Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Chairman Eldridge, Chair Day, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary:
My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts. We are a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.
Five years ago, the Legislature took significant strides toward curbing mass incarceration by passing a comprehensive criminal legal reform package. But there is more work to be done to make our criminal justice system more deserving of the word “justice.”
We urge you to give a favorable report to the following bills:
- H.1710/S.942: An Act to Promote Public Safety and Better Outcomes for Young Adults.
- H.1495/S.940: An Act promoting diversion of juveniles to community supervision and services
- H.1802/S.931: An Act Improving Juvenile Justice Data Collection
- H.1650: An Act Protecting Youth During Custodial Interrogations
- H.1756/S.954: An Act Ensuring Integrity in Juvenile Interrogations
- H.1494/S.993: An Act Updating Bail Procedures for Justice-Involved Youth
- S.1049: An Act relative to diversion for primary caretakers
Our testimony will focus on the first and the last.
Raise the Age (H.1710/S.942)
These bills would gradually raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction to include 18, then 19, and then 20-year-olds over a five-year period. The recidivism rate of teens in the juvenile system is less than half of that of young people automatically prosecuted as adults. In the juvenile system, such emerging adults have access to the educational and counseling services that are so vital when they are still developing.
Young adults, especially young adults of color, are overrepresented in our criminal justice system. Reducing the number of young people who experience a system that is not designed for their developmental needs will have a positive impact on such young people, helping them to better be productive, engaged citizens and whole people upon release. And that means stronger, more resilient communities.
Primary Caretakers Diversion (S.1049)
We are grateful for the work the Legislature did to advance racial and gender justice by including Primary Caretakers alternative community-based sentencing as part of the Criminal Justice Reform Act in 2018.
Whenever a parent or other primary caregiver is incarcerated, the children suffer. A criminal record puts up barriers between caretakers and housing, employment, education, and other resources that are essential to allow them to take care of their families.
Passing the Primary Caretakers Diversion bill would build on recent progress and provide more opportunities for healing, recovery, treatment, and resources, rather than punishment.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts
