Upcoming Hearings on Medicare for All and Universal Child Care: Share Your Story

The reason why we support progressive policies is the tangible, positive impact that they will have in bettering the lives of people across the Commonwealth.

When health insurance costs too much and provides too little, and when families struggle to make ends meet in order to afford child care, people end up with undue stress, growing debt, and foreclosed opportunities.

The good thing? We can change that.

There will be upcoming hearings in the MA Legislature on Medicare for All and universal child care / early education, and they will be an opportunity to share why how such policies would have a tangible, positive impact on you and the people you care about.

Next Tuesday: Medicare for All Hearing

Next Tuesday (10/26) at 11 am, the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing will be hearing testimony on Medicare for All (S.766/H.1267).

These bills would make health care at last a truly enjoyed human right with a non-profit health care system that puts patients before profits, is comprehensive, covers every one, and is affordable.

If you would like to speak at the hearing, you must sign up by 4 pm today!

If you aren’t able to attend but still want to share why Medicare for All is so important to you, don’t fret!

Coming Soon: Hearing on the Common Start Bill

The Common Start coalition is collecting testimony for their bill’s hearing next month. The Common Start bill would establish a system of affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families, over a 5-year timeline. This system would cover early education and care for children from birth through age 5, as well as after- and out-of-school time for children ages 5-12, and for children with special needs through age 15.

The hearing is on November 23, but the coalition is asking for testimony by Thursday, October 28 to put together a curated “recipe book” (Common Start, A Recipe for Affordable, Accessible, High-Quality Education and Care).

Check out the coalition’s guide to writing testimony here, and send testimony (or stories you’d like to include) to james@field-first.com.

Ending the Inhumanity of Our Carceral System

Prison

Curbing Solitary Confinement (H.2504)

No Cost Calls (S.1559)

Visitation Rights (H.2440)

Thursday, October 21st, 2021

Testimony to the Joint Committee on Public Safety

My name is Caroline Bays. I am board president of Progressive Massachusetts, Thank you to the chairs, Sen. Timilty and Rep. Gonzalez and the other members of this committee for hearing my testimony. As I said I am testifying as board President of PM for these three bills we are supporting (H.2504 on solitary confinement, S.1559 no cost calls, and H.2440 on visitation rights), but more importantly, I am also testifying as a person who has a dear friend currently experiencing the horrors of our prison system as it is currently run. 

I have been visiting my friend since November of 2016 when I received a call from a mutual friend asking me to go visit this…well…kid who was suicidal and had been put in 10 Block. That has led me on a journey that was impossible to imagine prior to meeting him.  I have listened to him cry about being tortured himself and cry even harder about witnessing the torture of others over the four years he spent in solitary confinement. I have watched the DOC get around the solitary provisions of the CJRA by changing names of units and allowing fifteen extra minutes out of cell time so they don’t have to follow the law. I have been a victim of the DOC’s  concerted efforts to limit visitations – to the point now that after visiting him on a weekly basis, I have only been able to visit him three times since October of 2020 when he was moved from DDU to Souza-Baranowski. I have received the frantic emails asking for money so he can call family – and phones are the only link to us he has left to him since Souza has reduced the visiting schedule to virtually non-existent. But the most horrific thing I have witnessed over the last five ½ years has been the torture that he experienced while in solitary confinement. And if you think I am using the term torture flippantly or I’m exagerating – then please, please, please read the DOJ report which found the DOC guilty of torture and in violation of the 8th amendment. I read the report and as graphic and horrific as the stories were to me – they could have been taken from any of the letters from my friend. I beg you to address the egregious and inexcusable overuse of solitary confinement in the DOC. In fact – to give you an exampleof it’s overuse – My friend was recently put back in solitary confinement. What did he do wrong? He received mail that tested positive for drugs – from his lawyers. 

In summation – these three bills are all necessary to address the concerted effort DOC has made to limit contact between people inside and their loved ones, despite everything we know about how important maintaining relationships to loved ones is for successful re-entry.  I have witnessed first hand how the DOC has tried to get around the solitary confinement provisions in the CJRA of 2018. I have watched loved ones sent away because they weren’t on the approved visitation list. And I have experienced the frantic emails begging for money just so he can call a loved one who was in crisis.

As board President of PM I ask you to report these three bills out favorably – but as a citizen of Massachusetts who has someone I care about inside, I beg you – – please – please help those of us who are suffering by passing these important bills enabling us to keep in contact with our loved ones. Thank you for hearing my testimony. 

Caroline Bays