• Recommend passage of H.4457 to create a Correction Citizen Review Board to provide an ongoing independent overview of the state prisons.
• Investigate the death of Kelly-Jo Griffen and other recent suspicious inmate deaths.
• Recommend passage of H.2493 to require annual recidivism reports with a breakdown of recidivism rates for those who have been held in solitary confinement.
• Establish a safe and confidential process to enable individuals to report their experiences. Reporting mechanisms must be developed to protect against the harsh reality of retribution within the correctional system.

• Recommend that inmates be classified to the minimum security levels that are warranted.
• Recommend passage of S.167 to allow access to parole for drug-related offenses.
• Recommend passage of H.1180 to prevent punishment and provide treatment for those who self-injure or attempt suicide.

• Recommend that planning to prepare for release begin at the start of a prison term.
• Recommend that all inmates be housed at minimum necessary classification levels.
• Recommend increasing education, training, rehabilitation, and health programs to prepare inmates for finding productive roles in society upon release.

• Recommend that a complete audit of DOC budgets and expenditures be performed this year.
• Recommend that outside services, such as commissary and phone services, be required to go out to bid to find the best services at the lowest cost to inmates and the correctional system.
• Recommend that the system provide more jobs for inmates, and that they be paid a fair wage for the work performed.

Over the last 20 years increasingly stringent "Get Tough on Crime" policies have resulted in turning prisons into one of the fastest growing components of the Commonwealth's budget today. These policies have proven to be a major burden on many fronts.

Governor Weld articulated this "get tough" approach when he announced in 1992 that "prison should be like a tour through the circles of hell." Around the same time he stopped appointing members to the Department of Correction advisory board, effectively eliminating the only civilian oversight that could shed light into how the rapidly expanding state prisons were being run.

The DOC budget has nearly doubled over the last 10 years. A recent report found that for the first time, the state is spending more on prisons ($830 million) than on public higher education ($816 million). In 2001 DOC spent $38,800 per inmate, when the national average was $26,700. Last year the annual cost to house an inmate rose to over $41,000, according to the DOC. According to the Boston Globe the average spending per prisoner was closer to $47,000.

The prison population grew from about 2,000 state inmates in 1974 to its current size - about 10,000 inmates. (There are another 12,000 people in county prisons.) DOC facilities are very overcrowded - they average 134% of design capacity and the high security prisons are at 157% of capacity. The decision in 2002 to close three minimum-security facilities - the least expensive to run - forced low-risk inmates into more costly medium- and high-security facilities. Today about half of state prisoners are currently over-classified, putting them under tighter restrictions with fewer programs, but more expensive housing. Massachusetts now has 2.7 prisoners for every guard - the most expensive staffing ratio in the country.

Education, reentry, and other programs that reduce recidivism have been cut from about 2% to less than 1% of the current DOC budget. These types of programs have become almost nonexistent. However, despite reduced programming, the correction budget has continued to rise. Massachusetts prisoners are incarcerated at higher levels of security and receive less training than national averages.

Prisoners do not seem to be benefiting from DOC's large budget. Unless declared indigent, prisoners must buy their own clothes (work boots $85), toothpaste ($1.80 for 3 oz) and other necessities - all from DOC's commissary. Inmates haven't been allowed to receive clothes or items from those on the outside in years. Many don't have families willing or able to send much money. Those inmates lucky enough to get a sought-after prison job may receive as little as 25 cents a day for their work.

What is the public getting for its money? More people are sent to prison for longer periods of time and given fewer opportunities for education, training, or work. DOC's most recent report, which is seven years old, shows a recidivism rate of 41%. If almost half the inmate population that is released then re-offends and returns to prison, the goal of rehabilitation is not being met. The unintended consequences of "tough on crime" policies have been to build a prison industry that expands itself at the public expense but has not increased public safety, even at nearly double the cost.
 
 

This legislative session offers a crucial window of opportunity to push for change. Public furor has been raised over the murder of John Geoghan, the death under questionable circumstances of Kelly-Jo Griffen, and published reports on excess correctional costs at a time when education and services for our citizens are being cut. Solutions should involve community alternatives to incarceration, better programming and pre-release planning, and meaningful civilian overview of prisons.
 
 
 

The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts supports:

 An Act to Create a Correction Citizen Review Board (H.4457)
 
 

H.4457 will improve the transparency of the criminal justice system by creating an independent review board to observe and report on various aspects of the correctional system. H.4457, sponsored by Rep. Kay Kahn, received a favorable report from the Joint Committee on Public Safety in December. It is currently being considered by the House Committee on Rules and is expected to go to House Ways and Means.

The Board will be charged with studying and reporting to the public on:

• Prison health and re-entry programs
• The classification of prisoners
• The working conditions for Department of Correction employees
• The effect of correctional policies on recidivism
• The general state of prison facilities and conditions of confinement for prisoners

Why is citizen review of correctional practices important?

• The Review Board can investigate concerns that many prisoners are overclassified and that programs that curtail recidivism have been eliminated.
• The Review Board will have the power to investigate prison disciplinary practices. It can report on inhumane treatment and urge changes in correctional practices when necessary.
• As taxpayers, we are entitled to know that DOC funds are spent wisely, effectively, and humanely. The establishment of a Citizen Review Board is an essential move in that direction.

The mandatory minimum sentencing bill, passed in 1988, resulted in many new people being sent to prison for long terms for nonviolent drug-related offenses. Even though those convicted of violent crimes could be eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of their sentences, those in for drug offenses must usually serve their full terms. This happens regardless of the circumstances surrounding their crime and of any steps they may have taken while in prison to rehabilitate. Prison cells are now replacing detox and mental health facilities as housing for the sick. Most drug offenders serve 2- to 5-year sentences; some serve as many as 15 years. Parole, which the League has long supported, needs to be provided more often.This situation would be mitigated by S.167, introduced by Sen. Cynthia Creem. S.167 would make individuals with mandatory minimum drug sentences eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of their sentence in prison, matching the current eligibility standards for those convicted of violent crimes. It would:

• Improve prospects for rehabilitation and re-integration of offenders to the community. Right now, most drug offenders are released from medium- or high-security prisons directly to the community without parole. Reform of mandatory minimum laws should provide for a portion of the sentence to be served in the community with parole supervision. 

 

 
 
 

• Mitigate disproportionate impact on minorities. Mandatory drug sentences have a disproportionate impact on minorities. 80% of those convicted under mandatory minimum drug sentences are minorities; 34% of individuals convicted of other crimes are minorities. 

 

 
 
 

• Mitigate the cost of over-incarceration and freeing up funds for other critical needs. Incarceration costs the state 10 times the amount needed to supervise a person on parole. The Commonwealth spends about $4000 a year to supervise a person on parole, less than one-tenth the cost of incarceration.Sen. Creem estimates that passage of this bill could save the Commonwealth $10-15 million annually.

Most Massachusetts prisons have control units where correctional officers (guards), not judges, sentence inmates to solitary confinement for 23 to 24 hours a day. At the Disciplinary Detention Unit in MCI-Cedar Junction, solitary confinement can last for years. Prisoners there are denied educational or therapeutic programming. Yet inmates in control units are more likely than the general population to have histories with the Departments of Mental Health and Mental Retardation. Considerable evidence shows that long-term mental impairment, psychotic states and suicidal behavior results from sensory deprivation.
 
 

H.1180 - Treatment of Mentally Ill Prisoners:Prisoners who attempt self-mutilation or suicide can be punished with up to two years in solitary confinement for each offense. Isolation facilitates mental deterioration, often creating never-ending cycles of self-destructive behavior. H.1180, sponsored by Rep. Byron Rushing, would protect prisoners who attempt self-injury from being punished with isolation and make it mandatory that they receive emergency medical treatment.
 
 

H.2493 - Recidivism Reports: One of the best measures of the effectiveness of correctional policy is the recidivism rate, meaning the percentage of inmates who are reincarcerated after release. These figures are not calculated consistently to compare with national averages. DOC's latest report from seven years ago states that almost half of ex-inmates were returned to prison within three years of leaving. H.2493, sponsored by Rep. Gloria Fox, would require annual reports on recidivism rates, including statistics on those released from isolation. Now that the Disciplinary Detention Unit has been in use for over 10 years, legislators should know how much this "program" is costing the state and what results it is yielding.