More than two-thirds of defendants sentenced to state and county prisons in Massachusetts have had prior incarcerations, according to new analysis presented in this policy brief. Comprehensive change is necessary to reduce this elevated level of repeat offending and improve public safety. The third installment in a series exploring various components of reform, this paper read more

Viewing Justice Reinvestment Through a Developmental Lens

New approaches to reducing young adult recidivism in Massachusetts

Residents ages 18 to 24 are the most likely demographic to find their way into Massachusetts prisons and the quickest to return to them upon release. Innovative models to serve justice-involved young adults have enormous potential to reduce recidivism. These new approaches are also central to increasing public safety in high-crime neighborhoods, where young adults read more
Many states involved in Justice Reinvestment—a data-driven approach to reduce incarceration and increase public safety—have taken aim at the practice of holding defendants on cash bail. These efforts are backed by research that shows many defendants held in jail awaiting trial do not pose a serious risk. Keeping low-risk defendants out of jail allows states read more

Crime, Cost & Consequences

A Two Year Progress Report

In 2013, MassINC issued Crime, Cost, and Consequences, a comprehensive look at the performance of the state’s criminal justice system. At the Second Annual Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Summit, we issued this update. These new figures show steady progress in some areas, while other problems identified in the 2013 report continue to present stubborn read more

Ready for Reform?

Public Opinion on Criminal Justice in Massachusetts

This full report expands on the findings presented at MassINC’s Criminal Justice Summit with Gov. Patrick in February 2013. The research – a poll of Massachusetts residents and four focus groups, conducted by the non-partisan MassINC Polling Group – shows that Bay Staters want a criminal justice system that is effective at reducing crimes through read more

Crime, Cost, and Consequences

Is it Time to Get Smart on Crime?

As the title suggests, the report calls into question Massachusetts’s current approach to corrections, which favors long prison stays at the expense of treatment, reentry programming, and post-release supervision. Without a change in course, the report concludes that Massachusetts will spend more than $2 billion over the next decade on corrections policies and practices that read more
Topic(s): Criminal Justice

From Cell to Street

A Plan to Supervise Inmates After Release

This report begins and ends with a concern for the public safety of hardworking, law-abiding citizens of the Commonwealth. Our citizens deserve safe neighborhoods where their children can play on the streets, businesses can thrive, the elderly can walk without fear, and neighbors can congregate at night on their front porches. In recent years, much read more

Prisons and Sentencing in Massachusetts

Waging a More Effective Fight Against Crime

Does Massachusetts need more prison space to keep crime in check and improve public safety? Who’s in prison now? Are we filling our prisons with the right people? The answers contained in this investigative report on our corrections system may surprise you. For instance, contrary to popular perception an inflow of low-level drug offenders is read more
MassINC’s report Criminal Justice in Massachusetts: Putting Crime Control First, posed a simple question: “What policies would reduce crime?” For answers, we turned to nationally recognized crime policy expert Mark Kleiman of UCLA (formerly of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government) and his colleagues at BOTEC Analysis Corporation. The report offered a comprehensive read more

Criminal Justice in Massachusetts

Putting Crime Control First

In Massachusetts, as across the country, crime is at the top of the public agenda. Yet crime control — how to actually reduce the current and future number of crimes and criminals — does not receive the level of serious policy attention it deserves. Opportunities to reduce crime are systematically neglected, as policy making is read more

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