The state’s top judge is calling on the Legislature to end mandatory minimum sentences for drug convictions, saying the fixed punishments fall disproportionately on minorities, give too much power to prosecutors, and don’t serve as an effective deterrent.
In his first State of the Judiciary address on Thursday, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants said mandatory minimum sentencing is taking the decisions away from judges who know the law, in many cases leaving it to prosecutors to decide how much time a defendant serves.
“Prosecutors often will dismiss a drug charge that carries a mandatory minimum sentence in return for a plea to a non-mandatory offense with an agreed-upon sentence recommendation, and defendants often have little choice but to accept a sentencing recommendation higher than they think appropriate because the alternative is an even higher and even less appropriate mandatory minimum sentence,” Gants told attendees at the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Bench-Bar Symposium at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston. “For all practical purposes, when a defendant is charged with a drug offense with a mandatory minimum sentence, it is usually the prosecutor, not the judge, who sets the sentence.”
Gants, who was sworn in as chief justice less than three months ago, said he will convene a working group of judges, lawyers, and probation officers to come up with guidelines to ensure “individualized, evidence-based sentences.” A main sticking point to mandatory minimums, he said, is the racial impact. Gants ticked off figures that showed minorities making up a disproportionate number of convicted offenders, including three-quarters of those convicted of drug offenses that carry mandatory minimum sentences in fiscal 2013.
“I do not suggest that there is intentional discrimination, but the numbers do not lie about the disparate impact,” he said.
Citing a poll from earlier this year by the MassINC Polling Group, Gants said the public supports giving judges discretion in sentencing, with only 11 percent favoring mandatory minimums, 41 percent favoring letting judges decide sentencing on a case-by-case basis, and 44 percent back giving judges some discretion in following sentencing guidelines.
Gants said that overall the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses will probably result in “some reduction” in jail sentences. Gants said any savings from reducing jail time (it costs the state $47,000 a year to incarcerate someone) could go for programs to reduce recidivism, provide drug and mental health treatment, and boost salaries for assistant district attorneys and public defenders.
“To those who favor the status quo in the so-called war on drugs, I ask: How well is the status quo working?” he said. “In 2013, roughly twice as many of our residents died of unintentional opioid-related overdoses as died in 2000: an estimated 674 in 2013, compared with 338 in 2000. They are dying not only in our inner cities, but in our suburbs and rural villages. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in Massachusetts, exceeding motor vehicle accidents.”
Gants also announced other initiatives he hopes to undertake as chief justice, including an alternative to private arbitration within the state’s civil courts that would reduce the time and money spent on cases that don’t require lengthy discovery and court hearings.
“We will compete with private arbitration,” Gants said. “I have nothing against private arbitration; some of my wonderful former colleagues on the Superior Court are now private arbitrators. But I do not want a Commonwealth where those with a civil dispute think that they can resolve it efficiently and sensibly only through private arbitration rather than in our civil courts, where those who think they need to leave their personal care physician for concierge medicine also think they need to leave our civil courts for concierge justice.”
Gants also wants to expand programs such as “lawyer for a day,” where attorneys are available for consultation and mediation. Gants also announced he would expand the number of so-called “legal service centers” to aid people who cannot afford an attorney and are representing themselves in court. There are currently two such centers and Gants said that, by 2017, he plans to have one in each of the state’s 15 largest courthouses, which serve more than half of the state’s population.
Gants said he will push the Legislature to expand and fund the Housing Court, noting that one-third of people in the state do not have access to a Housing Court. He also called on lawmakers to increase funding for civil legal aid, which he said was “not only an investment in equal justice, but also a sound fiscal investment, generating savings in public expenditures greater than its costs.”
The two leaders of the Trial Court, Chief Justice Paula Carey and Trial Court Administrator Harry Spence, also gave speeches. Carey said she initially had reservations about two managers trying to jointly run the Trial Court, but she said her working relationship with Spence has been great. Spence said he is focusing most of his effort on using technology to allow the courts to maintain services with much lower staff levels.
None of the justices directly addressed the scandal at the Probation Department that led to the conviction of former commission John O’Brien and two of his top aides in federal court earlier this year. Spence did say, however, that the Probation Department had undergone a successful overhaul. “The Probation service is truly back in action,” he said.
Bruce Mohl contributed to this report.
