Criminal Justice Reform
An Act to Prevent the Imposition of Mandatory Minimum Sentences based on Juvenile Adjudications (S.1022)
This bill prevents courts from lengthening certain mandatory-minimum sentences based on a person’s actions as a child (i.e. juvenile court adjudications). Utilizing juvenile adjudications to increase prison sentences is immoral. Scientific evidence demonstrates that, due to developmental differences between children and adults, the two should be treated separately within the justice system. A person should not be subject to additional mandatory punishment based on things they did when they were children, as young as age 7.
An Act to Provide Criminal Justice Reform Protections to All Prisoners in Segregated Confinement (S.1578)
This bill fills a loophole in the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018 which allowed for fewer protections of prisoners in solitary confinement than the legislature intended by creating an airtight umbrella term of "segregated confinement" to afford protections to all prisoners who are, for all intents and purposes, in solitary confinement. This bill also bans postpartum moms and people with developmental and physical disabilities from being placed in solitary confinement.
An Act to ensure the constitutional rights and human dignity of prisoners on mental health watch (S. 1283)
Recently, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released the results of an investigation into the MA Department of Corrections’s (DOC) use of mental health watch. The report found constitutional violations and egregious failures to ensure the safety of prisoners. This bill offers remedies to help ensure appropriate behavioral health treatment and the prevention of self-harm and suicide for prisoners on mental health watch. Among other provisions, if a prisoner has been on mental health watch for 24 hours and continues to require observation as determined by a qualified mental health professional, the bill requires that the prisoner be transferred to an inpatient psychiatric facility or unit.