Senators outline broad criminal justice reform agenda

Lawmakers look to broaden scope beyond pending report

SAYING THE TIME is right for the state to take a look at sweeping criminal justice reforms, a group of Democratic state senators is urging the Legislature to take up bills addressing everything from mandatory minimum drug sentences to fines and fees that lawmakers say are unfairly leading some people to spend time behind bars

Activists interrupt criminal justice meeting

Advocates worried reform bill won’t address sentencing issues

CHANTING “JOBS NOT JAIL,” advocates for criminal justice reform briefly disrupted the final meeting of a state criminal justice policy commission today, part of a growing chorus of voices expressing concern that state leaders are preparing to put forward legislation that won’t include major changes to sentencing laws. The protest came as advocates and lawmakers

BNN News Interviews MassINC Research Director, Ben Forman

To discuss latest research on the Geography of Incarceration

On Wednesday, November 16th MassINC Research Director, Ben Forman sat down with Christopher Lovett on Network Neighborhood News to discuss a new report from MassINC on the “geography of incarceration,” tracing its disproportionate effect on certain Boston neighborhoods and populations.

Mapping incarceration in Boston

Study finds minority neighborhoods burdened by high jail rates

A SWATH OF mostly minority Boston neighborhoods is so heavily affected by the criminal justice system that nearly every street has a resident who has spent time in jail, a concentration of incarceration that is costing millions of dollars and threatening the social fabric of neighborhoods already struggling with high rates of poverty and other

Checking the pulse on criminal justice reform

The MassCJRC Journal

 One after another last week the Sentencing Commission held a public hearing to gather input on ideas discussed in a closed session over the past year, the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) working group met to review the latest CSG analysis, and Justice Gants delivered his third state of the judiciary address. This burst of activity

Reducing recidivism

Criminal justice reform leaders from Massachusetts gather to examine strategies

Last week, MassINC gathered at The Boston Foundation with criminal justice reform leaders from Massachusetts and beyond to examine strategies to reduce recidivism. The public forum coincided with the release of new MassINC research estimating that repeat offenders make up more than two-thirds of defendants committed to state and county prisons in Massachusetts each year.

Massachusetts digs in on justice-reinvestment

The MassCJRC Journal

Massachusetts state leaders have launched a data-driven “justice reinvestment” approach to develop a policy package for the 2017 legislative session that curbs corrections spending and shifts resources into strategies to reduce recidivism and increase public safety. Twenty-four other states have carried out this data-driven approach, with intensive technical assistance from The Council of State Governments

Perspectives on Leadership for CJ Reform from CT Gov. Dannel Malloy

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy headlined a Kennedy School forum this week to press his case for serving young adults differently in the US criminal justice system. Focusing strategically on justice-involved young adults to reduce recidivism was the topic of a recent MassINC policy brief, as well as a report issued last fall by the Kennedy School’s Program

Kicking off the Justice Reinvestment Policy Brief Series

The MassCJRC Journal

MassINC and the Criminal Justice Reform Coalition are excited to announce the launch of the Justice Reinvestment Policy Brief Series. Over the coming months, this new research initiative will succinctly examine Justice Reinvestment in Massachusetts with the release of several policy primers exploring critical criminal justice issues. As many of you will have already seen, we

New research finds wide racial and ethnic variation in cash bail in Massachusetts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  A new study by the nonpartisan think tank MassINC shows large racial and ethnic disparities in the composition of defendants awaiting trial in jail. In Barnstable County, black defendants are overrepresented in the jail population relative to their share of the county’s general population by a factor of 10 to one. Out west in
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