criminal justice

Let’s rehabilitate moms, not lock them up

Courts/ Criminal Justice/ Opinion

Let’s rehabilitate moms, not lock them up

Incarceration-based drug policies make no sense

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TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, I met Sylvia, a smart, talented mother with dreams – like most moms – for her family, despite experiencing homelessness. Formerly in prison for a non-violent drug offense and caught in the cross hairs of the growing mass incarceration movement, she held on to her aspirations despite numerous roadblocks, pursuing work, housing,(...)

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Feds crack down on Lawrence drug network

Criminal Justice/ Drugs/ Guns

Feds crack down on Lawrence drug network

34 arrested, and at least 10 were in the country illegally

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THIRTY PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED Tuesday on gun, drug, and immigration charges in a sweep that brought down a Lawrence-based network that Acting US Attorney William Weinreb described as “one of the largest fentanyl trafficking organizations ever seen in Massachusetts.” Approximately 250 law enforcement officers were involved in the sweep, seizing several(...)

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Victims have stake in criminal justice debate

Criminal Justice/ Opinion

Victims have stake in criminal justice debate

Hearing will provide comment opportunity for crime survivors

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CRIME VICTIMS are the only participants in the criminal justice system who did not, by their own action or choice, put themselves there.  At the same time, they are often the most impacted and endangered participants in the system.  The Massachusetts Victim Rights Law ensures that victims have access to their rights and information throughout(...)

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The Download/ Criminal Justice/ Politics

When not guilty is not innocent

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Aaron Hernandez died an innocent man. Technically. The former New England Patriots star tight end, who apparently took his life early this morning in his cell at the state’s maximum security prison in Shirley, was acquitted of a double murder last week but was still serving a life sentence for the 2013 shooting death of Odin Lloyd.(...)

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Sununu, Rivera vow to work together on drugs

Criminal Justice/ Drug Addiction/ Drugs/ Opinion

Sununu, Rivera vow to work together on drugs

Lawrence mayor says supply, demand must be addressed

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Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire and Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera talked by phone on Thursday after Sununu had claimed that most of the drugs flowing into the Granite State were coming from Lawrence. Below are the statements the two officials released following the phone call. Rivera’s statement, which includes a number of grammatical and(...)

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Getting everyone on same team in Northampton

Criminal Justice

Getting everyone on same team in Northampton

Chief Jody Kasper says police can’t be defensive anymore

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Jody Kasper, chief of the Northampton Police Department, is always looking for ways for her officers to better connect with the community they serve. She launched a program called High Five Fridays in December, where police officers would line the sidewalks leading to elementary schools in Northampton and high five students as they arrived for(...)

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DA Conley pushes back against Gants

Criminal Justice

DA Conley pushes back against Gants

Defends mandatory minimums, questions chief justice’s aggressive politics

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SUFFOLK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY DAN CONLEY on Tuesday pushed back against efforts by Chief Justice Ralph Gants and members of the Senate to do away with mandatory minimum sentences and give more discretion in handing out punishment to judges. In remarks during and after a panel discussion at a daylong conference on criminal justice reform(...)

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Brownsberger: Criminal justice reform top priority

Criminal Justice/ Opinion

Brownsberger: Criminal justice reform top priority

To reduce crime, reduce incarceration rates

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MY ONGOING TOP PRIORITY as Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee is criminal justice reform. The criminal justice system is filled with committed professionals – police, prosecutors, judges, and probation, parole and correctional officers. Most of the laws that govern the system made sense when they were enacted and are still individually defensible. Yet, taken(...)

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Ortiz stepping down early

Criminal Justice/ Politics

Ortiz stepping down early

Controversial US Attorney resigning before Trump takes over

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STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE U.S. ATTORNEY Carmen Ortiz, the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as the top federal prosecutor in the district of Massachusetts, will leave her post in three weeks, clearing the way for President-elect Donald Trump to name a new U.S. attorney. Ortiz, in a press release on Wednesday, announced that(...)

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The Download/ Criminal Justice

The unobstructed view of hindsight

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In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, fingers are being pointed and questions asked about why federal law enforcement officials didn’t detain — or at the least keep track of — Omar Mateen after interviewing him not once, not twice, but, now officials acknowledge, three times. After those interviews, conducted after tips from others about(...)

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