House and Senate negotiators hashing out a final deal on a sweeping jobs and business support package need to decide whether the measure should also embrace a major criminal justice reform: allowing many 18-year-olds to be tried in the youth justice system, not adult courts.
criminal justice
Posted inEducation
Nearly 15 years after student discipline reform, school suspensions in Mass. are falling. Are emergency removals taking their place?
In 2012, after child advocates spent years trying to reduce punitive suspensions in schools, Massachusetts passed sweeping education reforms, kickstarting a longstanding policy shift away from exclusionary discipline methods. Nearly 15 years later, out-of-school suspensions are falling, but emergency removals — a mechanism allowing administrators to immediately remove a student from school due to severe behavior for up to two days — have increased.
Posted inOpinion
Trying to stem medical recidivism
There were more than 10 million people released from jails or houses of correction across the United States in 2019. Those first weeks and months are a particularly vulnerable time.
Posted inEducation
Rachael Rollins lands job at Roxbury Community College
Rachael Rollins is working on a new program geared towards formerly incarcerated people, with a focus on women of color.
Posted inOpinion
To reduce recidivism, raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction
We’ve seen the benefits of raising the age to 17 — a 48 percent reduction in juvenile arrests and a 67 percent drop in the arrest rates of 18- to 20-year-olds, according to data from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. Now it’s time to go further.
Posted inTransportation
MBTA employee indicted 6 years ago pleads guilty
An MBTA EMPLOYEE who was indicted and suspended six years ago for leveraging his job as a buyer to solicit kickbacks and illegal gifts pleaded guilty on Monday and was […]
Posted inOpinion
My Jewish faith spurs me to back prison moratorium
JEWISH PEOPLE all over the world recently celebrated Rosh Hashanah, our New Year. As a rabbi, this is a time where I support my community in making teshuvah – a […]
Posted inOpinion
Two Thomas decisions declare ‘war on innocence’
TWO SUPREME COURT opinions written by Justice Clarence Thomas and issued in the past month, Shinn v. Ramirez and Jones v. Hendricks, look like routine attacks on the Warren Court’s protections for […]
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
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 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
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 inCriminal Justice, Opinion
The problem isn’t just a few bad apples
Now we learn that Inspector General Glen Cuhna, who once seemed ready to pin a massive state drug lab scandal on a lone chemist, Annie Dookhan, actually referred four other lab workers for […]
Posted inOpinion
I saw parallels to Clancy case as a juvenile court judge
THE TRAGIC DEATH of the beautiful Clancy children may portend a long overdue indictment of the cavalier use of powerful psychotropic medications over non-pharmacological methods of treatment for those suffering […]
Posted inState Government, State House News Service
Campbell takes office guided by personal experiences
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN A CEREMONY focused on the historic “firsts” of Andrea Campbell’s inauguration as Massachusetts’ first Black woman elected to be attorney general — and the family […]
Posted inThe Download
Lawsuit alleges racial discrimination in tenant screening tool
Two Black women from Massachusetts are at the center of what could become a landmark federal case about whether software that screens potential tenants is illegally biased against Black and […]
Posted inCourts, Opinion
SJC backslides on racial disparities in policing
IN A DECISION issued last week, the Supreme Judicial Court acquiesced in the disproportionate stopping and frisking of young people of color in the Commonwealth by upholding a police officer’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care, Opinion
Medicaid should cover the incarcerated
THERE IS AN UNSPOKEN and growing public health crisis in our country. For millions of Americans with serious health care needs, their treatment is not being provided at a hospital […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice
Berkshire County study tracks use of plea deals
AN UNPRECEDENTED look into how criminal cases get disposed of in Berkshire County reveals a trove of data, shedding a light on racial disparities, disparities based on lawyer type, and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
DOC accepts sweeping settlement on mental health care for prisoners
THE MASSACHUSETTS Department of Correction will have to completely transform the mental health care it provides to inmates, under a settlement the department reached with the US Department of Justice […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
CLT chief accuses Baker of cowardice on Amirault pardons
THE RETIRING executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation on Thursday accused Gov. Charlie Baker of cowardice in withdrawing his bid to pardon Gerald Amirault and Cheryl Amirault LeFave, who […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Governor’s Councilors skeptical of Amirault pardons
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER recommended pardoning Gerald Amirault and Cheryl Amirault Lefave, who were convicted in a high-profile child sexual abuse case. But members of the Governor’s Council on Tuesday suggested […]
