Criminal Justice Reform – It’s time to make this happen!

By Caroline Bays, Progressive Watertown

Last week, the Senate unveiled the eagerly anticipated Criminal Justice Reform bill. While those of us interested in comprehensive reform did not get everything we wanted, the final Senate version represents a significant step forward in returning some real justice to our criminal justice system. 

So what’s in the bill, and what can you do to help? 

 Here are some of the key provisions:

  • Removal of mandatory minimums for nonviolent offenders for non-violent drug violations including drug trafficking near schools, drug paraphernalia ownership, and heroin possession. The bill does not remove heroin trafficking mandatory minimums and rolls fentanyl into the same category as heroin.
  • Expansion of diversion eligibility.
  • Elimination of some court fees, such as the indigent counsel fee, and parole fees, although probation fees are not repealed as we had hoped.
  • Complete overhaul of the bail system in accordance with the SJC ruling earlier this year, ensuring bail will be more affordable to all defendants.
  • Protections for inmates in solitary confinement, who will be regularly reviewed and given the opportunity to be released from solitary if they can show that they are ready to return to general population.  The bill also improves access to programming and guarantees rights to the LGBTQ prisoners.
  • Raise of the age of criminal majority from 18 to 19 and that of criminal culpability from 7 to 12. The bill also allows for consensual sex between teenagers close in age and decriminalizes disturbing a school assembly. It expands diversion availability for those up to age 26.
  • Sealing of criminal records (CORIs) after 3 years for misdemeanors and 7 years after felonies and seals juvenile records after 1 year.
  • Lift of the felony theft threshold to $1,500 from $250.
  • Requirement for the court to make written findings before sentencing a primary caretaker. 

While this bill may not give us all we wanted, especially in terms of repealing all mandatory minimums, it still represents significant reform in Massachusetts. If we want to keep this bill intact and have true meaningful reform, we must act now. The House in Beacon Hill is not on board with these changes, and we face an uphill battle to keep these reforms in the final bill.


So – call or visit your state representative today! Let him or her know that it is important to support the reforms outlined in the Senate’s bill. The House is already showing signs of writing a much more conservative bill, so it is really important to make your voice heard NOW!


And please come join us at the State House on Thursday, October 12 at 11:00 a.m. for a rally to support the legislation!

Time for Bold Criminal Justice Reform

When I talk to allies on Beacon Hill, they say that criminal justice reform is going to be one of the top issues the Legislature takes up this fall. But whether it will be real reform, or just tinkering around the edges, remains to be seen. Massachusetts needs to turn the tide on a failed “tough on crime” paradigm that has wreaked havoc on communities and fueled mass incarceration without making us any safer.

And that’s where you come in.

Representative Claire Cronin, co-chair of the Judiciary Committee, is planning to meet with every state rep about the bills in her committee. She needs to hear from her constituents and her fellow representatives that Massachusetts wants real reform.

Call your state representative today and ask them to tell Chairwoman Cronin that Massachusetts wants bold criminal justice reform this fall.

Here’s a sample script to use. Feel free to personalize it and explain why the issue is important to you.

My name is [NAME], and I’m from [BLANK]. The Massachusetts Legislature is expected to take up criminal justice reform this fall, and it is important that we take bold action to address the systemic racial and economic inequalities of our criminal justice system, rather than resort to tinkering around the edges. I urge you to meet with Chairwoman Claire Cronin of the Judiciary Committee and recommend that the Committee advance the following bills:

H.741, which would repeal mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug-related offenses and give discretion back to judges

H.967, which would raise the felony threshold so that people’s lives are not ruined for small offenses

H.2359, which would end excessive probation and parole fees so that we don’t criminalize poverty and turn our jails into debtors’ prisons

H.2308, the gold standard omnibus bill that combines these and other reforms and reinvests the savings into job training and expanded economic opportunities

You don’t need to explain every little detail about the bills to the aide or legislator over the phone–they just need to know the bill numbers and why you care about the issue.

Why are Democrats Pushing Voter Fraud Myths in Massachusetts?

Yesterday was the 52nd anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. And it was an important reminder that we still have work to do.

Two weeks ago, in a major win for democracy, the Suffolk Superior Court ruled that Massachusetts’s 20-day voter registration deadline is unconstitutional, noting that it arbitrarily and unnecessarily excludes thousands from the democratic process.

Unfortunately, not everyone is cheering the decision. Secretary of State Bill Galvin is planning to appeal the ruling, suggesting that it would create “chaos” for town and city clerks if people could register closer to an election, despite the fact that we are in the 21st century. But it gets worse. While Galvin is parading around Massachusetts and getting good press for supposedly opposing the Trump agenda by (rightfully) refusing to provide voter information to the Trump-created “Election Integrity” Commission, he has also been peddling the same dangerous voter fraud myths that Trump and Republicans have been pushing on the national level and in states seeking to roll back voting rights.

We can’t allow that here. Massachusetts is the only state in New England without some form of Election Day Registration (EDR). It has worked for our neighbors, and it would work here. And it’s one of the most reliable ways to increase turnout.

Call/Email Secretary Galvin (617-727-9180; cis@sec.state.ma.us) now to demand that he drop his appeal, and that he stop spreading lies about Election Day Registration.

But there’s more that you can do to fight for voting rights.

We have the opportunity this session to pass two key bills that will strengthen our democracy:

H.2091/S.373 (Automatic Voter Registration) would bring our elections into the 21st century by automatically registering citizens who interact with government agencies (“opt-out” instead of “opt-in”).

H.2093/S.371 (Election Day Registration) would make sure no eligible citizen is prevented from voting on Election Day.

Massachusetts often lags behind our peers when it comes to voting rights, and these bills can help change that. Our democracy is strongest when everyone is able to participate.

Call your legislators now to demand that they co-sponsor these essential bills and lobby their colleagues and Leadership to do so as well.

Let’s not just play catch-up–let’s start serving as a model for other states.

Stop Trump’s Ally in the Corner Office from Slashing Mass. Health Care

While Republicans in DC have been attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, many progressives have been wondering what work can be done here in Massachusetts. We have stalwart progressive senators like Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, and a fully Democratic House delegation. And many of you have stepped up to the plate, calling people in other states to urge them to take action.

For now, activists have stalled the ACA repeal bill. But here in Massachusetts, our Republican governor Charlie Baker is pushing the Republicans’ anti-health care agenda.

Late last month, Baker submitted a list of health care proposals he wanted to see rolled into the budget without any public hearing or debate. That budget is being unveiled later this morning and voted on only hours later. Legislators need to hear from us NOW so they know what to look out for.

Baker’s wish list would make his Republican friends in Washington proud:

  • Cutting MassHealth eligibility for adults with incomes between 100% and 133% of the federal poverty level. This would drop 100,000 low-income parents and 40,000 other adults off MassHealth, subjecting them to higher premiums, and a loss of dental coverage and other vital benefits. Massachusetts would have the dubious honor of becoming the only state to repeal the Obama-era Medicaid expansion. 
  • Removing MassHealth eligibility for individuals if they have access to so-called “affordable” employer-based insurance. These plans can still be considered “affordable” if the premiums are almost 10% of a family’s income. For people living in or near poverty, there’s no premium that’s affordable.
  • Allowing the Office of Health and Human Services to restructure “optional” services. And “optional” includes fundamental aspects of health care, like prescription drugs, dental care, and vision care, among many other things. Charlie Baker shouldn’t have that much unilateral power to undo protections for working families.
  • Imposing a five-year moratorium on insurance mandates. Even though insurance companies often leave out important types of care.
  • Freezing employer contributions to the unemployment insurance trust fund. A $334 million giveaway that depletes an underfunded program—to sweeten a tax on employers whose workers get coverage from MassHealth. With the economy slowing down, this move isn’t just mean—it’s dangerous.

Massachusetts has been a leader in health care reform. And we must continue to lead, by improving upon the Affordable Care Act with a single payer, Medicare for All system.

Today, we must start by not going backwards.

Call your state senator and state representative today. Urge them to reject Governor Baker’s cuts to health care in the 2018 budget, and to support the real solution of Medicare for All.

Make Massachusetts a Progressive Fortress: Step 1 by Friday

Progressive Massachusetts proudly announces our 2017-2018 Legislative Agenda for the 190th session of the Mass General Court.

The Moral Urgency of Now: Massachusetts Must Lead.

We are watching the federal government under President Donald Trump, with little braking from the Republican Congress, move us rapidly in a fascist direction that deeply contradicts Massachusetts values and liberties. Resistance is imperative.

What are the ways we can resist? Where can we effect the most dramatic changes, shape a progressive alternative and protect the most people vulnerable under this regime?

Our efforts on the national scene are important–but our impact, as liberals served by Democrats in a majority Republican Congress, is unfortunately, realistically, quite limited.

But, we can make Massachusetts a blue, progressive fortress against Trumpism. There is no excuse for not passing a vigorous progressive agenda in one of the bluest states in the country.

We are no longer in normal times. We cannot abide our super-majority Democratic lawmakers playing by the old rules, the old hesitancies and cautions. This is a moral imperative: through our democratic system, we can must resist, chart an alternative, progressive, path forward, and firmly and proudly establish and protect a system of true justice–in all its dimensions–for all. 

Our recent survey of our members’ (your) issues of top concern served as a guide for the Progressive Mass Issues Committee (PMIC). Over several weeks, committee reached out to legislators, advocates, and allies, to learn about their priorities and the bills to be filed that address them, to explore what bold proposals would galvanize Beacon Hill, and to assess the issue movements with advocacy momentum and energy behind them.

Setting Progressive Goals and a Road Map for Action

Through this intensive process of research, outreach, deliberation, and member input, PMIC has crafted our multi-issue 2017-2018 Progressive Legislative Agenda. Following the four broad planks of our Progressive Platform, the Progressive Legislative Agenda represents a multi-issue road map for the next two years of advocacy for the progressive activist. 

As many in the BMG community already know, there are specific points of inflection in the life cycle of legislation, when grassroots action and advocacy is more important and has greater impact. Simply stated, timing matters.

We aim to reach out to our progressive network and membership at time-sensitive moments and ask for your action. The first action of many over the next two years: pushing legislators for Co-Sponsorship. And it needs to be done by Friday.

ProgressiveMass.com/takeaction:

Before Friday (the House’s deadline), please contact your State Representative and State Senator, and ask them to cosponsor the bills on our progressive agenda (both House and Senate versions, House and Senate members can cross-cosponsor). All the information, including plain text to copy/paste, if you should require that, is at our action kit: ProgressiveMass.com/takeaction

Note–while the deadline to cosponsor House bills is Friday, February 3rd at 5:00 pm, State Representatives and State Senator can cosponsor Senate bills at any point in the two-year session.

As a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots organizations committed to pushing our state Legislature and Governor to be more progressive, and hold them accountable when they’re not, Progressive Mass believes that the first step towards building a progressive agenda on Beacon Hill begins with outreach and conversations with your state legislators, and asking them to cosponsor and support critical legislation. And when you do reach out to your legislators, we want to hear what you learn. Drop us a line:  issues @ progressivemass.com  

After Marching, Another Step

This past weekend gave a pretty clear visual of how much power we have when we organize together. And we all know that showing up to march was merely the first step of many.

The next is engaging with the political process — via electoral, issue and legislative work — as well as the work of community organizing– building communities of trust, making outreach and strengthening our progressive infrastructure. We’re committed to both. 

This week, we are releasing our 2017-18 Legislative Agenda, and we will be asking progressives to make some noise about how Massachusetts should become a leader again in bold progressive policy. 

The Opposite of Trump

We all want to DO something to stop the coming wave of Trump’s — and the traditional conservatives’ — cruel and incoherent policies on immigration, health care, women’s bodies, education, and their accelerating privatization and corporate kleptocracy. 

While many emerging activist networks are urging outreach to Congress, we’d like to propose that, in Massachusetts, we’ll get a lot more mileage fighting Trump — and making real change, helping real people who are vulnerable — BY focusing on Massachusetts:

  • We could pass a millionaire’s tax, and restore funding to programs destroyed by repeated budget cuts
  • We could pass a $15 minimum wage
  • We could ensure safety and dignity for immigrants and their family
  • We could lead the fight on climate change by investing more in solar and energy efficiency 
  • We could insist on the highest standards for the air we breathe and water we drink
  • We could fully fund excellent public education for all
  • We could pass universal pre-K
  • We could pass Paid Family and Medical Leave 
  • We could re-invest in a 21st century public transportation system
  • We could dismantle the apparatuses of mass incarceration and their racist effects
  • We could mend then strengthen the safety nets that have been cut and frayed to threads

These are changes that are needed. In Massachusetts. 

In Trump’s America, these changes are still possible. In Massachusetts. 

The truth is — We have a lot of work to do to make Massachusetts the progressive ideal that we would like to think we are. 

But the great news is that all of this is not only possible — we are much, much, more influential with our state legislators. AND Democrats have have a Super (duper) Democratic majority in both chambers. 

If we aren’t passing progressive legislation in Massachusetts, it’s because Democrats are standing in the way. On Beacon Hill, we aren’t fighting Ted Cruzes or Rand Pauls. 

Reminding our elected representatives of the progressive principles at the heart of the Democratic platform, through organized, well-timed, on-going outreach and pressure…we can do this, if we mobilize together. And, this hill, if we climb it, will produce real changes for real people most vulnerable under Trump.

The Legislative session just opened this month. We are starting our 2-year cycle of outreach and advocacy and citizen lobbying afresh. 

Well-timed, informed outreach to your State Rep and State Senator is a key part of the next 2 years: 

  • We will ask our legislators to sign on to our progressive agenda as cosponsors to our highlighted bills (that’s coming right up)
  • We will ask our legislators to advocate with their colleagues to push for the strongest progressive legislation possible
  • We will ask our legislators to stay strong when the going gets tough
  • We will thank them when they stand up for our goals and values–especially when it’s hardest to do
  • We will talk with our neighbors and help them advocate — or help provide the context to help educate where there’s disagreement

This contact is key. We’re asking you to be ready–look up, right now, your State Representative and State Senator. 

In the Dark, Undoing the Voters’ Will

On November 8, almost 54 percent of voters in the Commonwealth voted to legalize recreational marijuana, an important step in advancing social and racial justice and combating over-policing and mass incarceration. However, yesterday, in a special session, without any public hearings or public notice, 7 legislators were able to postpone the opening date for recreational marijuana stores by six months, creating a limbo situation in which possession is legal but retail is not.

We are very disappointed, but not surprised, by such behavior. If the Legislature had concerns about the wording of Question 4, they had ample time before the election to pass their own bill or to offer a substitute ballot question. Instead, they chose to undermine the democratic will of the Commonwealth in a most undemocratic way. The Legislature has a history of avoiding public debate and recorded votes—as well as a history of weakening or even repealing ballot initiatives. If Massachusetts is to be a model for other states, that has to change.

Your legislators are supposed to work for you, and they deserve to hear from you. You can find contact information for your state representative and state senator here. And when you’re done calling the Legislature, call Charlie Baker to urge him not to sign the delay.