Jonathan Cohn, the political director of Progressive Massachusetts, a state group that supports criminal justice reforms, says Hayden’s backtracking is a major mistake.
“There’s a strong and growing body of research that shows that declining to prosecute nonviolent misdemeanor cases not only minimizes individuals’ current involvement with the criminal legal system, but also substantially reduces the probability of future involvement,” Cohn told Bolts.
For me,
Accountability is Action –
So, take a fraction
Of your time
To learn what is not fine.
Take a stand
And address those in power and make them understand
That all injustice is intertwined.
“Justice is What Love Looks Like in Public.”
This is what Cornel West Said
And why I’ll be dressed in red
On Valentine’s Day
Standing outside the golden-domed State House
In collective action with those who want to show the way,
And be a beacon to help to sway
Those who write the policies.
To teach the leaders that radical love
Must come above
All other reasons why
Leaders guide.
We are done with the seasons of delay.
We will carry our signs that say
We cannot continue on this way.
Without LOVE for all:
Those coming from other places
People of different races
We need to welcome all faces
And face the consequences of income inequality
Of healthcare and education disparity
Housing insecurity, climate change,
Misogyny, and more.
We need to leave the system that pushes us
To consume more and more, and leaves us feeling spiritually poor.
Let us listen to Rebecca Cokley and Brittany Packnett Cunningham and “Spend Our Privilege” whatever that may be:
Health, or wealth, education, sexual orientation, citizenship of this nation,
The privilege of your race, your gender, your abled-bodied personhood
Take that privilege and spend it for the greater good.
It is not the role of the oppressed to address
The injustice that keeps them and us
Hushed. Voices unheard must rise up aided by those who can
Those who can do – Is that you?
It is I and it is why
I keep on writing, calling, showing up.
There is so much to do.
We need systemic change
We need an economy of gift exchange,
Not an economy of extraction, and exploitation, the system that
Created Mass incarceration.
Come to the world with gratitude
Welcome enough,
Stop buying all that stuff.
Know you are enough, you understand.
Lend your heart and hands.
In the words of Melnea Cass:
“If you can’t do great things
Do small things in a great way”
And have a Happy Valentine’s Day.
“Policy is my love language.” This is a quote that Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley often uses, and it rings so true. If we want to build a society where people truly love, care for, and respect each other, then we need policies that reflect that, rather than policies that dehumanize and marginalize.
Tell Your State Rep to Vote YES on the Work & Family Mobility Act!
Last Friday, the Work & Family Mobility Act was reported out of the Joint Transportation Committee.
This bill would enable all qualified state residents to apply for a standard Massachusetts driver’s license or identification card regardless of immigrant status.
Many MA residents depend on a car to get to work, to school, to the hospital, etc., and immigration status shouldn’t be a barrier to getting a license.
Moreover, the Work & Family Mobility Act would make us all safer. If all drivers have passed the same test and know the same rules of the road, and are properly insured, we all benefit.
The House is expected to vote on the bill soon—possibly as early as this week.
Valentine’s Day Rally to Pass the Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium Bill!
Let’s show love to incarcerated women and love for our communities! Come to the State House with Families for Justice as Healing on Monday from 12-1pm to push the Legislature to pass the Moratorium Bill and free women from Framingham and invest money in what communities really need to thrive! Please wear masks to keep each other safe. Feel free to bring signs with messages like FREE HER, STOP THE NEW WOMEN’S PRISON, or PASS S2030/H1905. RSVP HERE.
Hearts Broken on Slow Solutions, Love is Strong for our Movement
Every day that passes without action breaks our hearts, knowing that Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Immigrant, and all oppressed people are harmed by the status quo. Our frontline movements have worked for years for urgent social change, with some priority bills delayed by our legislature for over a decade. It is with our broken hearts and fierce love for each other that we will gather at the statehouse, united in calling for action.
We will be joining allied organizations in gathering at 3pm on Monday in front of the State House (and on Zoom) to lift up our priorities together. Will we have another year of immigrants in MA denied access to a driver’s license? Will tens of thousands more face needless COVID-19 evictions and foreclosures?
Healthy Youth Act Lobby Day
For over 10 years, the Healthy Youth Act has been our Commonwealth’s opportunity to ensure that public schools that choose to offer sex education provide lessons that are inclusive, comprehensive, and medically accurate.
This Monday, February 14, from 12 pm to 2 pm, the Healthy Youth Act Coalition will be hosting a virtual lobby day to urge the Legislature to pass the bill. RSVP here (and you can email your state rep here if you can’t make it.)
Fighting for a Fair Share from Our Wealthiest Institutional Neighbors
Tuesday, February 15, 6pm – 7:30 pm
Across the Commonwealth, towns and cities are wrestling with the challenges and fiscal burden of expanding nonprofit property tax expansion from some of the wealthiest education and medical institutions in our country. Without a framework for institutional contributions, critical services for residents are threatened. From Western Mass to Greater Boston, from North Shore to South Shore—this issue demands state action. Join us for a discussion on necessary state legislation on payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) programs and how advocacy organizations and state and local legislators are fighting to win it.
The PILOT Action Group is hosting a discussion with Davarian L. Baldwin, college professor and author of In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower and How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities. Baldwin’s book provides an excellent analysis of the role of large nonprofit institutions in our communities, and presents a vision of a more equitable relationship between communities and these institutions. Register here.
Common Start Coalition Roundtables
The Common Start Coalition is a statewide partnership of organizations, providers, parents, early educators, and advocates working together to make high-quality early education and child care affordable and accessible to all Massachusetts families.
Over the next few weeks, the Common Start Coalition will be hosting a series of roundtable discussions about why long-term investment in child care and early education infrastructure is so critical. Sign up today!
Wednesday, Feb 16, from 6:30pm – 7:30pm: Roundtable discussion on racial justice and Common Start, hosted by Neighborhood Villages and Coalition for Social Justice
Thursday, Feb 17, from 4pm – 5pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion on wraparound services, hosted by Horizons for Homeless Children
Thursday, February 24, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion with religious leaders on affordable childcare
Tuesday, March 1, from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm: Common Start Roundtable discussion on Building Blocks for a Healthy Future
Yesterday, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, politicians across the Commonwealth (and the country) honored Martin Luther King, Jr., for his commitment to racial equity and social justice.
It was a reminder of how much work we still have to do here in Massachusetts to deliver on his vision, and how we need to demand that elected officials follow through with their rhetoric from yesterday all 365 days of the year.
Three Quick Actions You Can Take Today
(1) Write to Your State Rep in Support of the VOTES Act
While Congress remains stalemated on voting rights action due to Republican and conservative Democratic (we’re looking at you, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) opposition, we have important action to take here in MA.
Last fall, the MA Senate passed the VOTES Act, which would make pandemic voting reforms like expanded mail-in voting and expanded early voting permanent as well as enact Same Day Voter Registration and stronger protections for jail-based voting. But the House needs to take action too. Write to your state representative today — and if you already have recently, follow up with them.
(2) Write to the Public Safety Committee in support of the Safe Communities Act.
Immigrant justice and racial justice are deeply intertwined. Longstanding state and local involvement in deportations discourages immigrants from seeking medical care, and prevents immigrant victims and witnesses from seeking police and court protection. Many immigrants—and their children—fear that seeking help from local authorities will result in deportation and family separation.
(3) Pledge to be a Fair Share Voter: For years, Massachusetts’ communities of color have been harmed by inequitable and inadequate access to transportation and public education. Now, the pandemic has heightened these economic and racial inequities that prevent shared prosperity.
The Fair Share Amendment is a transformative opportunity to raise revenue to build a more equitable commonwealth by investing in public education and transportation. Pledge your support for Fair Share today!
Wednesday, Jan 19, 4 pm: Legislative Briefing on No Cost Calls
This Wednesday, the MA Legislature’s Criminal Justice Reform Caucus is hosting a “NO COST CALLS” legislative briefing, open to the public. RSVP here.
They are partnering with the No Cost Calls Coalition and Prisoners’ Legal Services to explain how this legislation will remove barriers to communication between incarcerated people and their loved ones as Connecticut, New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego Counties have already done. Join this briefing to hear firsthand accounts of the hardships that phone charges impose and the benefits of facilitating family contact. Worth Rises, based on its experience in jurisdictions that have already eliminated charges, will present a fiscal analysis showing how cost-effective this legislation would be.
Thursday, Jan 20, 7 pm: #NoNewWomensPrison Virtual Forum
Join this Thursday to learn more about S.2030/H.1905, An Act Establishing A [5-year] Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium, and how to take action to support it. The forum will discuss what this bill does and doesn’t do, how it would be implemented, and what it would mean for Massachusetts to invest $50 million into communities, instead of incarceration.
Featured speakers include bill sponsors Sen. Jo Comerford and Rep. Chynah Tyler along with Mahtowin Munro of the United American Indians of New England, and Andrea James of Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls.
Progressive Mass was a signer to the following testimony organized by Prisoners’ Legal Services – MA. Read the full testimony here.
The mission of the Correctional Funding Commission is a critical one for the good of the Commonwealth. We spend approximately $1.3 billion each year to incarcerate 13,000 people. This means that we are spending approximately $100,000 a year to incarcerate each person currently behind bars – and the Executive Branch projects $732 million to repair, renovate, or replace prisons and jails on top of that. The critical question we must collectively ask is: what is the purpose of this spending, and is this purpose being served?
The charge of the Correctional Funding Commission is, in part, to conduct a comprehensive study to determine the appropriate level of funding for incarceration in the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, as of the public hearing on January 4, 2022, the Commission had not yet discussed “potential ways to increase efficiencies and reduce fixed costs,” a critical component of the analysis. The undersigned believe the Commission can only advance the public interest if its recommendations on spending for the Department of Correction (DOC) and Sheriffs’ Departments are backed up by robust independent oversight mechanisms that provide transparency and accountability to Commonwealth residents.
For decades, we have been attempting to incarcerate our way out of social problems while failing to comprehend crime as primarily driven by poverty and structural racism. Abundant research shows that high levels of incarceration do not increase public safety. Conversely, investing in communities has proven to be extremely successful in reducing violence and the risk of incarceration. The current and long-standing reality is that the Legislature awards ever-larger budgets to the DOC and Sheriffs without requiring measurable and meaningful outcomes for public safety, public health, or the public good.
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.
Chairman Eldridge, Chairman Day, members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary,
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting to make Massachusetts a leader on progressive policy.
Our platform demands justice for all, wherein underrepresented and/or vulnerable communities are protected under the law and treated with dignity and respect and tools for economic mobility. Criminal justice reform is an essential part of that, especially creating a system that ensures public safety, strong communities, and effective use of public funds.
The comprehensive criminal justice reform bill passed in 2018 took many important steps in such a direction, born out of a recognition of the social and economic costs of mass incarceration. However, the fact that the law was comprehensive does not mean that it was complete, and many vital reforms were left on the table.
One example is raising the age of criminal majority. That is why we are submitting testimony today in support of H.1826/S.920: An Act to Promote Public Safety and Better Outcomes for Young Adults.
This bill will gradually raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include 18, then 19, and then 20-year-olds over a five-year period. The recidivism rate of teens in the juvenile system is less than half of that of young people automatically prosecuted as adults. In the juvenile system, such emerging adults have access to the educational and counseling services that are so vital when they are still developing.
Young adults, especially young adults of color, are overrepresented in our criminal justice system. Reducing the number of young people who experience a system that is not designed for their developmental needs will have a positive impact on such young people, helping them to better be productive, engaged citizens and whole people upon release. And that means stronger, more resilient communities.
We urge you to build on the progress from last session and give a favorable report to H.826/S.920.
Chairman Finegold, Chairman Ryan, and Members of the Joint Committee on Election Laws:
I am submitting testimony in my capacity as Chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. We urge a favorable report for S.474 / H.836: An Act to Protect the Voting Rights of Eligible Incarcerated People.
Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots organization devoted to advancing policies that would make Massachusetts more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.
We believe that our democracy is strongest when all are able to participate, but many prospective voters face near insurmountable barriers in seeking to do so.
Take, for example, those who are incarcerated. In Massachusetts, individuals who are incarcerated without felony convictions maintain their right to vote, but too often they are unable to exercise that vote in practice. If individuals do not have timely access to the materials and information they need to vote, then that right does not exist.
It is important to remember that many of these incarcerated individuals are in pre-trial detention: in other words, they have not yet been convicted of any crime, but they are, in practice, losing their right to vote.
When incarceration leads to a loss of voting rights, it is clear that mass incarceration is a form of racist voter suppression. Indeed, while only 21 percent of the state’s population is Black or Latinx, more than 54 percent of the people incarcerated in the Department of Corrections are. Mass incarceration is systematically reducing Black and Brown voters from the electorate.
It is not lost on us that the only two states in the US that have full voter enfranchisement, including for those incarcerated with felony convictions, are Maine and Vermont, the two whitest states. Indeed, we can see the clear connections to the history of racist voter suppression in this country that we routinely call out when it happens elsewhere and need to call out when it happens here.
The practices and procedures around voting within our correctional system have an impact on incarcerated individuals even beyond their time there. When individuals are confused about whether or not they maintain their right to vote, they can be led to believe that they have lost it, even when they return to the community. Even though we have no laws disenfranchising individuals post-incarceration, I have—in my experience volunteering around the commonwealth—encountered individuals who believed they could not vote because of a past conviction. Confusion is a hallmark of voter suppression.
These bills would help us end such disenfranchisement by requiring sheriffs to provide all eligible voters ballot applications, voting materials, and a private place to vote, and to ensure timely return of applications and ballots, among other steps; and by improving registration rates for returning citizens. It also strengthens data and reporting because you can’t fix what you can’t measure.
Studies have shown that voting and civic participation are conducive to successful re-entry by giving returning citizens a stake in the future of their community. When we vote, we are voting for the world we want, or at least prefer, to live in, and we are strengthening the social fabric.
We urge you to vote in support of this bill to make the right to vote meaningful for all.
Chairman Eldridge, Chairman Day, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary:
I am submitting testimony in my capacity as Chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. We urge a favorable report for the following bills:
H.1868: An Act regarding decarceration and COVID-19 (Sabadosa)
H.1900: An Act relative to telephone service for inmates in all correctional and other penal institutions in the Commonwealth (Tyler)
H.1905: An Act establishing a jail and prison construction moratorium (Tyler)
H.1797: An Act to reduce mass incarceration (Miranda/Livingstone)
H.1910/S.977: An Act to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences related to drug offenses (Uyterhoeven – Creem)
H.1868: An Act Regarding Decarceration and COVID-19
Incarceration is always harmful, but during a deadly pandemic—and at a time when many correctional officers have resisted vaccination, it is truly a matter of life or death.
Those who are not fed appropriately or allowed appropriate exercise, are more likely than most to have comorbidities, a fact which increases the likelihood that they will die from this disease. Whatever reason they might be in prison for, nobody was sentenced to illness or death. When the state incarcerates someone, the state becomes responsible for ensuring their well-being. That means releasing as many people as possible in order to ensure that these tragic deaths do not continue and spiral out of control.
H.1900: An Act relative to telephone service for inmates in all correctional and other penal institutions in the Commonwealth
Families across Massachusetts are charged exorbitant fees to maintain vital connections with incarcerated loved ones. This is a regressive tax on the most vulnerable populations, and the MA Legislature can end it.
As communities already struggle with the high cost of housing, health care, and transportation, no one should be forced to choose between paying rent or buying groceries and maintaining contact with loved ones. Moreover, punitive policies targeted at the families of incarcerated individuals leave us all worse off: numerous studies have shown that contact with loved ones promotes public safety by supporting successful reentry.
H.1905: An Act establishing a jail and prison construction moratorium
Massachusetts has one of the lowest rates of incarceration in the country, yet we spend more on jails and prisons than most other states. Indeed, while the incarcerated population in MA decreased 21% from 2011-19, spending on incarceration has increased 25% over the same period. According to the Department of Corrections, the cost of keeping one woman incarcerated at MCI-Framingham is $162,260 — money that could be better spent on social supports that help women get back on their feet.
Conditions inside many MA prisons and jails are toxic and inhumane, despite the millions of dollars already poured into them. We cannot put more money in them and expect a different outcome than the one we see today, one that exacerbates racial inequity and trauma.
A five-year moratorium on new prison construction and the expansion of existing prisons and jails will give the Commonwealth the chance to shift spending priorities, especially as we recover from COVID, and the inequalities COVID revealed. We need to give communities the opportunity to create and sustain solutions that address the root causes of incarceration.
Sentencing Reforms: H.1797: An Act to reduce mass incarceration & H.1910/S.977: An Act to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences related to drug offenses
In 2018, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill. Recognizing that mandatory minimum sentences were a part of a failed “tough on crime” model that fueled mass incarceration, the Legislature eliminated many of them. However, the bill also created new mandatory minimums, continuing this problematic legacy of tying the hands of judges and failing to either deter or address the root causes of offenses.
Similarly ineffective is the sentence of life without parole. Studies have shown that severe sentences are not a deterrent to crime, and the sentence of life without parole forecloses on any possibility of rehabilitation, increases the size of our prison population, and saddles the prison system with the burden of elder care it is not equipped to provide. Enabling individuals who have served for twenty-five years to have a parole hearing is a common-sense reform.
We urge you to give these bills a favorable report and to contribute to our state’s re-evaluation of public safety in line with public health and racial equity.
