ISAAC YABLO, Mayor Michelle Wu’s senior advisor for community safety, says a shortcoming of efforts to rein in those responsible for gun violence in Boston has been that “we gave […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
We spearheaded state’s 2014 gun law; new legislation can build on it
FOR NEARLY 10 years Massachusetts has been one of the states with the lowest rates of firearm deaths. Firearm deaths include homicides and suicides by firearm and firearm accidents. Most […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
On Mass. and Cass, a Wu turn
ACCORDING TO THE old adage, a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. That may not be exactly what’s happening with the shift in the city’s approach to the […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Opinion
It’s time to end eternal punishment for young adults
DIRCEU SEMEDO is in his 31st year of a life sentence in Massachusetts. Nearly 50 years old now, at age 18 he participated in an assault that resulted in a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
AG says news laws needed to trace ‘ghost guns’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE’S TOP prosecutor wants legislators to do more to curb the rising presence of “ghost guns,” and her office warns that it can be difficult […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Drugs, Opinion
When drug busts lead to more overdoses we’re on the wrong path
MOST THOUGHTFUL police leaders will tell you that they will not arrest their way out of the drug abuse epidemic. A mountain of research supports their views. Still, as opioid […]
Posted inOpinion
Follow New York’s lead on matching university gifts
A correction has been added to this story. STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY, part of the New York higher education system, just got some joyous news, in fact half a billion dollars […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Commission urges New England states to prioritize prison education
IF EDUCATION IS key to a better life, that may hold double for those who are incarcerated. People who land in prison tend to have low educational attainment levels, while […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Calling it a ‘no-brainer,’ Healey recommends 7 for pardons
GOV. MARUA HEALEY proposed seven people for pardons on Thursday and indicated she is just getting started. The move by Healey attracted attention because most governors put off acts of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
To address police recruit shortage, raise standards
POLICE DEPARTMENTS across the Commonwealth and around the country are concerned about declining numbers of qualified recruits. The Boston Globe reported two months ago that the number of officers who […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Time to enact new rules for use of facial recognition software
LAST NOVEMBER, on the day after Thanksgiving, yet another Black man was wrongfully arrested due to racially biased face surveillance. Randall Reid was detained on his way to dinner with […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Politics
Attention turns to Arroyo’s role in Rollins scandal
RACHAEL ROLLINS wasn’t sending out text messages into the void. City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo was answering. Two scathing reports on Rollins’s conduct as US attorney showed that she crossed all sorts […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Media
Rollins wheeled and dealed with the Globe, Herald
SIPPING CHABLIS WITH Jill Biden, it turns out, was the least of Rachael Rollins’s transgressions. Ever since reports last summer that Rollins attended a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at an […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
A reputation for straight talk – but a record of subterfuge
RACHAEL ROLLINS built her political persona on a straightforward message: What you see is what you get. But it turns out the public got a lot from the US attorney […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Rollins resigning as US attorney
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE RACHAEL ROLLINS, a former Suffolk County prosecutor who quickly rose in political prominence and often drew the ire of Republican lawmakers, will resign her role as […]
Posted inOpinion
Why Mass. chose an anti-democratic method of naming judges
THE ELECTION for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court mercifully ended last month. After $45 million in political donations, Wisconsin has a new justice. The “campaign” included charges that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
AG Andrea Campbell picks her targets
ATTORNEY GENERAL Andrea Campbell has waded into some politically thorny topics so far, trying to balance an advocacy lens as “the people’s lawyer” with the practical demands of being “top […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
It’s time to restore felon voting rights
THE JOINT COMMITTEE on Election Laws recently voted a bill favorably out of committee that would expand democracy and signal a tide change in how Massachusetts weighs punishment, rehabilitation, and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Poll finds big safety concerns among Boston public school parents
AMID GROWING CONCERNS over violence in Boston schools, a new poll finds that more than two-thirds of parents of Boston Public Schools students are worried about their children’s safety in school […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Juul to pay Mass. $41 million in multi-state settlement
MASSACHUSETTS WILL RECEIVE $41 million as part of a $462 million settlement between e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. and six states plus the District of Columbia for the company’s role […]
Posted inTransportation
Ex-Keolis official accused in $8m commuter rail fraud
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A FORMER TOP OFFICIAL at Keolis Commuter Services pleaded not guilty to a slew of federal charges Wednesday after prosecutors alleged that he and another man […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
We need to learn from criminal justice mistakes
OUR IDEA of safety is person-based. Whenever something goes tragically wrong in criminal justice our reflex is to go “down and in” to find the malfunctioning human whose misconduct defeated […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
In quest to improve policing, time is on our side
IN THE WORLD of policing, what do waiting for nature to call to a drunken – and disruptive – Red Sox fan, taking a measured approach to car stops, and […]
Posted inTransportation
Will Healey go inside or outside for State Police and MBTA hires?
IF LEADERSHIP IS key to righting a listing state agency, nothing Gov. Maura Healey does in the coming weeks may be as important as her selection of new leaders to […]
