IN AN EFFORT to reduce HIV transmission, the Biden administration released new guidance in July mandating that medical insurers provide free access to medication that prevents transmission of HIV. Although the guidance calls for waiving all fees and co-pays associated with medication, clinic visits, and blood work, it’s clear that it’s true purpose is to […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
A call for mayoral candidates to address gun violence
A PROMINENT BLACK MINISTER who was part of the clergy-police partnership in the 1990s that helped stem gun violence in Boston is calling on the five mayoral candidates to offer more specifics on plans to address violence in the city’s neighborhoods. Rev. Eugene Rivers, a cofounder of the Boston Ten Point Coalition that worked to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Ombudsman position at Correction Dept. still unfilled
AS THE COVID-19 pandemic spread through the prison system, lawmakers inserted an item into last year’s budget bill creating a new position of ombudsman at the Department of Correction. The ombudsman was supposed to keep an independent eye on the department to make sure officials were complying with health and safety best practices during the pandemic, including […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Home where youth worker was killed saw recent rise in assaults
THE SPRINGFIELD HOME for court-involved juveniles where youth worker James Hillman was fatally assaulted on June 30 was no stranger to violent altercations – and in fact, the number of assaults by youth in the home had risen in the six months leading up to his death. Hillman died several weeks after he was allegedly […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Rollins received severance agreement from Massport
SUFFOLK COUNTY District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who was nominated last week by President Biden to become the next US attorney for the District of Massachusetts, has a very strong resume, but it doesn’t tell the full story about one of her past jobs. Rollins has worked at two Boston law firms and as an assistant […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Lawsuit says DOC accused lawyers, inmates based faulty drug test
ARE LAWYERS ACTUALLY sending letters to inmates in Massachusetts prisons that are meant not so much to be read but smoked? It sounds like the plot to a zany dramedy, but a lawsuit filed this week claims that’s the implication of findings against two lawyers and two inmates who have been tripped up by a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Report rips Boston police handling of Rose case
A CITY-COMMISSIONED REPORT into the case involving former Boston police officer Patrick Rose, who was charged with child sexual abuse in the mid 1990s but nonetheless remained on the force for more than two decades, slammed the Boston Police Department for lacking policies and procedures to respond adequately to the case and for failing to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Suffolk DA Rollins nominated to be US attorney
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE PRESIDENT BIDEN ON MONDAY nominated Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins to serve as the state’s top federal prosecutor, a historic move that could reshape the US attorney’s office and kick off a flurry of activity among elected officials and others who wish to succeed her. If confirmed by the US […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Dorchester Youth Collaborative reopens — under new agency
AFTER SURVIVING BATTLES with both colon and prostate cancer in recent years, Emmett Folgert knows something about rebounding when things aren’t looking great. So he insisted it wasn’t time to write him off in March, when the Dorchester Youth Collaborative that he ran closed its doors after 40 years as a refuge for young people […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
James Hillman, DYS youth worker attacked by juvenile, dies
AN EMPLOYEE WHO worked at a residence for juvenile offenders in Springfield has died weeks after he was attacked by a juvenile who lived there. The employee was identified by the Hampden District Attorney’s office as 60-year-old James Hillman of Springfield. The 16-year-old juvenile is in a secure facility run by the Department of Youth […]