Advocates and legislative allies are pushing to restore voting rights to more than 7,700 incarcerated felons in Massachusetts prisons and jails, a privilege taken away by a voter-approved constitutional amendment in 2000.
Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
Incarceration and crime rates both down sharply since 2018 reforms
Five years after Massachusetts enacted sweeping reforms aimed at reducing incarceration and addressing racial disparities in the criminal justice system, a new study says the state has seen sharp decreases in both incarceration and crime rates.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Grubhub pays $3.5m to settle restaurant overcharging claims
n addition to the $3.5 million that Grubhub will pay to impacted restaurants, the company will also pay a $125,000 penalty to the Commonwealth.
Posted inCourts
No life without parole for those under 21, SJC rules
In a national first, a close SJC ruling declared it unconstitutional to sentence anyone under the age of 21 to life without the possibility of parole.
Posted inTransportation
Chamber CEO confident MBTA starting to turn a corner
He also called for more investment in transportation and housing while urging lawmakers on Beacon Hill to rein in spending and cut more unspecified “outlier” taxes that make the state less competitive.
Posted inOpinion
Every police ‘bad shoot’ should be treated as a system failure
We should be streamlining the path to restoration for the victims, not saddling them with the burden of demonizing cops and proving misconduct.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Short takes: A (different) public apology in Stuart case
Four years before Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s public apology over the city’s handling of the Stuart murder case, Suffolk DA Rachael Rollins offered a similar, if little noticed, mea culpa.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Campbell opens up about neighbor’s arrest
As the state’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Andrea Campbell sees it as her responsibility to protect the safety of all communities in Massachusetts — and that includes her own neighborhood in Mattapan.
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC weighs officer privacy against public records rights
The Supreme Judicial Court is wading into a drawn-out public records fight stemming from the Bristol County District Attorney’s refusal to release documents, recorded interviews, and the names of officers involved in the 2021 fatal shooting of 30-year-old Anthony Harden.
Posted inMarijuana
Judge puts off Goldberg-O’Brien meeting
A state judge sided with Shannon O’Brien on Tuesday, ruling that the suspended chair of the Cannabis Control Commission shouldn’t be required to meet with Treasurer Deborah Goldberg until all of the investigations into O’Brien are completed and the investigators are available for questioning.