GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said the state’s 13,200 prisoners will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday along with about 80,000 residents and staff at homeless shelters, substance use treatment programs, and […]
criminal justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker sees use for facial recognition in DC probes
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said on Tuesday he was glad that the state still has access to facial recognition technology as officials attempt to identify and prosecute Massachusetts residents who engaged […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Prisoner’s lawyer details attempted suicide
AN ATTORNEY representing a prisoner at a maximum security institution in Shirley says her client informed a corrections officer on January 2 that he was contemplating suicide and was told, […]
Posted inOpinion
The shameful COVID-19 death of Joseph Messere
ON THE LAST DAY of 2020, COVID-19 claimed the lives of 81 Massachusetts residents. Joseph Messere was one of those 81. Like the death of all of the others, Joe’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
A ban is not a plan
THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT has reminded us that we are not going to ban our way to social justice and public safety. The SJC on December 15 declared that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Prison shutdowns prompting home confinements, transfers
OFFICIALS AT THE STATE Department of Correction say they intend to move about 200 minimum security prisoners – some to new facilities and some to home confinement under a plan […]
Posted inOpinion
May 1 melee at the Bristol Cty. Jail was not unique
AS MASSACHUSETTS Attorney General Maura Healey recently found, corrections officers at the Bristol County Jail on May 1 used excessive use of force to quell a nonviolent demonstration by non-criminal […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Four prisoners die of COVID-19 during holiday week
FOUR PRISONERS at Massachusetts penal institutions succumbed to COVID-19 during the past week, bringing the total number of deaths under the jurisdiction of the Department of Correction to 15 for […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker signs police reform bill into law
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER signed sweeping police reform legislation on Thursday that will create a mandatory certification process for law enforcement and launch the nation’s first civilian-led police oversight board with subpoena power […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC says ‘three strikes’ law doesn’t bar probation
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT ruled that some defendants convicted under a section of an eight-year-old law focused on delivering stiff justice to repeat offenders can instead be placed on probation […]
Posted inHealth Care
Prison COVID retesting protocols questioned
JOSE NEGRON, a prisoner at MCI-Norfolk, tested positive for COVID-19, spent 10 days in isolation, and then was returned to his unit even though he was still complaining of a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
With police bill, compromise was the key
MAJOR POLICE REFORM is all but a done deal on Beacon Hill. The surest sign that the bill has been fully squeezed through the legislative wringer? No one is happy […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Senate committee faults Hodgson for not admitting Chang-Diaz
A SENATE LEGISLATIVE oversight committee says the Bristol County sheriff’s office violated state law and its own policies and procedures when it denied Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz access to an immigration […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC pans state panhandling law
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Tuesday overturned Massachusetts’s anti-panhandling statute, concluding that it unconstitutionally abridges free speech. Massachusetts state law prohibits a person from signaling or stopping a car for the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Healey pushes to block immigrant detention at jail
ATTORNEY GENERAL Maura Healey, in the wake of a report by her office on a May 1 confrontation at the Bristol County Jail, is seeking to prohibit Sheriff Thomas Hodgson […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Former state police troopers charged in overtime scheme
TWO FORMER State Police troopers were arrested Friday for a years-long overtime scheme, which allegedly allowed them to embezzle thousands of dollars in overtime pay, according to US Attorney Andrew Lelling’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker amends police reform bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER plans to return to the Legislature landmark legislation that would impose new accountability standards on police, proposing a handful of amendments Thursday that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care
Prisoners get high priority for vaccine
ADVOCATES FOR THE 13,000 people incarcerated at state and county jails praised the Baker administration on Wednesday for deciding to give prisoners and prison officials early access to the COVID-19 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Gov. Baker: Sign the police reform bill
State Rep. Liz Miranda and Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins sent the following letter today to Gov. Charlie Baker Dear Governor Baker, AS THE STATE representative that authored the provision […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
What a Biden administration could mean for policing
LOOK FOR THE terms “procedural justice” and “police legitimacy” to re-enter the vocabulary of the West Wing. As the incoming Biden administration forms its policy on policing in the US, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Defendant demands in-person, not virtual, day in court
Just a quick reminder that we’re running our final CommonWealth fundraising campaign of 2020. It’s called Give a Little, Get a Lot, because a donation of just $25 could help […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
DOC: Few prisoners would qualify for home confinement
UNDER PRESSURE to release prisoners to home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, the Massachusetts Department of Correction is downplaying the program’s impact, saying only about 20 to 25 of the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Compromise police reform bill reported out
AFTER FOUR MONTHS of closed-door negotiations, six members of the House and Senate reported out compromise police reform legislation on Monday that establishes a certification system for officers and punts […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
No marijuana ‘apocalypse,’ but legalization brings concerns
Second of two parts. Read the first part here. WHEN MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS were considering the 2016 ballot question to legalize recreational marijuana sales, opponents, including Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura […]
