Criminal justice reform supporters have been pushing to draw attention to the role played by bail in the legal system. Whether this will end up being a case of “be careful what you wish for” remains to be seen, but the issue is getting attention in ways advocates did not intend. 

The latest volley comes from the Baker administration, which is using a recent case to dial up pressure on the Legislature to act on a bill that would make it easier to hold more defendants indefinitely without bail before trial. 

The Globe reports today that Thomas Turco, Gov. Charlie Baker’s public safety secretary, sent a letter to legislators urging passage of a bill filed by the governor that would expand the ability to hold defendants deemed dangerous without bail. His legislation would let defendants be held indefinitely before trial, rather than the current limit of 180 days for cases in Superior Court and 120 days for District Court cases. It would also allow prosecutors to seek a ruling at any point that a defendant is too dangerous to have a bail amount set. Currently they must do that at the initial arraignment. It would also expand the cases for which prosecutors could seek a dangerousness hearing to include a wider set of charges, such a child rape, which is not currently included in that group. 

Turco’s letter cited the recent case of Shawn McClinton, a convicted rapist who was facing a new rape charge in July when the nonprofit Massachusetts Bail Fund posted the $15,000 bail he was being held on. Three weeks later, McClinton was arrested and charged with a new case of kidnapping and rape. 

The nonprofit Bail Fund, which opposes all cash bail, has seen a surge in donations as it spotlights the role of bail in keeping poorer defendants locked up before being tried while those of greater means have their bail posted and are free while awaiting trial. The organization, which originally posted bail amounts up to $500, has used the growth in support to bail out defendants facing more serious charges. Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins and Attorney General Maura Healey sharply criticized the group for posting McClinton’s bail.

Rollins’s office filed a motion in another case to raise a homeless defendant’s bail tenfold after learning the Bail Fund was prepared to provide the funds to have him released, but she withdrew the motion a day after CommonWealth reported on it. Her office filed a similar motion in at least one other case, but the defense attorney in that case, Meg Stanley, said this morning that the DA’s office notified her it planned to withdraw the motion today.  

Advocates called the criticism of the Bail Fund by Rollins and Healey misplaced, and said DAs should file for dangerousness hearings if they think a defendant poses an imminent public safety risk, not rely on high bail amounts to keep them behind bars. 

Rollins recently said her office will be seeking dangerousness hearings in more cases, something Worcester DA Joseph Early said his office would also be doing.  

Now, Baker is urging the Legislature to go further and expand the ways defendants can be held without bail. 

The administration’s bill is “a giant step backwards in criminal justice reform,” Randy Gioia, deputy chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, whose lawyers represent indigent defendants, told the Globe. “If this bill becomes law more people will be locked up for longer periods of time before trial. There is no data that supports why we need to do this.”

The administration seems to be hoping the Bail Fund involvement in more serious cases — and the outrage over the McClinton case in particular — will give fresh momentum to the bill, which Baker has filed twice before only to see lawmakers not act on it. 

It was just two years ago that Baker signed a sweeping criminal justice reform law that included reforms to the bail system and reduced some mandatory minimum sentences. In an era that has been marked by a sharp turn away from the more punitive approach to crime of the 1980s and 90s, the question now is whether legislators will be receptive to a proposal that swings the pendulum in the opposite direction.

MICHAEL JONAS

FROM COMMONWEALTH

The Baker administration is clearly worried the situation with COVID-19 is going to worsen as it ramps up hiring for the state’s contact tracing program.

Gov. Charlie Baker unveils a nursing home package providing $82 million in new long-term aid and, ominously, $62 million if COVID-19 reemerges with force this fall. Nursing home coronavirus deaths have accounted for nearly 66 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state.

Baker plugs and then funds restaurant dining.

US District Court Judge Mark Wolf refuses to grant an injunction lifting the state’s eviction and foreclosure ban, but he warns Baker that the pandemic is not a “blank check” to continue the moratorium indefinitely.

Opinion: Boston Mayor Marty Walsh says we guarantee defendants in criminal cases lawyers, why not those facing eviction proceedings?…Susan Finegan and Lynne Parker say a civil justice crisis is coming unless we set aside more money to hire attorneys.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

Secretary of State Bill Galvin says he will contest Massachusetts’ head count in the census if he needs to. (Associated Press) Galvin says he is especially worried about hard-to-count communities like Springfield and Holyoke. (MassLive)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

A Boston Police task force calls for a new oversight office with subpoena power. (WBUR) Among the recommendations is a requirement for all uniformed officers to have body cameras. (GBH) 

Rev. Richard “Doc” Conway, a Roman Catholic priest in Dorchester’s Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood, says the Boston Police Department seems to have pulled back on its community policing approach that engages with residents. (Dorchester Reporter)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Monson is the only town in Western Massachusetts labeled red, or high-risk, on the state’s COVID-19 infection map, and it landed there because of a coronavirus cluster tied to a private party. (MassLive)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

New York City is marking the 19th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at a moment of new harrowing loss. (New York Times) 

A Senate GOP COVID-19 relief bill fails, and now it looks like a stimulus bill that Massachusetts political leaders have been hoping for is unlikely to pass, if it passes at all, before the election. (NPR)

The parents of two Boston area service members killed in Iraq rip President Trump over a report that he disparaged US war dead as “suckers and losers.” (Boston Globe)

Former Maine governor Paul LePage is keeping busy bartending in Boothbay Harbor but is contemplating a run next year to reclaim the state’s top job. (Boston Globe)

ELECTIONS

At least 70 Democratic State Committee members are raising concerns about the party’s appointment of former state senator Cheryl Jacques to investigate whether party higher-ups meddled in the primary race between US Rep. Richard Neal and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

An Exeter, New Hampshire, woman who was told she couldn’t wear her T-shirt — which read “McCain Hero, Trump Zero” — while voting on Tuesday because it constituted improper “electioneering” in the building, promptly removed it and cast her ballot topless. (Boston Globe) 

Biden-backing Globe columnist Scot Lehigh says he’s encouraged from conversations with voters during a tour of Down East towns that left him thinking the Democratic nominee might be able to flip the state’s rural Second Congressional District (Maine is one of two states that apportions electoral votes by congressional district).

Joe Biden’s campaign is enjoying at least a short-term advantage in TV ad exposure as President Trump’s campaign pulls back spending in order to be able to fund more advertising in the race’s final few weeks. (Washington Post) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Gov. Charlie Baker allows arcades to reopen, and this is the reaction of one attorney representing a Salem arcade that sued Baker: “Sometimes you have to smack a dog across the nose with a newspaper before it understands the rules. Dogs aren’t supposed to s*** on the carpet and governors aren’t supposed to s*** on the Constitution.” (MassLive) 

Commercial fishermen can now begin applying for federal COVID-19 relief money. (Gloucester Daily Times)

Wayfair offers its employees paid time off to vote.

EDUCATION

The parents of two Northeastern University students suspended for the fall semester for violating coronavirus protocols have hired a lawyer, who says the university’s decision not to refund their $36,500 in tuition payments for the term is “outrageous.” (Boston Globe)

The Boston school department and the city’s teachers union reached an agreement on policies and practices to reopen schools which include weekly random COVID-19 testing of up to 5 percent of union members. (Boston Globe) 

Coronavirus worries are rising at Boston College, which temporarily shut down its men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams after 13 members testing positive for the virus. (Boston Globe)

Boston archdiocese schools have seen a nearly 4,000-student bump in enrollment, presumably driven by families who want the fully in-person format the schools are offering as an option this fall. (Boston Globe)

A professor accused of sexual misconduct, both in 2016 and as far back as 1997, is no longer employed at College of the Holy Cross. (Telegram & Gazette)

The UMass staff union files a labor complaint against the administration accusing them of bad faith negotiating and violating labor laws by bargaining through threats of layoffs and loss of health benefits. (MassLive)

Many professors at colleges and universities across Massachusetts join a national “strike” in support of racial justice. (WBUR)

Monomoy Regional School Superintendent Scott Carpenter told district families that school is expected to open as planned Monday, despite a jump in COVID-19 cases in Chatham. (Cape Cod Times) New Bedford is in a similar situation, with students beginning in-person as the city maintains a higher COVID-19 infection rate than much of the state. 

Quincy school officials have moved up the anticipated timeline for getting older students back in the classroom. (Patriot Ledger)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

The SJC will consider a challenge to state laws that include stiffer penalties for anyone caught selling drugs near a park or school. (The Salem News)

Defense attorneys with cases involving two Fall River police officers have a right to know that those officers admitted to making false police reports, according to a Supreme Judicial Court ruling. (Herald News)

A former IRS worker pleads guilty to helping prepare and file at least 70 false tax returns. (Eagle-Tribune)

The SJC upholds an $885,000 award that a jury gave to a former Millbury selectman who said he was fired by the Worcester sheriff’s department in retaliation for reporting a jail employee who was illegally campaigning for the sheriff during work time. (Telegram & Gazette)

MEDIA

Eviction Lab is helping journalists cover the housing crisis. The lab says Massachusetts has the most protective eviction legislation of any state surveyed. (Nieman Journalism Lab)

The Columbia Journalism Review explores how Sarah Palin came to sue the New York Times editorial page and why this unusual case is heading to trial.