Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform
CJI, with support from The Boston Foundation and the Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation, has embarked on a statewide effort to improve outcomes in the Massachusetts criminal justice system. This project has a number of components geared toward identifying problems and gaps in the system, developing solutions and assisting in the implementation of reforms designed to increase public safety and reduce the costs of the corrections system.
Components include:
- Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Reform
- With The Boston Foundation as funder and partner, two reports were published explaining the CORI system and advocating for reforms to make it more effective and efficient as both a public safety tool but also a component of workforce development. CJI was asked to assist the MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services as it drafted regulatory changes to reflect many of the recommendations in the second CORI report. The regulations were formally adopted in April 2009. Legislation was submitted by Governor Patrick and eventually similar language was passed by the State Senate that advanced several reforms of the CORI system. In 2010, the MA legislature passed and the Governor signed legislation instituting systemic reforms to the CORI system, many of the reforms were recommended in the reports written and published by CJI and The Boston Foundation.
- → CORI: Balancing Individual Rights and Public Access, 2005
- → CORI: Opening Doors of Opportunity, 2007
Role of the Judiciary in Prisoner Reentry
With partners the Flaschner Judicial Institute, Administrative Office of the Trial Courts, and Roger Warren of the National Center for State Courts, CJI advised on and participated in conversations to broaden the MA judiciary’s understanding of best practices in the criminal justice system. The conversations included leaders from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, the Department of Correction, the Parole Board, and the legislature.
A More Efficient and Effective Corrections System
Published by The Boston Foundation, this series of reports focused on the efficiency and effectiveness of the MA criminal justice process. The reports, the first, Priorities and Public Safety: Reentry and the Rising Costs of our Corrections System, published on and presented at a December 3, 2009 forum, examined the budget changes in vital services accounts over a ten-year period as well as the population changes in the four corrections agencies and re-offense data. The second report, Priorities and Public Safety II: Adopting Effective Probation Practices, examined the current structure of corrections in Massachusetts, focusing on the vital role probation plays in protecting the public, and how other states carry out probation responsibilities. The resulting media attention from the first report was followed by an in-depth series of stories in the Boston Globe examining the exponential growth in the Probation Department’s budget which led to the appointment of an independent investigator and federal and state criminal investigations and the removal of the leadership of the Probation Department. Several bills are currently before the legislature seeking to implement many reforms recommended in the reports.
→ Read CJI’s first report, Priorities and Public Safety: Reentry and the Rising Costs of our Corrections System
→ Read the follow-up report, Priorities and Public Safety II: Adopting Effective Probation Practices
→ Read the Boston Globe’s Spotlight articles on MA Probation
