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

This International Women’s Day and Always: better health, not more prisons

Happy International Women’s Day!

Today should serve as a reminder of the fundamentally intersectional nature of the push for women’s rights. Women need pay equity, universal health care (including and especially reproductive health care), affordable child care, affordable housing, and so much more.

This International Women’s Day, take action on two important issues: saying no to another women’s prison and saying yes to creating a better maternal health care system. 
 


No New Women’s Prison

Massachusetts is planning to spend $50 million to build a new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham. As of January 1, 2022, the population in MCI-Framingham stood at 179, with more than 20% held in pre-trial detention. Why would we expand a system that costs $235,000 per person and only causes further harm?

That is the question that women from MCI-Framingham asked in a historic hearing last summer when they were able to testify to state legislators about the myriad better uses of that $50 million, especially in terms of investing in communities and support services at MCI-Framingham, expanding programming, and improving access to health care.

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.

Can you write to your state legislators in support of a moratorium on new prison and jail construction?

The Prison Moratorium bill (S.1979) would create a 5-year pause on major jail and prison construction and expansion, without preventing essential repairs, to allow for a focus on reducing the number of people in prison, implementing alternatives, and investing in communities.

The Legislature, in fact, has already gone on record in support of this bill by passing it at the end of the session, but Republican Governor Charlie Baker vetoed it. Let’s finish the work this year.

Find out if your legislators are already co-sponsors here.

  Demand a Better Maternal Health Care System

Massachusetts is facing a maternal health care crisis, which is devastating all of our communities, and hitting Black, Indigenous and people of color especially hard. This crisis has been compounded by a cascade of maternity care closures across the state. Policies are urgently needed to reverse this alarming trend.

A study published by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health last year revealed that rates of severe maternal health complications nearly doubled between 2011 and 2020. The situation is especially dire for black women, who are twice as likely than white women to die from maternal health complications in Massachusetts.

We need to demand that all women and birthing parents have access to the care that they need.

Can you write your state legislators along with the Chairs of the Committees on Public Health and Health Care Financing in support of access to midwives and birthing options?

An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options (H.2209/S.145) would improve maternal health outcomes and promote racial and economic justice by expanding access to midwifery care and birthing choices, eliminating maternal care deserts and increasing access for low-income families.

Here’s How Your Legislators Can Hold the DOC Accountable

Fires with no functioning sprinklers to put them out. Tear gas used against individuals in confinement. Individuals being denied access to basic medication. Amputations due to a lack of care and supplies. Year-long delays in access to recommended treatment. Retaliation against individuals who submit grievances. Conditions so bad that the Department of Justice under Donald Trump called out the Department of Correction for its failings.

All of these happen in Massachusetts’s prisons, regularly with little scrutiny or corrective action.

There are many steps needed for robust accountability and a top-to-bottom rethink of the criminal justice system.

But there’s one that can happen now: your state legislators can start actually visiting prisons themselves.

State legislators, who vote to provide funding for the Department of Correction, should view it as incumbent upon themselves to follow up about how that funding is being used, not used, and misused. And they should be willing to listen to and meet with their constituents who are behind the wall when they raise the alarm about inhumane conditions.

Can you ask your state rep and state senator to commit to visiting a Department of Correction prison at least once before the end of the session? 

Only a few state legislators visit prisons at all. Even fewer do so unannounced, a statutory right that all state representatives, senators, and governor’s councillors have and a more potent tool for accountability.

We plan to track which legislators follow through in our Legislator Scorecard, so let us know if and when you hear back.

Tomorrow is an important deadline at the State House

Tomorrow is an important deadline at the State House: Joint Rule 10 Day.

According to this State House rule, every joint committee (i.e., committee of both the House and Senate) must take action on the bills before them by the first Wednesday in February.

That action can be to give the bill a favorable report (It advances!), to give the bill an adverse report (It’s done for the session), to send the bill to study (It’s effectively done for the session), or to give the bill an extension (It has more time).

The State House relies on deadlines to spur action, so expect to see a flurry of action on bills later this week.

That also means it’s a great time to contact the committees in support of critical bills.

Can you commit to sending at least one email by tomorrow? See below for some action tools.


 
Keep Up the Momentum for Criminal Justice Reform

If we want to continue to move past the failed model of mass incarceration – a model that costs outrageous sums, breaks apart communities, and does not increase public safety – then we need more policy action this year.

Urge the Judiciary Committee to advance key bills before a critical February 7 deadline.

  • Raise the Age (H.1710 and S.942: An Act to promote public safety and better outcomes for young adults): When young adults (18, 19, 20) are kept in the juvenile system, they are able to have better access to school and rehabilitative programming.
  • Prison Moratorium (H.1795: An Act establishing a jail and prison construction moratorium): Massachusetts does not need to build new prisons and jails. We need to be investing in programming, re-entry services, and community supports.
  • Clean Slate Bills (H.1598/S.979: An Act providing easier and greater access to sealing & H.1493/S.998: An Act to remove collateral consequences and protect the presumption of innocence): Too many people are trapped in poverty and deprived of jobs, housing and other chances for success because of their criminal and juvenile records. We need to allow for automatic record sealing in certain cases, rather than relying only on burdensome case-by-case petitions.

Can you write to the Judiciary Committee today in support of these key bills?

Let’s Set up all Students and Families for Success

Every student deserves the support and resources to thrive. That’s why we’ve been such strong supporters of the Common Start bills and the Thrive Act.

Common Start (H.489 and S.301): While Massachusetts is a nationwide leader on early education and child care and we’ve made important progress in recent years, the current system remains broken and access to quality early education and care remains out of reach for too many families. The Common Start framework would provide the specific structure that is needed to deliver affordable care options for families; significantly better pay and benefits for early educators; a new, stable source of funding for providers; high-quality programs and services for children; and substantial relief for businesses and our economy.

Thrive Act (H.495 / S.246): Massachusetts’ state takeover law and the state’s misuse of the MCAS as a graduation requirement are failing our students and disrupting their education. The Thrive Act would end the failed system of state takeovers of school districts, and replace it with a comprehensive support and improvement system that focuses on giving students and educators the tools and resources they need to succeed. The legislation would also support students by establishing a modified high school graduation requirement in which coursework would replace the MCAS test as the basis for showing student mastery of state standards. And, the legislation would create a commission to give our communities a voice in building a better assessment and accountability system.

Can you email the Joint Committee on Education in support of these bills?


It’s Time to Make Polluters Pay

Massachusetts communities are already experiencing the devastating and costly effects of climate change even without considering the HUGE cost of building the climate resilient infrastructure recommended by Climate Chief Hoffer in her 2023 report.

Unless action is taken, our communities will continue to bear the financial and emotional costs of climate change while the fossil fuel companies responsible for climate-related damages make record profits. These companies must bear the cost.

The Make Polluters Pay Bill (S.481/H.872) is a pathway to making that happen.

It would require top polluters to contribute to a superfund used to pay for climate-related damages in Massachusetts. It would create the Climate Change Adaptation Cost Recovery Program, generating $75 billion over the next 25 years for climate adaptation and resilience projects. These funds will then be dispensed through the Climate Change Adaptation Fund, with at least 40% of the funds going to projects directly benefiting environmental justice communities.

Can you write to the Joint Environment and Natural Resources Committee in support of these bills?

MA Needs to Lead on Democracy

In the late 1990s, after incarcerated individuals in MCI-Norfolk started political organizing, Republican Governor Paul Cellucci and the Massachusetts Legislature responded with retaliation and a multi-step process of disenfranchisement. Our commonwealth did something rare in recent history: it took away the right to vote from a category of people who were formerly enfranchised.

According to a new fact sheet from The Sentencing Project, over 7,700 otherwise eligible citizens in Massachusetts are disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. The report further underscores the racial disparities in the Massachusetts criminal legal system that leads to Black and Latinx residents being disproportionately denied their right to vote.

On April 26, 2023, the Joint Committee on Election Laws gave a favorable report to S.8/H.26, constitutional amendments filed by Sen. Liz Miranda and Adam Gomez and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven that would ensure that incarceration never leads to a loss of voting rights.

Now, the Election Laws Committee must advance S.428/H.724 before the Feb. 7 deadline. This legislation would make relevant changes in state law, and is needed to accompany the constitutional amendments. Passing the constitutional amendments this year would be historic — we need to make sure these bills that change the law for local elections are moving at the same pace.

Can you write to the Joint Election Laws Committee in support of these bills?

Let’s Build on Recent Progress for Criminal Legal Reform

Earlier this month, MassInc published a study on MA’s 2018 criminal legal reform omnibus bill.

Takeaway #1: The bill led to significant reductions in incarceration without undermining public safety.

Takeaway #2: The work isn’t over.

If we want to continue to move past the failed model of mass incarceration – a model that costs outrageous sums, breaks apart communities, and does not increase public safety – then we need more policy action this year.

Urge the Judiciary Committee to advance key bills before a critical February 7 deadline.

  • Raise the Age (H.1710 and S.942: An Act to promote public safety and better outcomes for young adults): When young adults (18, 19, 20) are kept in the juvenile system, they are able to have better access to school and rehabilitative programming.
  • Prison Moratorium (H.1795: An Act establishing a jail and prison construction moratorium): Massachusetts does not need to build new prisons and jails. We need to be investing in programming, re-entry services, and community supports.
  • Clean Slate Bills (H.1598/S.979: An Act providing easier and greater access to sealing & H.1493/S.998: An Act to remove collateral consequences and protect the presumption of innocence): Too many people are trapped in poverty and deprived of jobs, housing and other chances for success because of their criminal and juvenile records. We need to allow for automatic record sealing in certain cases, rather than relying only on burdensome case-by-case petitions.

Can you write to the Judiciary Committee today in support of these key bills?

Joint Testimony in Support of An Act to Strengthen Visitation Rights of incarcerated people (S.1541) and An Act to Strengthen Family and Community Connection with Incarcerated People (H.2314)

January 23, 2024
Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security
Rep. Carlos González, House Chair
Sen. Walter Timilty, Senate Chair


Joint Testimony in Support of An Act to Strengthen Visitation Rights of incarcerated people (S.1541) and An Act to Strengthen Family and Community Connection with Incarcerated People (H.2314)


Dear Chair González, Chair Timilty, and Honorable Members of the Committee:

We, the undersigned organizations, were active in the advocacy for No Cost Calls, and we applaud the Legislature’s recent work in passing that legislation. There is more work to be done on the vital issue of keeping families connected. In that spirit, we write to you today to urge you to give a favorable report to S.1541 and H.2314.

This legislation is needed because too often, people hoping to visit a friend or relative encounter barriers, disrespectful treatment, or even being turned away because of arbitrary dress codes or routine operations such as drills. Under current rules, people fortunate to have a big circle of support must choose a small number of people who can be approved to visit. This legislation will lift that cap and guarantee certain minimum standards, such as adequate visiting hours and the ability to hold one’s child during a visit. It will also allow for visits when an incarcerated person is hospitalized in critical condition, a time when everyone needs the comfort of loving attention from people they know.

Decades of research document the many benefits when people who are incarcerated are able to maintain robust relationships with their friends and family, from better mental health to easier transitions home, ultimately improving public safety and community life across Massachusetts. [1] This legislation can help to ameliorate the disproportionate impact of restrictions on Black and Latinx families, whose children are more likely than White children to have a parent who is incarcerated because of the structural racism in the criminal legal system that the Commonwealth is working to address. [2]

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we thank you for your attention to these important issues and ask that you give S.1541 and H.2314 a timely and favorable report.

Actual Justice Task Team of the Southern New England United Church of Christ
Ameelio
BIJAN (Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network)
Bristol County for Correctional Justice
Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS) Steering Committee
Community Action Agency of Somerville, Inc.
Disability Policy Consortium
Drop LWOP New England
Justice 4 Housing
Massachusetts Action for Justice
Mystic Valley Action for Reproductive Justice
National Lawyers Guild-Massachusetts Chapter
New Vision Organization, Inc.
Parole Review For All
Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts
Progressive Massachusetts
Save Our Sons
SURJ Worcester
The Harriet Tubman Project
The Real Cost of Prisons Project
Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
Women & Incarceration Project, Center for Women’s Health & Human Rights, Suffolk University

[1] Leah Wang, “Research Roundup: The positive impacts of family contact for incarcerated people and their families,” Prison Policy Initiative, Dec. 2021, available online at the Prison Policy Initiative website.

[2] Final Report of the Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the Commonwealth, recommendations on visitation, Dec. 2022, available online.

PM Joins Coalition of 20 Organizations Calling for Elimination of Fines and Fees in the Juvenile Justice System

This week, Progressive Mass joined a coalition of 20 organizations from the Massachusetts Coalition for Juvenile Justice Reform in a letter to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in support of legislation to eliminate fines and fees in the juvenile justice system.

As the joint letter notes, “By eliminating the remaining eight fines and fees imposed on juveniles, it will firmly root the juvenile court process on conditions based on the developmentally appropriate needs of youth and not on their financial status.”

You can view the full letter here.

Passing the Prison Moratorium and Ending Life without Parole Go Hand in Hand

Prison

Massachusetts Judiciary Joint Committee

Testimony for S.1979/H.1795 and An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration, (S.1045 / H.1821),

Caroline Bays, Watertown Massachusetts

Dear Chairs Eldridge and Day,

Thank you for hearing my testimony today on S.1979 / H.1795, an act that would establish a five-year moratorium on building new prisons. 

I am usually before you as a Watertown city councilor or as a board member on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts. But today I  am here on behalf of my dear friend who has spent the last 16 of his 35 years in prison. 

Six years ago, I had a life-changing event when I was asked to visit this young man who was experiencing a mental health crisis. As a result, I have seen up close how dysfunctional, counter-productive, and destructive prisons are to the human beings who live within those walls. 

Prisons no longer even pay lip service to rehabilitation; they are designed purely for punishment. They no longer try to help people get back on their feet and become productive members of our society. The stories I have heard–the danger, harm, cruelty, and viciousness he has experienced are destructive not just to him but to our society and who we are as a state. 

Prisons as they are currently structured do not make us safer–they make us less safe. And we are harming the most vulnerable members of our society–people who need help. We are putting people who are mentally ill in prison; we are putting people who are addicted to drugs in prison; we are putting people who are experiencing dire poverty in prison. 

Since when did we decide that it was morally right to treat those who need our help as criminals and deny them the support and treatment they need? Whom does it help? This is cruel to those impacted and actually decreases our safety. 

In addition I also ask you to support An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration (S.1045 / H.1821). These bills go hand in hand because ending life without parole and the imprisonment of people who committed crimes when they were teenagers not only counters everything we know about human development, it unnecessarily imprisons people who are perfectly safe to release back into the community. In addition these sentences are disproportionately imposed on people of color.  Please pass these necessary next steps in order to create a more just and equitable society.

I urge you to help us look for solutions that will benefit everyone–the incarcerated people and the general public. We have an opportunity to truly change how our society manages public safety. The creation of prisons has not only failed to end crime, by disconnecting people from their families, education, jobs and societal support, mass incarceration has actually been responsible for an increase in criminal infractions. Let’s be the state that shows how to end this cycle of incarceration and create solutions that really do lead to healing – of individuals and our community.  Thank you for your time.

Let’s finish the wins for No Cost Calls and the Prison Moratorium.

Prison

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

Chair Eldridge, Chair Day, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary:

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 H.1795: An Act establishing a jail and prison construction moratorium and H.1796: An Act relative to telephone service for inmates in all correctional and other penal institutions in the Commonwealth.

We were very grateful last session when the Legislature passed the Prison Moratorium and No Cost Calls. Unfortunately, due to vetoes from Governor Baker, they did not become law. It is just as urgent to finish the job this session, and we urge you to advance these bills as swiftly as possible and to strengthen the No Cost Calls language in the FY 2024 budget currently under negotiation.

H1795: The Prison Moratorium

If you have not yet watched the testimony from women at MCI-Framingham during the State Administration & Regulatory Oversight hearing on the Prison Moratorium, please do. The Committee had the opportunity to hear from the most directly impacted individuals, and their testimony was powerful.

We find it deeply misguided that Massachusetts is considering spending $50 million on a new women’s prison. As of January 1, 2022, the population in MCI-Framingham stood at 179, with more than 20% held in pre-trial detention. In part as a result of sentencing reforms, Massachusetts’s incarceration rate has been falling, and the population at MCI-Framingham could be reduced further through tools such as medical parole.  

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. Think of how much we could do for expanding economic stability and opportunity with that $50 million, rather than creating a new prison. 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.

H1796: No Cost Calls

Choosing between paying rent or buying groceries and being able to connect with loved ones is a decision no one should be forced to make, but Massachusetts is currently forcing this dilemma on thousands of families across the Commonwealth. Families are being charged exorbitant fees to maintain vital connections with incarcerated loved ones — a regressive tax on the most vulnerable populations of the Commonwealth.

While only 21 percent of the state’s population is Black or Latinx, more than 54 percent of the people imprisoned by the Department of Corrections  are. Black and Latinx children are, respectively, nine and three times more likely than White children to have a parent in prison. As communities already struggle with the high cost of housing, health care, and transportation, no one should be forced to choose between paying rent or buying groceries and maintaining contact with loved ones. 

Moreover, punitive policies targeted at the families of incarcerated individuals leave us all worse off: numerous studies have shown that contact with loved ones promotes lower recidivism rates and successful reentry. 

Additional Bills

We would further like to go on the record in support of the following bills:

  • H.1401/S.997: An Act relative to Massachusetts state sovereignty
  • H.1688/S.959: An Act to Prevent the Imposition of Mandatory Minimum Sentences Based on Juvenile Adjudications
  • H.1821/S.1045: An Act to reduce mass incarceration
  • H.3956: 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
  • H.1461: An Act relative to juvenile fees, fines, and restitution

Thank you for all your work in organizing this hearing.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts