MIDDLESEX COUNTY PRISON COORDINATING COMMITTEE NEWSLETTER
MCPCC met on 6/11/2008 in West Newton. Those present were
Chairman Mary Ann Donaldson, Tom Crowther, Elizabeth Woodbridge and Marjorie Moerschner.
Carol Winton was ill with the flu, but she mailed in her annual report, since
this was indeed our annual meeting. Her report documented our informative
speaker meetings during the year and suggested some projects to tackle next
year.
Tom gave his annual treasurer's report. Though we had a
budget deficit for the year, we still have some reserves from our fundraisers
of the year before. We will need to give thought to another fundraiser in the
next year or two.
The
Criminal Justice Policy Coalition has postponed its annual meeting until the
fall, but its newsletter on the 2007-2008 legislative session, has much
information of interest to us.
To
summarize, only two relevant bills came out of the Joint Committee on the
Judiciary this session. The first, House Bill #4811 was passed in July and
created several new sex offenses, increased penalties for other sex offenses
and codified the ability of the district attorney to obtain certain
communication records by subpoena. This bypasses the necessity to get a court authorized
warrant as required by the 4th amendment of the U.S. constitution. CJPC opposes
all the policies of this bill.
The
second bill, HB #5004, which included the Judiciary Committee's version of CORI
reform, provisions for mandatory post-release supervision and other changes
unfortunately never made it to the floor of either House or Senate for a vote.
After many extensions, it was finally reported favorably out of committee near
the end of the session- but since it did not command a consensus as written,
and there was no time for the negotiations, which could have led to consensus,
the bill died there. On the hopeful side, this was the first time that a CORI
reform bill was both reported favorably out of committee, and had the support of
a sitting governor.
CJPC and other
supporters of CORI reform will work to get a bill successfully through the
legislative session beginning next January. Mandatory sentencing as well as
pre- and post-release supervision will also be addressed. MCPCC strongly
supports these policies.
CJPC's newsletter notes that there will be a MA ballot initiative in November to reduce the penalty for possession if small amounts of marijuana, making it an offense punishable by civil fine rather than criminal prosecution as is now the case. This would help reduce the prison population- we incarcerate a larger proportion of our people than does any other nation. This sensible solution would also help reduce the taxpayer burden.
60 Highland St., West Newton