ON SUNDAY, it was Steph Curry’s relentless rain of 3s that reverberated 3,000 miles away in Boston. The question this morning is whether the moves made on Tuesday by San […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
31,000 defendants to split $14m in settlement
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Roughly 31,000 defendants who had criminal convictions vacated in the wake of a massive state drug lab scandal are poised to split about $14 million in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
House will vote on sexting, revenge porn bill
FIVE YEARS AFTER Gov. Charlie Baker first proposed new laws addressing sexting and revenge porn, the Legislature is prepared to consider the legislation. The House plans to vote Thursday on […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
An awkward handoff at Suffolk DA’s office
IT HASN’T EXACTLY been a seamless transition at the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, which Rachael Rollins left in January to become US attorney. Gov. Charlie Baker named Kevin Hayden, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
House plans vote on prison construction moratorium
THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE is set to vote on language this Thursday that would impose a five-year moratorium on new prison construction. The language is tucked into a large government bond […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC says sheriffs can charge commissions for prison phone calls
MASSACHUSETTS SHERIFFS HAVE the legal authority to raise revenue from contracts for inmate phone calls, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday. Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, whose office was at […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
If public safety is the goal, free prison calls are the answer
Decades of research shows that promoting communication between incarcerated people and their support networks has many benefits, chief among them, improving reentry success upon release and reducing recidivism.
Posted inCriminal Justice
In Suffolk DA’s race, the gloves come off
IT SEEMED INEVITABLE that it would emerge one of the main fault lines in the race for Suffolk County district attorney: Kevin Hayden, appointed to the post in January by […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
What finally put undocumented immigrant driver’s license bill in play?
THE FIRST TIME a bill was proposed in Massachusetts to let immigrants without legal status obtain a driver’s license was in 2003. Since then, bills have regularly been introduced, languished […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s time for Mass. to eliminate cash bail
MASSACHUSETTS’ INCARCERATED population has been declining for several years. As a result, we now have the lowest overall incarceration rate in the US, and the Massachusetts Department of Corrections has […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
State Rep. David LeBoeuf arrested for drunken driving
STATE REP. DAVID LEBOEUF was arrested Tuesday night and charged with drunken driving, after he was caught driving with a blood alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
For Wilkerson, a looming question of culpability
TENACITY ALONE SOMETIMES brings its own rewards, and Dianne Wilkerson certainly looks determined to complete her return from the political wilderness more than a decade after being sent off to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
William Allen granted parole after 28 years in jail
THE PAROLD BOARD on Wednesday granted parole to William Allen, one of two men to have his first-degree murder sentence commuted by Gov. Charlie Baker earlier this year. After spending […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Study shows positive impact of ‘procedural justice’ police training
DESPITE WIDESPREAD EMBRACE by police departments of various approaches to officer training, there is remarkably little firm evidence on the impact of schooling law enforcement personnel on everything from dealing […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
DOJ reaches police reform deal with Springfield
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE and city of Springfield plan to enter into a consent decree that will resolve the federal government’s claim that the Springfield […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Koonce murder sentence commuted after 31 years in jail
AFTER SPENDING 31 years in jail for murder, Thomas Koonce will soon be a free man. Gov. Charlie Baker commuted Koonce’s sentence in January and on Tuesday the Parole Board […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Changing incarceration trends lead to prison closure
THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT of Correction on Thursday made a surprising announcement: MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole will stop housing prisoners over the next two years. The reason the department gave was […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
State preparing to close down Walpole prison
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE OFFICIALS plan to wind down operations at MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole, one of the state’s oldest correctional facilities. The Department of Correction on Thursday announced […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Chicopee school superintendent arrested for lying about threatening messages
THE CHICOPEE SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT was arrested Wednesday for sending threatening messages to a candidate for the Chicopee police chief position then lying about it to FBI investigators. Lynn Clark, 51, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Man, 78, exonerated in decades-old arson case over juror anti-Semitism
A MAN CONVICTED of arson nearly 40 years ago for burning down his vacation home in the Berkshires has been exonerated, due partly to anti-Semitic comments made by jurors in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Public safety secretary responds to criminal justice reform concerns
AFTER THE CHAIRMAN of the House Judiciary Committee questioned Gov. Charlie Baker’s commitment to implementing the criminal justice and police reform laws, Baker officials defended their efforts in a detailed […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC places safeguards on use of cellphone ‘tower dumps’
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT will allow the police to continue using “tower dumps,” requests for broad swaths of cellphone data, despite pleas from privacy activists to eliminate the practice. But […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge open to religious discrimination claim on vaccine mandate
AFTER GOV. CHARLIE BAKER instituted an executive branch COVID-19 vaccine mandate, 156 State Police union members asked for religious exemptions. All of them were denied. In seven cases, however, the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Probate judge resigns in wake of SJC suspension
PROBATE AND FAMILY Court Judge Paul Sushchyk resigned on Monday, five days after the Supreme Judicial Court suspended him without pay for groping a court employee and lying about it. […]
