilitation programs;
b). report on the general state of the facility, its administration of correctional policy and practices, and the living conditions of the inmates under its purview;
c). report on the working conditions for DOC employees at that facility;
d). issue an annual report to the Board regarding, at a minimum, its findings of (a), (b) and (c) above.