Refunding Corrections

7th Annual Policy Summit | Event Recording

Focusing on criminal justice information systems, MassINC and panel experts review efforts to increase transparency, improve data collection, and root out racial bias.

Rooting Out Racial Bias

Event Recording

Focusing on criminal justice information systems, MassINC and panel experts review efforts to increase transparency, improve data collection, and root out racial bias.

FY21 budget offers a beacon for Justice Reinvestment

The Gateway Cities Journal

The FY21 budget, which passed both branches last week, goes even further by creating a true “Justice Reinvestment” fund and capitalizing it with a $15 million appropriation. From job training and transitional employment to housing stabilization, a wide range of community-based programs are eligible for these resources.

Budget offers solid blueprint for ‘Justice Reinvestment’

The MassCJRC Journal

As Massachusetts implements last year’s sweeping criminal justice reform package, we must stay focused on Justice Reinvestment—the effort to squeeze more public safety from limited resources by reducing prison terms and redirecting the savings to behavioral health treatment, education, training, and reentry services. The state budget signed this week by Gov. Baker includes promising new

An oversight board committed to improving criminal justice data and transparency

The MassCJRC Journal

Data and transparency are critical to securing the improvements in public safety that comprehensive criminal justice reform promises. If we want reform to take hold, we must be vigilant about making progress in these two areas. Over the past few months, there have been some unsettling signs. In July, strong provisions empowering an independent commission

Putting our money where our mouth is

The MassCJRC Journal

With the passage of the FY 2019 state budget last week, leaders in the House and Senate once again signaled their commitment to comprehensive criminal justice reform. The sweeping package passed by the Legislature in April with overwhelming bipartisan support will only payoff if we invest in it. In the first state budget post-reform, lawmakers

Finding Better Ways to Allocate Limited Public Safety Resources

The MassCJRC Journal

Massachusetts’s criminal justice reform legislation is arguably the most wide-ranging and comprehensive in the country, at least as far as progress in a single legislative session goes. However, unlike most states that have pursued comprehensive reform, our legislation was largely crafted without independent technical assistance from the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI). One of the key

Delivering on the Promise of Criminal Justice Reform

Highlights from the Fifth Annual Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition Policy Summit

In true MassINC fashion, the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition’s Fifth Annual Policy Summit was one part celebration—recognizing the accomplishments of so many to advance comprehensive reform legislation—and nine parts substantive dialogue, as we regroup for implementation. For those who were unable to attend, the panel conversation featured the Honorable Paula Carey, Representative Byron Rushing,

Giving thanks to a pragmatic and hardworking legislature

On what a collection of leaders in Massachusetts was able to accomplish this fall

Leaders in both the House and Senate deserve praise for passing comprehensive criminal justice reform bills this fall. The legislature’s accomplishments are a positive departure from how criminal justice policymaking has unfolded in the past; for far too long, Massachusetts made criminal justice law by anecdote, often in response to a single sensational crime. As documented in a series of
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