Criminal reform bills that failed to make it through last
year’s legislative session are being reintroduced for the 2009-10 session with
high expectations for their passage, which would usher in significant changes
to the state’s criminal policies.
Last year, the Massachusetts Bar Association championed
reforms to both sentencing guidelines and the Criminal Offender Record
Information (CORI) law, but the legislation was released from committee too
late to advance before the end of the 2008-09 session. Immediate Past President
David W. White Jr. made sentencing and CORI reform a priority for his term, and
2008-09 President Edward W. McIntyre has continued the push for reform.
The MBA is supporting a CORI bill that the Massachusetts Law
Reform Institute and a coalition of groups, under the name of Massachusetts
Alliance to Reform CORI (MARC), are focused on having addressed by the
Legislature. The MBA has proposed recommendations for the CORI bill, which
includes addressing access (law enforcement access versus non-law enforcement
entities), accuracy and sealing old records.
The MBA’s Drug Policy Task Force is also set to issue a
report this year that will include comprehensive data and facts that will
strongly support arguments for sentencing reform in Massachusetts.
“This new legislative session holds much promise in the
advancement of criminal sentencing and CORI reform legislative measures,” said
MBA General Counsel and Acting Executive Director Martin W. Healy. “Criminal
justice reforms have been identified as a priority area of interest by a number
of legislators. We are in the second half of the (Gov. Deval) Patrick
administration and the governor is considered a veteran on the Hill. We are
hopeful that Patrick will push hard on these greatly needed reforms.”
More than 20 years ago, mandatory minimum sentencing reforms
for drug offenders were enacted in Massachusetts to deal with crimes including
trafficking, possession with intent to distribute, distribution in a school
zone and distribution to a minor. The mandatory minimum sentences effectively
ended an offender’s opportunity for parole if incarcerated.
Speaking against the current mandatory minimum sentencing
policy at the Jan. 15 MBA House of Delegates meeting, the Drug Policy Task
Force received HOD endorsement on two pieces of drug and treatment legislation
that the MBA will support during the 2009-10 legislative session.
HOD unanimously voted in favor of the proposed legislation, which
would revise the drug sentencing structure by eliminating mandatory minimums
for most drug dealing crimes and expand parole and work release opportunities
for incarcerated drug offenders, while also enhancing the existing system of
diversion of drug offenders to drug treatment programs as an alternative to
incarceration.
“The MBA is taking a position because current drug policies
have failed; because they are expensive (Department of Correction’s inmate cost
is more than $47,000; county jail is $39,000) and growing exponentially,” said
MBA President Edward W. McIntyre.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Correction, the
state prison population increased by 384 percent from 1980 to 2008 and the
number of drug offenders increased 2,394 percent, from 109 in 1980 to 2,610 in
2008. Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing reforms, drug
offenders have made up more than 25 percent of the state prison population, as
opposed to the 4 percent of drug offenders making up the state prison population
in 1980.
“Essentially, the MBA’s position is about deploying a public
health approach rather than a failed criminal justices paradigm to drug
offenders,” said McIntyre. “It’s about treatment rather than incarceration;
about accelerated reintegration into the family unit, the community’s social
structure and workforce. Studies from across the country and around the world
demonstrate that intelligent policies that move away from the incarceration
model to a treatment, accelerated assimilation program, reduce the rate of
crime and the staggering cost of incarceration — which is the second most
rapidly growing budget item next to health care.”
“Parole is really a function of getting a person in a
productive relationship with society and their community,” said MBA immediate
Past President David W. White Jr. and founding member of the Drug Policy Task
Force. “Offering parole allows prisons to make room for more dangerous
criminals, reducing the rate of crime overall by restoring families,
neighborhoods and communities by making ex-offenders better citizens, and saves
the taxpayers money.”
In the November 2008 general election, Massachusetts citizens
voted to decriminalize marijuana. Legislators, who for years have been focused
on discussion revolving around the belief that constituents want stronger
punishments for low-level drug offenders, now have proof that the public
actually wants to reduce the resources designated to punishment of low-level
drug offenses. White believes the “commonwealth, now in severe economic crisis,
can handle the drug sentencing issues in a way to save millions and millions of
dollars.”
Furthermore, current mandatory minimum drug sentences have
disproportionately impacted cities and their minority populations. Current
school zone laws, which increase punishment drug offenses within 1,000 feet of
a school with mandatory sentences — regardless of prior knowledge if school is
in session, intent to distribute, time of day or awareness of proximity to a
school — have created a situation where almost an entire city can be considered
a school zone.
“The result is an impact on minorities,” said White. “The
bill didn’t have that intent when it was enacted, but it has discriminatory
consequences. We would like the statute changed to 100 feet.” White pointed out
that approximately 300 people are sentenced for school zone offenses each year.
“In the commonwealth, we spend more money on jails and
prisons then on higher education,” White said. “It is time for more sensible
priorities.”