THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES failed autistic teenager David Almond time and time again, making inexplicable decisions and ignoring danger signs until the 14-year-old died, emaciated and bruised, allegedly at the hands of his caregivers. A damning report issued Wednesday by the Office of the Child Advocate turns a harsh spotlight on the state’s child protection […]
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
State considering major expansion of child abuse reporting laws
FOR YEARS, Larry Nassar sexually abused female athletes under the guise of medical treatment while serving as the doctor for USA Gymnastics. Nassar was eventually convicted on multiple felony charges and sentenced to more than 100 years in prison, and officials at USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, where he also worked, were accused in civil lawsuits of enabling the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Study finds not prosecuting misdemeanors reduces defendants’ subsequent arrests
A STUDY EXAMINING the effect of declining to prosecute lower-level nonviolent offenses — a signature policy adopted by Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins that has drawn both praise and scorn — suggests the approach leads to significantly less future involvement by those defendants in the criminal justice system. The new study, which looked at cases […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Cops, docs, and systemic racism
REFORM COMMISSIONS AT the state and national level have been charged with exploring ways to improve law enforcement, with a particular focus on addressing the issues of racism and racial bias in policing. As they look to understand biases in policing and recommend steps to eliminate it, the groups might draw valuable insights from an […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Pandemic has laid bare inequities in legal system
ON MARCH 18, 1963, in the landmark case of Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court established the right to counsel across the nation. Since that moment there has been an ongoing conversation about what that right means, who public defenders are, and how we can all make the legal system better. Every year, public defenders use the anniversary of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Report finds no racial profiling by Needham police
INVESTIGATORS HIRED by the town of Needham concluded “the weight of the available evidence” suggests four white police officers did not engage in racial profiling last year when they arrested a black man on suspicion of shoplifting at a CVS store, but their report nevertheless raises issues of potential bias. The incident occurred more than […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
To reduce recidivism, address the root causes
DURING A BROADCAST town hall forum late last month, President Biden took issue with the way some jurisdictions release inmates. “You get 25 bucks and a bus ticket. You end up back under the bridge exactly where you were before,” he said. When justice-involved individuals re-offend, the easiest answer as to “why” is to lay […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Boston center’s gang database lists 3,853 people.
THE DIRECTOR of the Boston Regional Intelligence Center said on Tuesday that the center’s gang database is comprised of 3,853 people with active status. In a hearing held by the Boston City Council’s Public Safety Committee, David Carabin, the director of the center, said approximately “one half of 1 percent of the city’s population is […]
Posted inOpinion
Streamlining the criminal complaint pipeline
IN RECENT YEARS, Massachusetts has made significant progress in the direction of criminal justice reform. The credit goes to progressive thinkers in the Legislature, the attorney general and several district attorney offices, ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana, and an engaged and conscientious Supreme Judicial Court. The time is ripe to change the way we charge people […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
A reckoning for prosecutors in drug lab scandal?
THE JANUARY 2013 drug arrest of disgraced Massachusetts state chemist Sonja Farak and its impact on thousands of drug cases was widely reported as it unfolded, and memorialized to devastating effect in Netflix’s docu-series How to Fix a Drug Scandal. The case notoriously involved a rare one-two punch of official misconduct. On top of Farak’s years […]