Last week Barbara Dougan, Project Director of the Massachusetts office of Families Against Mandatory Minimums, convened a terrific roundtable discussion at the Massachusetts Bar Association in Boston. The host was Lee Constantine of the Mass Bar. The point was to share and discover what criminal justice and drug policy reforms that groups hope to turn into legislation for the upcoming 2015-16 session.

I attended as a member of the Coalition for Effective Public Safety (CEPS), and along with the more than twenty others around the table, we are hoping that next year we will bring change to Massachusetts with legislation.

Massachusetts State House Senate Chamber

Tony Smith of the New Start Project began the meeting. His organization advocates for reentry opportunities for people exiting prison. Their top priorities include repealing what the Prison Policy Institute, in an excellent report, calls a “misguided Massachusetts law”. This Registry of Motor Vehicles law (RMV) automatically suspends driver’s licenses of people convicted of a drug offense for up to five years, regardless of whether or not the original offense had anything to do with driving or road safety. I wrote about this here when I first heard about it last year.

Lois Ahrens, Director of The Real Cost of Prisons Project, was also representing the Pre-Trial Working Group (PTWG) which has as one of its priorities to stop the building of new jails and prisons, certainly as they say on their website: Massachusetts should have a moratorium on new construction “until bail reform and other pretrial diversion programs are implemented.” Reforming the outdated system of money bail is another top priority for the PTWG and was discussed by Norma Wassel, founder of Massachusetts Bail Fund, and a member of the Pre-Trial Working Group along with Ahrens. For more information on why bail jails are a bad idea see this article in Boston Magazine.

Andrea Goode-James, Executive Director of Families for Justice as Healing, and Rene Brimage, one of the members of that organization directly affected by policies affecting formerly incarcerated women, talked about services for women after prison. Their legislative priority is “to  create community-based sentencing alternatives for primary caretakers of dependent children.”

Juan Cofield, president of the New England Area Conference of the NAACP, and Bill Robinson, chair of the political action committee, talked about filing bills to end or limit the school to prison pipeline and police use of military equipment. They are also concerned about the cultural competency of law enforcement, and importantly, they want to file legislation addressing special prosecutors’ “inappropriate charges of murder” that primarily affect black citizens.

Prisoner Legal Services of Massachusetts, represented by Bonnie Tenneriello, will be filing legislation to stop some of the harsh solitary confinement conditions in Massachusetts, and are working on a bill for extraordinary conditions of illness and aging that should result in medical release from prison. They also have been very involved with what Tenneriello called “The Bridgewater Bill,” which aims to stop those with serious mental illnesses from restraints, solitary, and other harsh conditions that exacerbate issues for anyone much less those with mental health issues.

Liza Lunt of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers said that they do not file bills but they lobby and support organizations who do file legislation. They are particularly interested, she said, in “the elimination of mandatory minimums,” and they are supporting statutory rape reform, expungement of records, ending harsh solitary confinement conditions, and they are advocating for medical release for prisoners.

The Coalition for Effective Public Safety, a group of many other organizations and individuals advocating for criminal justice reform, is supporting medical release, stopping solitary confinement, and parole reform. There is a group from CEPS currently working to decide what we feel is most important and necessary to improve parole. We do know that we are interested in presumptive parole, limiting setbacks when parolees are refused release by the Parole Board, right to counsel for parole revocation or rescission hearings, limiting the kinds of violations that result in revocation, and improving post incarceration supervision issues.

David Harris of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice said that they are not filing bills but as Harris also said, “we find ourselves in coalition with others.” Likewise, Len Engel of the Crime and Justice Institute at Community Resources for Justice said they do not have a Massachusetts agenda currently but they have seen renewed interest in justice reinvestment from some Massachusetts leaders. They also mentioned bail reform and mandatory minimums as on their agenda. Melissa Threadgill, who is working with Engel, also attended.

Hope Haff representing the National Association of Social Workers of Massachusetts said their agenda includes taking a stand against solitary confinement, backing the removal of mandatory minimums, as well as supporting compassionate release and the RMV bill that others discussed.

Mary Ann Walsh, FAMM’s lobbyist, and Barb Dougan talked about the mandatory minimum bill that they are working on with the Harm Reduction and Drug Reform Caucus in the Legislature. Maryann Frangules from Massachusetts Organization for  Addiction Recovery (MOAR) supports FAMM’s agenda. They also support repealing the RMV law and are working on legislation involving funding for residential treatment services. Additionally, they are considering if they need to strengthen language in an important piece of legislation for addiction and recovery, the Good Samaritan Law. Another recovery specialist, Connie Peters from the Association for Behavioral Healthcare is aiming to improve insurance to cover addiction services, and wants to create specific legislation to ask methadone clinics to be open to other treatments.

Lisa Hewitt and Maryann Calia, representing the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), said that they have “broad scope legislative initiatives” and mentioned several, including expungement of records, for those who have been falsely accused. They said that they could help others draft legislation and give people and organizations analysis on the issues–a real plus for everyone. Anthony Benedetti, chief counsel for CPCS, added that bail reform, mandatory minimums, decriminalizing low level offenses, and the rights of juveniles are also among their agenda items.

John Ward came from Roca (meaning rock in Spanish), a group serving 17-24 year-olds. They are interested in policies that will reduce the amount of incarceration in the Commonwealth. They want criminal record reform, the elimination of money bail, and more community corrections instead of prison and jail for young people. Ward mentioned the “massive chasm” that exists between law enforcement and youth and feels training of police needs to address this.

Mike Avitzur, from the Boston Bar Association, mentioned that they too want an end to mandatory minimums and are concerned about guarding the rights of those serving juvenile life without parole sentences (since the Diatchenko decision). They oppose the death penalty and are pursuing issues of mass incarceration and reentry for prisoners.

Rev. Paul Ford from the Boston Workers Alliance (BWA) said that he supported the omnibus bill being considered by Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement.  (EPOCA). They both want bail reform, an end to mandatory minimums, a repeal of the RMV bill, and parole reform. Ford said that BWA also was working on a campaign against gentrification that was pushing former prisoners out of housing opportunities.

Criminal Justice Policy Coalition‘s Rachel Corey said they are working with the Bail Fund and Jobs Not Jails, and offered their website for a place to house bills that will be filed. She plans to include details on the bills so that advocates can share information and support each other’s efforts. This is important because it is all too easy to lose touch. We should all send info to Corey at director@cjpc.org.

Until the next meeting!

Note: Senator James Eldridge (Dem-Acton) will be filing a restorative justice bill. Many legislators are already on board for the projects mentioned and others will be contacted. If there are other pieces of CJ legislation in the works, please let me know and I will add to this list.

Of course there’s not a lot you can talk about in 15 minutes. However, today I was on “The Mara Dolan Show” on Lowell’s radio station, WCAP (980am) talking up a storm. Mara’s a former criminal defense attorney so we focused on criminal justice reform and also talked a bit about former probation chief, John O’Brien’s sentence. You can hear the show at this link. For info on John O’Brien’s sentence, see this article in the Boston Globe.

I started reading Maya Schenwar’s book which is aptly subtitled “Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How we can do Better,” just as I was dealing with a loved one who was suffering from drug addiction behind bars. I knew all too well the feelings of “Just keep her in jail for God’s sake, maybe she’ll be safe and stop using.”

Schenwar begins this book with her sister’s addiction, and it is a good hook, a real way to draw us in, because the pain and frustration is so palpable.  She, like myself, a prison activist, knows all too well that prison or jail is hardly a place to detox — a hard cold floor, sometimes naked, sometimes screaming — hardly a place for the kind of safety we’d like for those we love.

But Schenwar’s sister’s struggle and her family’s excruciatingly painful experience of dealing with it is only her entry point into the story of incarceration. This saga, as she says, is borne by all who love someone locked up, although “this country’s most marginalized communities bear the overwhelming brunt of the devastation.” Locked Down, Locked Out is a heartfelt book which takes to task the “behemoth” often called “the prison industrial complex.” Prisons and jails are locking up 2.3 million people behind bars and Schenwar gives us stories as well as facts to illustrate its inner workings, while still managing to present us with hopeful alternatives to prisons.

Schenwar, who runs the website Truthout, is an accomplished journalist who has interviewed and connected with prisoners across the country. She gives us insight after insight as she takes us through snapshots of incarceration issues. As she says in her chapter entitled, “The Visiting Room,” connection to outside loved ones is necessary for prisoners. I paused, hurt welling up in my throat when I read “Even for the most dutiful visitors and appreciative visitees, prison feels like abandonment.” Not only does that ring true for my family member behind bars but for all the women I taught for ten years. How often they lingered at the steel door when I left my class for the evening with words like “Have a safe ride home.” I remember how I walked down a long hall, women fading into the distance as I exited the prison.There is no way for anyone involved in the criminal justice system to read this book without having such images float into your mind.

Schenwar also gives us words of prisoners who say how much mail means to them, images that evoke hope even in the form of the simplest post card. She talks of how families are bereft after their loved ones get sent away, along side the idea that many think by incarcerating lawbreakers, we are getting rid of the “bad eggs.” And she poignantly asks: “What exactly are we wishing for when we want someone close to us incarcerated?” This is a wonderful question, and one I hadn’t exactly thought of so was glad to hear her answers which are personal and human— for them to stop hurting, among them. But she knows too well that prison may not stop prisoners’ “spiraling” record or return them to fulfilling, happy lives. And in spite of the fact that one young man whom she interviews tells her, at least “You’re not gonna get shot here,” her search for answers for her sister and for others causes her to explore how can we keep people out of prison.

So what are Schenwar’s answers? While the book is a bit disjointed here, as she goes through her sister’s release, pregnancy, and a variety of programs, she does use her personal experience to enhance our understanding of her discoveries. One of the best, is how she points out the positive that comes from building communities for people who come out of prison or for people before they ever go in. She says “really effective treatment means bringing people out of isolation—not imposing more of it.” She points out ways people on the inside work with people on the outside through telling their stories. And she highlights some particular community-based programs that she has encountered from shore to shore, including her sister’s recovery house for previously-incarcerated mothers where her sister can stay with her baby.

It’s a hopeful way to end the book although, for those of us who live with someone always on the brink of a relapse, we know that addiction is not a problem easily solved. Schenwar promises no happy ending here. Heroin users get clean or they often die. This I know from my loved one’s addiction. But, while Schenwar shows how prison is not the answer to addiction, her dedication to a better world is inspiring, and convincing too: there are solutions to what often feels like despair.