A correction has been added to this story. ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY is warning the maker of a breakthrough hepatitis C drug that the company’s $1,000-a-pill price may constitute an […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
Criminal justice reform bill stalls
A BILL TO end the mandatory suspension of the driver’s license of any drug offender, which looked like it was sailing through the State House as a consensus-winning, early step […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
State kicks-off criminal justice review
THE STATE BEGAN on Tuesday a comprehensive review of criminal justice policies that aims to take a data-driven approach to issues often heavily influenced by passions and perceptions. In that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Another approach on drunken driving
A TOUGH BUT fairly low-tech approach to drunken driving prevention is showing some promise in a handful of states and starting to pick up converts across the country. Called 24/7 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Drug Addiction, Opinion
Ending driver’s license suspension for drug offenders
I APPLAUD THE members of the 189th General Court of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for finishing what their colleagues in the Senate started in September by unanimously supporting legislation […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, Politics
It’s time to act on gun violence
THE REPUBLICANS WHO CONTROL CONGRESS Congress have had all the time in the world to do something about gun violence in America. I mean that. If the GOP spent a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Hingham policeman indicted for insurance fraud
HINGHAM POLICE SGT. KRIS PHILLIPS, who figured prominently in a recent police probe of anonymous letters criticizing the current chief, was indicted on Wednesday for alleged insurance fraud. Phillips, 52, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Don’t shoot
Things that don’t happen usually don’t make for big news. And just because they haven’t happened doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t. With all that conditional couching, Kevin Cullen nonetheless […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Chism judge evicts press, public for 15 minutes
The judge in the Philip Chism murder trial kicked the press and the public out of his Salem courtroom for about 15 minutes this week to prevent the release of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Back Story
Probation case drags on and on
NEARLY SIX YEARS after the Probation Department patronage scandal exploded into public view, almost four years after three top officials were indicted, 18 months after their convictions, and nearly one […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
SJC seeks probes of DeLeo transcript leak
THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT told House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Monday that it was asking three state and federal law enforcement agencies and its former independent counsel to investigate […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, State House News Service
District attorneys back Baker on opioid bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ELEVEN COUNTY PROSECUTORS who deal with the fallout of the opioid addiction epidemic on a daily basis threw their support behind Gov. Charlie Baker’s substance abuse […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, Politics
A Massachusetts lesson on gun safety
EARLIER THIS MONTH, I joined Sen. Ed Markey and several community leaders at Roxbury Community College in Boston to discuss ways to influence the national gun safety debate. We came […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, Politics
DeLeo calls for probe of leaked testimony
What follows is a statement issued by House Speaker Robert DeLeo in response to a Boston Globe story quoting sealed transcripts of his testimony before independent counsel Paul Ware, who […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
What’s new in the state court system
What follows is the state of the judiciary address of Ralph D. Gants, the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, on Tuesday. Introductory comments were edited out. In […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Reform through destruction
JERRY MILLER DIED in August in Virginia after a long illness. He was 83. Few people in Massachusetts now remember his name, but for several years in the early 1970s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Dealing fairly with pretrial detainees
IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, but there is a tested way to improve the fairness of our justice system while saving taxpayers money and lowering crime. The solution […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Councilors go to jail to hear ideas on reducing recidivism
Some 100 people went to jail yesterday to learn how to keep inmates from returning there once they get out. In a Boston City Council first, a committee convened a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, State House News Service
Bill would end license suspensions for drug convictions
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SENATE LEADERS PLANÂ a vote next week to repeal a state law mandating that anyone convicted of a drug offense, regardless of whether their crime involved the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Healey, Kraft launch antiviolence initiative
ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft on Tuesday announced a violence prevention initiative aimed at high school students across the state. With $500,000 from the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Back Story
Probation juror: Patronage ‘disgusting’ but not illegal
A LITTLE MOREÂ than a year after the guilty verdicts came down in the Probation Department hiring scandal and with the appeals process inching along, a former juror in the widely […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Bloody night in Greater Boston
Gun violence has become the Muzak soundtrack to life in urban America: It’s always there, it’s bothersome, and it’s barely noticed after a while. At least by those outside its […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Criminal justice initiative overdue
ONE COULD ALMOST hear a collective sigh of relief emanating from the Massachusetts criminal justice reform community at the announcement last week that the state would—finally—begin a long-overdue Justice Reinvestment effort. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, Politics
Rivera explains stance on Lawrence Trust Act
Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera issued the following statement on Wednesday, a day after the City Council voted 7-2 in favor of a measure that bars police from detaining anyone for […]
