Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), the Massachusetts Bar Association, the Committee for Public Counsel Services (the state’s public defender agency) and the ACLU of Massachusetts recently spoke out about the dropping parole rates … [Read more...]
Buyer beware: Habitual offender bills
It’s fair to say that the Legislature is under pressure to respond to the demands for a tougher habitual offender law. That was evident at the Joint Judiciary Committee’s March 16 public hearing, where a standing-room-only crowd packed the … [Read more...]
A brighter future: New parole eligibility law takes effect
The "before" picture County prisons, known in Massachusetts as "houses of correction," house inmates who have been sentenced for less serious offenses, usually for sentences up to 2 ½ years. (Prisoners serving longer sentences are … [Read more...]
Crunch time for sentencing reform
Homeward bound. There are well over 2,000 men and women serving mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses in Massachusetts. Certainly some of them deserve to be in prison, and for lengthy sentences. But many others received … [Read more...]
Hooked on prison: the case for drug sentencing reform
In December the non-partisan Crime and Justice Institute noted that over the past 10 years, the budgets for the state's prisons and jails have grown at a faster rate than the budgets for most other state services. Indeed, the budgets … [Read more...]