In 2018, after years of delay, the Legislature passed a criminal justice reform bill. There were some important reforms made in that bill, but it didn’t go far enough. Reformers hoped to see a broad ability for juvenile expungement to prevent youth’s criminal records from haunting them the rest of their lives, but only a limited form of expungement was included. And instead of eliminating all mandatory minimum sentences, the bill created a new one. Instead of making communities safer, mandatory minimums became a catalyst for mass incarceration, terrorizing Black communities and ignoring the root causes of poverty and crime. Massachusetts has much higher incarceration rates than we did in the 1970's, and according to statewide sentencing data Black and Latinx residents make up just 23 percent of the state's population, but more than double the percentage of people serving mandatory minimum sentences for drug charges. This is not an accident. Our legislature had a chance to end mandatory minimums when they passed a criminal justice reform bill back in 2018, but they left mandatory minimums in place and even created a few new ones. Mandatory minimum sentences don't work to reduce crime or incentivize lawful behavior, and should not be used as a substitute for accessible health care, a jobs guarantee, or mental health services. We need to end mandatory minimum sentencing this session.

Massachusetts is one of just a handful of states without certification for police officers, meaning that a cop who's fired by one town for misbehavior can get a job down the road in the next town. Police officers routinely violate constitutional law and rarely receive accountability, since there is very little stopping someone who has committed an act of violence from continuing to commit violence on the job elsewhere. Municipalities across the state have already made clear the need for certification and accountability. For example, Springfield's police department is so bad that even the Trump administration took notice and began an investigation into unconstitutional policing and systemic misconduct. A system of certification would prevent disgraced officers in Springfield from moving a few towns over and resuming police work unchanged.

During the height of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, activists and organizers throughout the state stressed the need to end qualified immunity, which is designed to government employees from liability for unconstitutional actions. This means that when police officers commit acts of violence, there is no legal justification for bringing a case against them. Although ending qualified immunity did not ultimately make it into the final police reform bill passed last session, due to fierce opposition by the police unions, the Legislature has another opportunity to take meaningful action and end qualified immunity.