“There’s No Such Thing as a Humane Prison”

Tuesday, May 13, 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 committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to An Act Establishing a Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium (H.3422 / S.2114).

Let me be clear: there is no such thing as a humane prison. As a famous adage goes, every system is perfectly designed to get the result that it does. Our prison system is not designed for rehabilitation, and it is not designed for justice. It is designed for dehumanization and punishment, and no amount of branding or around-the-edges reforms can change that fact. Our prisons and jails are good at creating cycles of trauma; they are not good at creating public safety or community well-being and stability.

With this in mind, we find it deeply misguided that Massachusetts is considering spending $50 million on a new women’s prison. As of January 1, 2024, the population in MCI-Framingham stood at 213. In part as a result of sentencing reforms, Massachusetts’s incarceration rate has been falling, which raises the question: Why expand a system that costs more than $200,000 per person and only causes further harm? 

Studies have repeatedly shown that society cannot incarcerate its way to safety, and the family separation of incarceration and the well-documented inhumane conditions in Massachusetts’s prisons and jails fuel the community instability that is detrimental to public safety. Instead, investments in housing, health care, economic opportunity, and other social supports have been shown to be the true foundation of public safety for all. Think of how much $200,000 per person can do in creating opportunity and building up communities.

The five-year moratorium in this bill recognizes that such alternative visions of public safety exist on the ground, and they merit investment and experimentation and scaling. It provides time for the Commonwealth to do the work of listening to the most impacted communities and to center, rather than sideline, their voices in policymaking.

We were very grateful last year when this committee and this Legislature passed the Prison Moratorium 2022. Unfortunately, due to former Governor Charlie Baker’s veto, it did not become law. We are also appreciative that you advanced the bill out of committee last session. It is just as urgent to finish the job this session, and we urge you to advance these bills as swiftly as possible.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Let’s Stop Short-Changing Our Public Schools

May 12, 2025

Chair Lewis, Chair Gordon, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director at Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.678/S.388: An Act to fix the Chapter 70 inflation adjustment and S.345: An Act eliminating education funding inflation gap.

Back in 2019, your chambers took the necessary step of updating our state’s funding formula for aid to public school districts with the passage of the Student Opportunity Act. It was an important and overdue victory.

However, our public schools are losing out on the full benefits of the increased funding promised due to a glitch in how the Chapter 70 formula treats inflation.

The funding formula caps inflation in calculating year-to-year funding increases at 4.5%. However, we have seen several years of high inflation. The costs for our schools are rising, but the state’s support is not keeping pace. Indeed, the gap in funding schools faced in FY 2025 was $465 million. Cuts mean fewer teachers, fewer counselors, and fewer classroom resources, and they mean lost opportunities for our students to learn and grow.

This growing gap is occurring at a time when our public schools are already under attack from the Trump administration, and because of outdated policies like Proposition 2 1/2 , our cities and towns face severe, state-imposed roadblocks in filling the gaps themselves.

Moreover, this wasn’t how the formula was originally designed. When it was first passed in the early 1990s, the state would catch up with funding in low-inflation years to account for this discrepancy in high-inflation years. Our cities and towns could plan better, and our students could get what they need. But a technical change made a decade later eliminated that common-sense arrangement.

H.678 and S.388 would undo that misguided technical change that is costing our public schools resources and our students the present and future they deserve. S.345 would eliminate the arbitrary 4.5% inflation cap and calculate inflation by comparing it to the same period two years prior.

Massachusetts prides ourselves in our commitment to public education, and we must recommit to that with real resources. Our commonwealth has a higher GDP than Sweden: the resources are there; we just need the commitment.

In the budget hearing earlier this spring, students came to testify to talk about the impact of cuts on their schools, highlighting what that meant for them in terms of lost supports and lost opportunities. These students were praised and cheered by legislators. We ask that you accompany that praise with listening and action.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Video Recording & Follow-up Links: “DC Attacks, MA Fights Back: Protecting Health Care from the Broligarchy”

Hi everyone,

Thank you for joining us on Wednesday for the forum “DC Attacks, MA Fights Back: Protecting Health Care from the Broligarchy“! You can watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/s4HjwdaktFI. Thank you again to our amazing speakers!

Slide Decks

Jamie Willmuth’s Slide Deck on the Impact of Medicaid Cuts on Providers and the Workforce

Alex Sheff’s Slide Deck on the Impact of Medicaid Cuts on Health Care Access

Crisayda Belén’s Slide Deck on Corporate Fair Share

Actions You Can Take

Become a Phonebanking Volunteer to Protect Medicaid

Contact Your State Legislators in support of Corporate Fair Share

Join the Mass-Care 30th anniversary conference next month.

Join Progressive Mass’s State House Lobby Day on 5/28.

Thanks!

Jonathan

Just Say NO to Attacks on Trans Youth

May 6, 2025

Chair Gordon, Chair Lewis, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:

As a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth, Progressive Massachusetts urges you to give an adverse report to H.584, S.350, and H.737.

These bills would restrict the participation of trans student athletes in school sports, undermining their rights, safety, and dignity.

We at Progressive Mass are proud of MA’s civil rights protections for the trans community, which were overwhelmingly upheld on the ballot in 2018. MA voters were and are clear: we believe that our trans friends and neighbors deserve to be treated with basic dignity and respect.

The trans community has been under attack by the hateful administration in DC, and a swift rejection of these bills is an important way to show that we stand by trans youth and against bullying.

If the state legislators supporting these three bills feel the need to obsess over the genitalia of teenagers, then we kindly recommend that they seek help and leave that obsession out of the Massachusetts State House.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Send Two Emails to Support Students

The Joint Committee on Education has two upcoming hearings where your voice matters.

TODAY, they are holding a hearing on a wide array of bills, including a trio of hateful bills to discriminate against trans kids in high school sports.

NEXT MONDAY, they will be holding a hearing on bills related to school funding, including one of our priority bills, which would ensure that schools are able to benefit from the full promised funding from the recent update to the state’s education funding formula and don’t lose out because of high inflation.

We’ve created easy tools you can use to submit testimony to these hearings:

SUBMIT TESTIMONY

SUBMIT TESTIMONY

House Rightly Rejects Harmful Republican Budget Amendments, Has Little Other Debate

Yesterday, the MA House voted to pass its FY 2026 budget proposal 151 to 6, with the only dissent from the most conservative Republicans.

In the preceding debate, state representatives filed 1,650 amendments to the budget. However, few of them received meaningful discussion or debate, let alone adoption.

The House uses a process known as “consolidation,” by which amendments in a subject area are gathered together, tossed aside, and replaced with a series of earmarks or other preferred text from Leadership. Only rarely are any of such amendments actually included in that package. 1,572 amendments were consolidated into a set of seven such amendments.

Of the remaining amendments, 54 amendments were withdrawn, 22 were rejected, and 2 were laid aside on a point of order.

Republicans demanded several recorded votes, and their harmful amendments were defeated in mostly party line votes. Of note among the recorded votes:

❌VOTED DOWN: 128 to 26 against a Republican effort to defund and undermine No Cost Calls (Roll Call 34, Amdt 616). Rep. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut) joined Republicans in voting for it.

❌ VOTED DOWN: 129 to 26 against a Republican amendment to seek a ruling from the Supreme Judicial Court on the constitutionality of 40B (Roll Call 35, Amdt 1643). Rep. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut) joined Republicans in voting for it.

❌ VOTED DOWN: 130 to 25 against a Republican effort to undermine public safety by enabling state and local law enforcement to conduct ICE detainers (Roll Call 36, Amdt 554).

❌ VOTED DOWN: 129 to 27 against a Republican effort to impose xenophobic restrictions on emergency shelter access (Roll Call 37, Amdt 417). Rep. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut) and Rep. Dave Robertson (D-Tewksbury) joined Republicans.

❌ VOTED DOWN: 128 to 27 against a Republican effort to undermine enforcement of the MBTA Communities Act (Roll Call 38, Amdt 606). Rep. Jenny Armini (D-Marblehead), Rep. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut), and Rep. Dave Robertson (D-Tewksbury) joined Republicans.

❌ VOTED DOWN: 126 to 30 against a Republican effort to delay the implementation of the MBTA Communities Act (Roll Call 39, Amdt 411). Rep. Colleen Garry (D-Dracut), Rep. Dennis Gallagher (D-Bridgewater), Rep. Steve Ouellette (D-Westport), Rep. Dave Robertson (D-Tewksbury), and Rep. Richard Wells (D-Milton) joined Republicans.

❌ VOTED DOWN: 136 to 21 against a Republican amendment to make the state’s greenhouse gas emissions targets non-binding (Roll Call 45, Amdt 404). Rep. Kim Ferguson (R-Holden), Rep. Brad Jones (R-North Reading), Rep. Hannah Kane (R-Shrewsbury), and Rep. Donald Wong (R-Saugus) joined Democrats.

PM in the News: “Still split over joint committee rules”

Kelly Garrity, “Still Split Over Joint Committee Rules,” Politico, April 30, 2025.

“It’s kind of embarrassing that we’re hitting the marker of Trump’s first 100 days and they still haven’t even passed joint rules,” said Jonathan Cohn, the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts.

….

In other words: “It’s a bad sign when their attempt to reform the legislative process to be more efficient and to avoid bottlenecks gets bottlenecked,” Cohn said.

Joint Testimony in Support of Full-Spectrum Pregnancy Care

Dear Chairs Murphy, Feeney, and members of the Joint Committee on Financial Services:

We, the undersigned organizations committed to advancing reproductive freedom, equity, and justice in the Commonwealth, write today in support of H.1311 filed by Representative Sabadosa and S.761 filed by Senator Friedman.

Massachusetts law, as currently written, requires insurers to offer coverage for childbirth and treatment of miscarriages, but permits cost sharing. For too many mothers and families navigating high deductible plans and increased out-of-pocket spending, the burden of this cost sharing results in long-term financial struggles.

Under this legislation, all Massachusetts-regulated health insurance plans would be required to cover the full spectrum of pregnancy-related care without any cost-sharing, ensuring that Bay Staters are not saddled with insurmountable debt post-pregnancy and enabling them to have greater control over their lives and financial futures. We are grateful to the Legislature for its old action to ensure coverage without cost-sharing for all abortion and abortion-related care, a key provision of Chapter 127 of the Acts of 2022. Now, we must go further to break down financial barriers to all pregnancy-related care.

A right to reproductive health care — including care for all pregnancies, abortion, and  miscarriage — is not a real right unless every individual is able to access that care, free from cost barriers.Being a new parent is tough enough. The last thing someone adjusting to life with a newborn needs to worry about is how they’re going to pay for the care they just received.

According to the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis’ (CHIA) 2023 Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey, nearly half of all Massachusetts residents reported that they or their families experience health care affordability issues, and nearly half are enrolled in a high deductible health plan. That’s more than 1.7 million people…

● Who may struggle to get out of debt once they start a family;

● Who could be forced to meet their deductible twice if the nine months of their pregnancy falls across two insurance plan years;

● Who may be forced to forgo prenatal or postpartum care because of costs;

● Who may delay family planning decisions because they are too concerned about making ends meet; or most cruelly,

● Who would be sent a hefty bill days after suffering the devastating loss of miscarriage.

The futures of people seeking pregnancy care should not be dictated by deductibles.

This is an issue of gender and racial equity. Massachusetts is already combatting an epidemic of racial inequities in maternal health. Black women in our state are twice as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related complications, and financial barriers to care are compounding these poor health outcomes. Forty percent of mothers have reported delaying prenatal care because they lack the money or insurance to cover the visits. Newborns of mothers who do not receive prenatal care are three times more likely to have a low birth weight and five times more likely to die than children born to mothers who receive prenatal care. We must reimagine our health care system and health care spending to center and support the needs of birthing people, families, and Black and Brown communities by making all pregnancy care more accessible.

Based on CHIA’s Mandated Benefit Review of this legislation, we can make high-quality pregnancy-related care accessible to all Bay Staters for only an extra $2.09 per month on our monthly health insurance premiums—less than a cup of coffee. We don’t have to imagine a  Massachusetts where everyone has access to the pregnancy care they need to safely give birth and raise a family; where fewer of our loved ones die from pregnancy-related care; and where no one has to go into debt to start a family. All we have to do to make this our reality is pay an extra $25 a year on our health insurance premiums.

Every Bay Stater must have access to the full spectrum of pregnancy-related care so we all can decide if, when, and how to have a family or raise children. We can ensure that our friends, families, loved ones, children, and children’s children would be safer, happier, and healthier, because pregnancy-related care would be so much more accessible to them.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit our testimony, and we again urge you to give H.1311 and S.761 a favorable report.

Respectfully,

Rebecca Hart Holder, President, Reproductive Equity Now

Emily Anesta, President, Bay State Birth Coalition

Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director, Progressive Massachusetts

MaryRose Mazzola, Esq, Chief External Affairs Officer, Planned Parenthood League of

Massachusetts; Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts

Amy Rosenthal, Executive Director, Health Care For All

Gavi Wolfe, Legislative Director, American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts

Chloe Zera, MD, Massachusetts Section Chair, American College of Obstetricians and

Gynecologists

Letter: “Fear not, the millionaires tax is bearing fruit”

Jonathan Cohn, “Letter: It’s our high cost of living, not the tax, that’s driving people to leave the state,” Boston Globe, April 28, 2025.

Chris Anderson,president of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, and Jim Stergios, executive director of Pioneer Institute, cite U-Haul data to argue that residents of Massachusetts are fleeing the state’s new Fair Share millionaires tax (“The millionaires tax: A cautionary tale for R.I.,” Opinion, BostonGlobe.com, April 23). But are multimillionaires really the ones renting U-Hauls?

Massachusetts is experiencing outmigration, but it’s not multimillionaires who are fleeing slightly higher taxes. It’s young workers fleeing our high cost of living.

As a millennial, I’ve become accustomed to seeing friends move out of Boston, then out of the state entirely, due to the high cost of living. If you want to buy a home for a decent price or find affordable child care, good luck. We are losing people because affording the high quality of life we tout is getting farther and farther out of reach.

By supporting massive investments in education, from prekindergarten through college, and in transportation infrastructure that will enable new housing production across the state, Fair Share is addressing the real drivers of outmigration. New policies such as free school meals, free buses, and free community college are making the state more affordable for middle-class families.

I hope our neighbors in Rhode Island join us in building an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top.

Jonathan Cohn

Policy director

Progressive Mass

Boston

Happy Earth Day! Let’s Keep up the Fight Against Climate Chaos.

Happy Earth Day!

As the Trump administration tries to dismantle critical environmental regulations and funding, it’s up to states like Massachusetts to step up even more in the fight against climate chaos.

The bad news: Every year, we continue to see record-breaking global temperatures.

The good news: We know the policy solutions that can work. That’s why we’re fighting this session to Put Gas in the Past and to Make Polluters Pay.

The Put Gas in the Past bill (H.3547 / S.2290) would prevent the expansion of gas infrastructure near Environmental Justice communities and require gas companies and the Commonwealth to undergo planning for a just transition to green energy.

The Make Polluters Pay bill (H.1014 / S.558) would require major polluters to pay a fee based on historic emissions to fund climate resilience work (e.g., flood mitigation, energy efficiency upgrades, improved transit).

It’s a simple message. Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Accelerate the transition to a green and just economy. Make those who got us into the mess pay to fix it.

Can you share that message with your state legislators?