Testimony: DOC’s Policies Should Reflect Its Stated Mission

Thursday, October 16, 2025 

Chair Cronin, Chair Cahill, and Members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety: 

I am submitting testimony on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. PM is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to the bills from the Dignity and Freedom Platform: 

  • An Act to build restorative family and community connection (Visitation Bill) (S.1720/H.2591) 
  • An Act Relative to Medical and Elder Parole (S.1722/H.2693) 
  • An Act relative to human rights and improved outcomes for incarcerated people (Human Rights Bill) (S.1651/ H.2608)  
  • An Act creating an independent correctional oversight office to facilitate the recommendations of the Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the Commonwealth (REICI race data and oversight bill) (S.1725/H.2636)

The Department of Correction’s website states as its mission to provide “custody, care, and programming for those under our supervision to prepare them for safe and successful reentry into the community.” However, many existing practices run fully counter to such a stated goal. 

Visitation Bill (S.1720/H.2591)

In 2018, the DOC passed severe restrictions on visitation rights. These included limiting the number of individuals on a pre-approved visitor list and the number of times said list can be changed each year, creating a burdensome application for visitors, imposing strict dress codes, and limiting the number of individuals anyone can visit.

Visitation is crucial to the well-being of families, children, incarcerated individuals, and even prison employees. Research has shown that visitation is an effective strategy in reducing recidivism and thereby enhancing public safety. Children of incarcerated parents are less likely to be incarcerated themselves if they visit their incarcerated parents. Visits help incarcerated individuals maintain relationships in their outside community which makes re-entry into the community much more likely to be successful.

Given that visitation enhances public safety, reduces recidivism, and promotes rehabilitation, our prisons and jails should be fostering the maintenance and growth of positive bonds between incarcerated individuals and their friends, family, and broader community—not limiting these relationships.

Elder and Medical Parole  (S.1722/H.2693) 

Despite our comparatively low incarceration rate by US standards,, we are tied with New Hampshire for the highest proportion of incarcerated people over the age of 55 in the country, who experience significantly worse health outcomes than people outside of prison. 

Moreover, older incarcerated individuals are significantly less likely to cause harm when released from incarceration. We are warehousing people as they get older and sicker in ways that make no one safer. 

Moreover, one driver of our comparatively old prison population is that, in recent years, MA has reformed our criminal legal system and moved away from the mistakes of the past. But many Black and Brown people still carry the burden of unnecessarily harsh sentencing laws in the “war on drugs” era. 

Human Rights Bill (S.1651/ H.2608) 

Again, if the DOC understands that its mission is to prepare people for successful re-entry, then its practices and policies should be better oriented toward that goal. This bill recognizes that and would establish universal access to programming, education, and vocational training opportunities, as well as meaningful and productive out of cell time. If we want to cultivate a culture of respect and growth outside the walls, we need to cultivate that inside too. 

Independent Correctional Oversight (S.1725/H.2636)

The Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the Commonwealth documented what is widely known: that structural racism is rampant in our carceral system. A lack of transparency and accountability reinforces this and allows it to worsen. An independent oversight office is long overdue. 

Let’s recognize the value of rehabilitation and reentry and our align systems in support, rather than around creating new cycles of harm. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

Just Say NO to New Pipelines and New Prisons

As the Trump administration rolls back progress on climate action, we need states like Massachusetts to be bolder. And that means not entrenching polluting fossil fuel infrastructure.

Eversource Gas is holding an Open House and Listening Session on August 7th at 6pm to take a concrete step towards getting their permits and building a toxic and dangerous pipeline expansion project from Longmeadow to Springfield.

Springfield Climate Justice Coalition is once again calling on organizations in Western Mass and beyond to stand with them as they send a powerful message to the Healey administration, elected officials and Eversource Gas: “We do not want Eversource to build a polluting pipeline that would run through environmental justice residential neighborhoods, and dangerously close to schools and community hubs in Springfield!”.

RSVP In Person (if you live in Western Mass): https://bit.ly/InPersonRSVP

RSVP Online (open to everyone!): https://bit.ly/ZoomRSVPaug7th

If you join in person:

The Springfield Climate Justice Coalition is organizing a dynamic outdoor event before the Open House, calling public attention to the dangers of this project and Eversource’s deceitful and self-serving intent in building it. We will gather at 5:15 pm sharp in Stearns Square (one block north on Bridge St) for a street theater performance and call to action, followed by a mini-march to the Eversource Open House at the UMass Center at Tower Square, 1500 Main St.

The Open House (6 to 8 pm) will consist of a short presentation by Eversource, followed by Q & A. Eversource will be providing food and child care, as well as language interpretation in Spanish and Russian. We need the place packed with opponents of this dangerous project, raising all the questions Eversource wants avoided. Wear red!

If you join online:

Tune in at 5 pm to the livestream of the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition’s dynamic outdoor event before the Open House. Then take action together, writing to our elected officials to pass S.2290 / H.3547 “An Act preventing gas expansion to protect climate, community health and safety”. Eversource will begin their powerpoint at 6:30pm, which we will encourage folks to log into. This is open to everyone who cares about our climate future!

RSVP In Person: https://bit.ly/InPersonRSVP

RSVP Online: https://bit.ly/ZoomRSVPaug7th

Healey Wants to Spend $360 Million on a New Prison. Tell Her No Way.

For years, our friends at Families for Justice as Healing have been organizing against a proposed $50 million new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham.

How has Governor Maura Healey responded? By proposing a $360 million new women’s prison.

Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls have been clear: what we need is not a new prison, but greater programming for those currently incarcerated, better reentry programs for people when they return to community, and greater community investments in housing, health care, education, and economic security and opportunity.

Think of how much that $360 million could do if it went instead to keeping communities safe and ending cycles of incarceration and harm.

Join FJaH in telling Governor Healey to stop the $360 million new women’s prison with the action toolkit at bit.ly/FreeHerMA.

Call daily between 9am and 5pm only – (617) 725-4005

Email any time using this form: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/email-the-governors-office Sample Email/Script:

“Hello, my name is _________________ and I am your constituent. I oppose your plan to build a $360 million women’s prison. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on prison construction is not investing in people’s wellbeing and will not make our communities safer. Our communities need this money for housing, healing, healthcare, treatment and more. We could actually make Massachusetts a model for the rest of the country by releasing many more women and implementing alternatives to incarceration rather than building yet another prison.”

Letter: “We need to see decarceration, not incarceration”

Norma Wassel, “We need to see decarceration, not incarceration,” Boston Globe, July 10, 2025.

Your July 7 editorial supporting a new women’s prison in Massachusetts lacks important information showing that there is no justification for spending $360 million renovating MCI-Framingham, on top of the annual cost of more than $235,000 per woman (“MCI-Framingham women’s prison needs a modern building”).

The editorial failed to mention that according to the Department of Correction’s own data, the large majority of women there meet DOC criteria for minimum security or prerelease status. Nor did it point out that nearly a quarter of the women incarcerated are awaiting trial or serving short sentences from Middlesex County, which does not have a county jail for women.

While citing a 2022 state-commissioned Ripples Group report, the editorial did not mention that it recommended community residential programs for the majority of women, who present no risk to public safety. No state law requires a prison building, especially for an aging population with complex health needs, and with correctional practices that are often contradictory to treatment.

Even a 2021 Boston Globe editorial stated in its headline, “Elderly prisoners pose little risk, so why won’t the state let some of them free?” It argued for reforms to parole law and a wider use of clemency, but there has been little progress in these areas.

In planning for “an expensive rebuild” of MCI-Framingham, Governor Maura Healey is emulating our current president. The plan needs to be for decarceration, not incarceration.

Norma Wassel

Cambridge

The writer, a licensed independent clinical social worker, works with the Women and Incarceration Project, Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights, at Suffolk University.

MA Passed a Budget on Time. What’s in It?

Let’s start out with the ugly, and then the good and the bad.

The UGLY: Yesterday, the US Senate passed a horror show of a budget to take away health care access and food assistance in order to fund tax cuts for the mega-rich and large corporations, and to create a police state in the US by increasing ICE’s budget several times over. If passed, it will be a disaster for the country and for Massachusetts. If you have friends in other states who have Republican Senators or Representatives, ask them to make a phone call in opposition to the Big Ugly Bill.

THE GOOD: On Monday, the Massachusetts State House did something it hasn’t done since 2016: it passed a budget before the end of the fiscal year.

There are some major victories in this budget to celebrate:

  • Banning tenant-paid broker’s fees
  • $2.5 million in continued funding for an access to counsel program, which provides legal representation to low-income tenants facing eviction
  • $5 million for an immigrant legal defense fund
  • Permanently fare-free regional transit authorities
  • Increased funding for our public schools

THE BAD: But there were also disappointments in the budget:

  • Only $1 million in dedicated funding for No Cost Calls implementation
  • Less funding for local aid
  • Insufficient funding for housing safety net programs
  • Insufficient funds for SNAP case workers

Read more about the state budget here, here, and here.

Write to your legislator to express your support for the budget wins and your disappointment with what was left out.

Email Your Legislators

Healey Wants to Spend $360 Million on a New Prison. Tell Her No Way.

For years, our friends at Families for Justice as Healing have been organizing against a proposed $50 million new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham.

How has Governor Maura Healey responded? By proposing a $360 million new women’s prison.

Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls have been clear: what we need is not a new prison, but greater programming for those currently incarcerated, better reentry programs for people when they return to community, and greater community investments in housing, health care, education, and economic security and opportunity.

Think of how much that $360 million could do if it went instead to keeping communities safe and ending cycles of incarceration and harm.

Join FJaH in telling Governor Healey to stop the $360 million new women’s prison with the action toolkit at bit.ly/FreeHerMA.

Call daily between 9am and 5pm only – (617) 725-4005

Email any time using this form: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/email-the-governors-office Sample Email/Script:

“Hello, my name is _________________ and I am your constituent. I oppose your plan to build a $360 million women’s prison. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on prison construction is not investing in people’s wellbeing and will not make our communities safer. Our communities need this money for housing, healing, healthcare, treatment and more. We could actually make Massachusetts a model for the rest of the country by releasing many more women and implementing alternatives to incarceration rather than building yet another prison.”

Another Budget Takeaway: Fair Share Delivers

One major budget takeaway: The Fair Share Amendment has been delivering even more than expected, and it has proven essential. The Fair Share Amendment has been producing even more revenue than projected, and it has made possible critical new investments in education and transportation. Learn more about its $6 billion in positive impact so far at https://www.fairsharema.com/.

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.

“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

Take action for mothers!

I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day yesterday! It is a day to reflect on the invaluable role mothers and other caregivers play in our lives and in our communities. But not every mother was able to with her loved ones yesterday and not every mother is given the support and recognition she deserves. This is especially true of mothers impacted by the justice system. Massachusetts is planning to spend $50 million to build a new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham. 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?

Join Families for Justice as Healing and allies across the state in showing what a five-year moratorium on prison and jail construction can mean: bringing women home; building housing and health care centers; creating what different looks like. Here’s how:

  • Join a testimony writing party tonight, Monday, May 12th at 6pm via zoom. Click here to RSVP and learn more.
  • Provide testimony and help pack the hearing room tomorrow Tuesday, May 13th at 1pm at the State House, Room A2.
  • Submit written testimony. If you can’t make it tomorrow, you can still submit written testimony by clicking here.

Thank you for everything that you do for a more equitable and just Commonwealth.

TAKE ACTION: The MA Senate must pass critical maternal health legislation

The clock is ticking. The current formal legislative session at the State House ends in less than two weeks. And there is a lot still pending.

Today, we’re asking you to take action in support of two bills of critical importance to women’s health:

  • A maternal health bill that passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate
  • The prison moratorium bill which passed last session but is still in committee with the clock ticking

The MA Senate Must Act on Maternal Health

Massachusetts families deserve a better maternal health care system. We have waited long enough for greater access to midwifery care, out-of-hospital birth options including birth centers and home births, pregnancy loss leave, public health data collection, coverage for donor milk, and so many more important provisions in this bill. The Massachusetts House passed a comprehensive Maternal Health Bill unanimously on June 20. The Senate needs to take action now — and by July 31.

Can you email your state senator in support of long-overdue legislation to expand access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options?

Tell the Ways & Means Committee: Pass the Prison Moratorium

Let’s be blunt: prisons and jails are among the least healthy places. Despite rhetoric around rehabilitation, they are routinely places of retribution where people are denied necessary care.

Two years ago, the MA Legislature passed a moratorium on new prison and jail construction, but it was blocked by Governor Charlie Baker’s veto.

The organizing hasn’t stopped. Earlier this session, we saw moving testimony from women in MCI-Framingham who were able to participate virtually in hearings and speak directly to committees in the Legislature about why MA doesn’t need a new women’s prison — but instead needs greater investment in supportive services.

The prison moratorium bill is currently sitting in the Ways & Means Committee, awaiting action. Use this guide from Families for Justice as Healing to call the committee and urge them to pass the prison moratorium.

House FY 2025 Budget Action Alert

Last year, Massachusetts passed critical legislation to guarantee free communication in prisons and jails, the most comprehensive such legislation passed in the country so far. With No Cost Calls in effect, the number of calls made from MA’s prisons rose by more than 60% in January relative to just a few months prior, and the number of electronic messages sent nearly tripled, meaning that people who are incarcerated are better able to stay connected with their loved ones back home.

But the larger work of keeping families connected is not done. We need to make sure that there is robust reporting to ensure full and effective implementation by the Department of Correction and county jails, and we need to build on the win of No Cost Calls by improving access to in-person visitation as well.

Please contact your state representative by next Tuesday (4/23) to urge them to co-sponsor the following amendments to the FY 2025 budget:

  • #975 and #986, amendments to No Cost Calls (These amendments make technical fixes and improvements to reporting requirements with the aim of maximizing effective implementation of free communication in prison and jail)
  • #1263, “Strengthening Community Connections”  (This amendment mirrors legislation to improve access to in-person visits)

Email your state rep

Other amendments worth highlighting for your state rep:

#788, “Lift Kids out of Deep Poverty” (This amendment would provide 10% grant increases for very low-income families with children, elders, and people with disabilities.)

#1479, “Access to Counsel” (This amendment would clarify that the Access to Counsel pilot would be statewide, that it would be for full legal representation, and that the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, the fiscal administrator, would in consultation with an advisory committee, determine how to implement the program)

788, “Lift Kids out of Deep Poverty” (This amendment would provide 10% grant increases for very low-income families with children, elders, and people with disabilities.)

1479, “Access to Counsel” (This amendment would clarify that the Access to Counsel pilot would be statewide, that it would be for full legal representation, and that the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation, the fiscal administrator, would in consultation with an advisory committee, determine how to implement the program)

Tell the Public Safety Committee: Families Belong Together

We know that policies that tear apart families — whether through deportation or through incarceration — are bad for communities.

Even though the impacts of deportation have fallen out of the news cycle in the past few years, the work of disentangling state and local law enforcement remains no less important, and given the routine demonization of immigrant communities by too many politicians, we must continue to assert, in words and in policies, that all are welcome here.

But deportation isn’t the only driver of family separations. Our carceral system also does that, and restrictive rules around visitation exacerbate the indignities and inequities of the system.

Fortunately, there are proposed bills to address both of these issues. They both face a deadline of next Monday, April 8, and you still have time to act.

Send an email to the Public Safety Committee about the Safe Communities Act
Send an email to the Public Safety Committee about the Prison Visitation bill

Support the Safe Communities Act

Longstanding state and local involvement in deportations discourages immigrants from seeking police and court protection from domestic violence, endemic wage theft, and unsafe working conditions. Many immigrants—and their children—fear that seeking help from local authorities will result in deportation and family separation.

It has become increasingly clear that the ability of the federal government to protect our rights is limited, and we don’t know what the future will bring. The Massachusetts Safe Communities Act (S.1510 and H.2288) would end voluntary police and court involvement in deportations, and ensure that in Massachusetts, everyone can seek help, protection and medical care without fear of deportation.

The Massachusetts Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security has until April 8th to take action on the bill this session. Use our form to quickly send an email to committee members. They need to hear from you!

Email the Committee

Support the Visitation Bill

In December, the Keeping Families Connected coalition celebrated the historic No Cost Calls bill that eliminates the cost of phone calls for people who are incarcerated. This has already had a huge positive impact on individuals and families across the state. Let’s keep up the momentum to Keep Families Connected through supporting in-person visits. The Prison Visitation bill would lift many restrictions on visiting loved ones who are incarcerated, and make staying connected through in-person visits more accessible. You can learn more about the Visitation bill here.

The Public Safety Committee extended the deadline until April 8 to report this bill favorably out of committee. You can help by calling or emailing the members of the committee to tell them you support improved access to visits and want them to give the bills a favorable report.

Email the Committee