Let Beacon Hill Know: MA Doesn’t Need New Prisons

Although the Legislative session here in Massachusetts has been off to a slow start, I was delighted that one of the earliest hearings was for the Prison Moratorium bill.

This bill would put a five-year pause on new prison and jail construction, a recognition that we should be investing in jobs and education and not in incarceration.

The first step is getting the bill out of committee, and the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight needs to hear from people like your state senator and your state representative. The House is operating on a 60-day timeline for reporting bills out of committee, and that deadline is fast approaching.

Can you write to your state legislators in support of passing the Prison Moratorium?

The Legislature voted for the Prison Moratorium back in 2022, but Republican Governor Charlie Baker vetoed it. It advanced out of committee last session but never made it to the floor for a vote. Let’s get this unfinished business done early.

Testimony on Expanding the Public Records Law

Wednesday, June 24, 2025

Chair Collins, Chair Cabral, and Members of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group with chapters across the state committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.2210: An Act extending the public records law to the Governor and the Legislature (Sen. Rausch).

In the 2016 public record reform law, the Legislature created a commission to explore

whether to expand the public records law to the Legislature and the Governor’s office, but that commission ended up yielding no formal report. Massachusetts remains the only state in the US where both the executive and legislative branch of state government claim full exemption from public records law. The same governing bodies that require cities and towns to adhere to strict Open Meeting Law rules exempt themselves from even a basic level of transparency.

As other state governments understand, making executive records like calendars, emails and texts, visitor logs, and call logs accessible is key to accountability: when such documents are fully kept secret, the public is left in the dark about whom the Governor is meeting and why, and what they are prioritizing.

The difficulty in obtaining information from the Massachusetts Legislature not only makes our state an outlier but also stifles the democratic process. The most moneyed interests are those who benefit from closed, hierarchical systems because they will always be able to work their way behind closed doors—whereas the public and researchers are rarely so lucky.

Openness helps foster social trust: open government should be viewed as part and parcel of the work of civics education that your chambers have championed.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts