MASSACHUSETTS STATE HOUSE TUESDAY JULY 8!

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Who will join me on Tuesday at the State House in our efforts to STOP THE DISASTROUS H.4184? We will meet outside the Hall of Flags in the State House at 10:00 AM on Tuesday. Fair Sentencing for Youth will be distributing coalition stickers and advising members to go to Senators’ offices. Please plan to arrive promptly on or before 10:00 AM, as the Senators will head to the floor at 11:00 AM.
WHO’S IN? I’d love to know if you’ll be able to join me.
The juvenile sentencing bill sped through the state House of Representatives last week and on TUESDAY, JULY 8th, the state Senate is expected to debate its version of House Bill 4184.  YOUR HELP IS NEEDED NOW TO DEFEAT THIS BILL IN THE SENATE!!HERE’S WHY
H. 4184 would thwart the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling in Com. v. Diatchenko (12/24/13) that sentencing children to life in prison – “the other death penalty” – violates the state constitution.H. 4184 would seriously undermine the constitutional principle that juveniles – immature adolescents at the time of their crimes – have great capacity to develop and to rehabilitate themselves and must be granted a meaningful opportunity for parole consideration.  The bill would require that juvenile offenders serving life sentences for crimes they committed as teenagers wait 20 to 30 years before even being considered for parole.

It gets worse.  Not only would a young person have to wait far longer before being allowed to petition for parole consideration (current law is 15 years), but when parole is denied (very few prisoners are paroled at their first hearing), the Board could make them wait up to 10 more years—double the current law allowing a five-year setback—before they can petition again for parole.

Evidence based practices tell us that parole hearings should occur with regularity and should motivate prisoners to change.  Parole hearings should be used to acknowledge a prisoner’s challenges, provide guidance and identify attainable goals, and measure the prisoner’s progress.  Extending the setback period for lifers to 10 years would do exactly the opposite and effectively extinguish a juvenile’s right to a meaningful opportunity for review by the Parole Board.

Tell your state senator not to lock up children and throw away the key.

CALLS
Please call your State Senator and other legislators and urge them to reject these extreme sentencing provisions. See the June posts below if you’ve already contacted your state senator at https://bitly.com/yourMAlegislators

TELL YOUR LEGISLATORS
1. NO YOUTH  should have to wait longer than 15 YEARS before have a FIRST OPPORTUNITY TO GO BEFORE THE PAROLE BOARD.

2. NO PERSON should have to wait longer than 5 YEARS BETWEEN PAROLE HEARINGS.

3. EVERY JUVENILE LIFER should have an ATTORNEY AND A SOCIAL WORKER TO HELP PREPARE FOR HIS/HER PAROLE HEARING.

4. JUVENILE MURDER CASES SHOULD BE HEARD IN JUVENILE COURT by judges with expertise in juvenile matters.