Action on Criminal Justice Reform! Hearing Monday

CALL TO ACTION!

The Joint Committee on the Judiciary PUBLIC HEARING

Monday, June 5th at 1 PM at the Statehouse in Gardner Auditorium
There will be a Rally starting at Noon in Nurses Hall Second Floor Statehouse

This is a chance for community members to educate policymakers

We Need Recovery Voices to Speak out for Criminal Justice Reforms that will promote treatment and recovery to reduce overdose deaths

Bills and Issues Being Considered:

1. Governor Baker's Council of State Governments (CSG) bill filed after a year long study. While it contains some good reforms, it is very limited and does NOT include anything on Mandatory Minimums on drug convictions, Felony Theft Threshold, Fines and Fees, CORI Reform, or Juvenile Misdemeanor Expungement.

2. (Multiple) --Ending long automatic Mandatory Minimum Sentences on drug convictions and returning sentencing to judges to decide on the facts and circumstances of each case

3. Senator Keenan's S.878 "An Act expanding protection under the Good Samaritan law for drug-related overdoses" which would allow individuals with limited warrants to save a life by calling 911 in the case of an overdose without fear of arrest.

4.(Multiple) - Collecting data and establishing regulations on how prisons in our state use extended periods of solitary confinement which is detrimental to mental health and considered by the United Nations to be torture.

5. Representative Balser's H.719 "An Act to improve public safety by facilitating access to addiction services" which would ensure that every inmate in county jail receive a substance use disorder evaluation and recieve services if desired.

Click here for details and a full list of bills

To join MOAR and our partners from Jobs Not Jails at the Statehouse on Monday email Maryanne@moar-recovery.org or call 617-423-6627 now!

Or consider calling/writing your legislators and asking them to support comprehensive justice reform including the bills listed above and facts below.

Did you Know?

There are only 7 countries in the world with a higher incarceration rate than Massachusetts

Incarceration rates have increased 263% since 1980 even though crime rates are down 26%

Less than 2% of the Department of Correction Budget is spent on treatment and education programs

Sherriff Peter Koutoujian states that

85% of the population of the Middlesex House of Correction suffer from
addiction and/or mental illness.

Our Criminal Justice System continues to disproportionately affect communities of color.

The facts are clear, we need

Jobs Not Jails

People with Addictions Need

Treatment Not Prison

MOAR is a proud member of the Jobs Not Jails Coalition, a group of community, labor, religious, and legal organization and individuals with a keen interest in review of the states criminal justice system.

We support the The Justice Reinvestment Act that is being filed by Representative Mary Keefe ( H2308 ) and Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz ( S791 ) and smaller bills to:

End long mandatory minimum sentences on drug convictions of non-violent persons;
Raise the threshold for what's a felony theft from $250 (the third lowest in the nation) up to $1500;
Lower probation and parole fees such as the $65 a month ex-prisoners have to pay in parole fees when ex-prisoners are already working at low wage jobs;
Lessen the "sealing time" before employers can no longer see court appearances on a CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information). The current times leads people not to be able to be hired when they are released from prison;
Increase funding for in-prison education and job training, and increases funding for reentry services especially for job training and job placement;
Divert people that have committed crimes because of addiction to treatment rather than jail;