MIDDLESEX COUNTY PRISON COORDINATING COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER

Next Meeting: Feb. 13, 2008

MCPCC met on Jan. 9, 2008 in West Newton. Those present were Tom Crowther, Mary Ann Donaldson, Toby Frost, Marjorie Moerschner, Lynne Sullivan, Dorothy Weitzman, Carol Winton and Elizabeth Woodbridge. Our guest speaker was Attorney Lee Gartenberg, who provides legal services for inmates at the Billerica House of Correction and the Cambridge Jail. In addition, Lee is Chairman of the Criminal Justice Section of the Massachusetts Bar Association.

Middlesex, Suffolk, Plymouth, Hamden and Worcester Counties all have attorneys with offices at the prison to provide legal assistance to inmates; the others do not. All prisons are required to provide law books for inmates and as Dan Lee told us last month, the Billerica HOC library has legal materials available in book form and on line. Many inmates have difficulty with reading though, and many have very complex legal problems, so the presence of an attorney is necessary. MA Correctional Legal Services, funded by the state, has lawyers who go to prisons that don't have lawyers in place, but they are outsiders. Lee is there every day, which creates trust.

The prison populations in both the Cambridge Jail and the Billerica HOC have increased greatly since Lee first set up offices there. He now has two lawyers assisting him as well as an intern who goes to law school. Lee has regular office hours every day and also meets with inmates in the pods. The Correction Officers are very helpful and make this easy for him.

The pretrial population at the Cambridge Jail is exploding. The jail built for 200 men now holds 400, mostly because many more are being held without bail. The media has some influence on the current reluctance to grant bail, but overcrowded jails themselves create public safety issues. Lee takes part in dangerousness hearings every evening at Cambridge to determine those who can be safely released.

The Cambridge Jail is filled with asbestos and will have to close soon. Many of the men will be sent to Billerica. Pre-trial men must be kept segregated in the old building since they have not

been classified. It is unsure when or whether the Cambridge Jail will be usable again. The sheriff would like to see a new jail built in Somerville together with a new police station there.

The Superior court will move to Woburn while the renovation takes place. Woburn is not served directly by public transportation, which may make it difficult to get a balanced jury pool.

Rep. Ruth Balser's bill calling for the creation of Residential Treatment Units (RTUs) for mentally ill inmates in state correction facilities- House Bill 1313- has been heard in the Judiciary Committee. Prison officials fear tying the hands of those who have to deal with a disturbed and destructive inmate, but there has to be a balance between safety and the appropriate treatment of those who are mentally ill.

Last spring Governor Patrick created an Anti-Crime Council, with an impressive and distinguished list of 28 members from the many interlocking fields involved in criminal justice; members include AG Martha Coakley, Kevin Burke, Secretary of Public Safety, and the commissioners of the DOC and other depts. Lee is also a member. The council has been meeting regularly with the governor since last May. This sounds exciting and hopeful.

Lee sees the District Attorneys Association moving in the direction of mandatory drug sentencing reform which would include work release though not probation. Reform would require legislative action. We have mentioned Sen. Creem's bill for sentencing reform, which Sheriff DiPaola supports.

DAs can treat some offenses civilly rather than criminally, which would have some advantages, but this never happens.

Parole is a good thing for those who choose to apply for it. It's a somewhat cumbersome process and there isn't much incentive to go for it, but more inmates are being paroled now.

The Sentencing Commission is still being funded, but its guideline recommendations have not yet been approved. Still, Lee is cautiously optimistic that this will happen.

CORI reform is very much an issue. Governor Patrick and Mayor Menino support it, and there seems to be public interest and support for it as well. Reforms would include shortening the time required to seal CORI information, simplifying the arcane and misleading code system in which CORI information is presented, and making the IDs of those who have CORIs much more precise, perhaps by including fingerprints. There should also be a way to correct CORI mistakes. Currently Massachusetts has no provision for correcting such mistakes. The Criminal History Systems Board runs the CORI system in Massachusetts.

Police can be a constructive force on the street. In the Framingham Project, a social worker rides along in the police car to calls involving domestic disputes. Waltham and Watertown now share a similar program- it would be good to see more of them.

City gangs continue to be a destructive force. Creative afterschool programs and well-run boys and girls clubs should help. We know what to do, but political and financial will is lacking.

Many thanks to Lee Gartenberg for updating us. He's been a friend to MCPCC for many years and we much appreciate his visits!

NEXT MEETING: FEB. 13, 2008 at 7 PM

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