Massachusetts Senate Criminal Reforms Bill
The Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means Committee is set to put out it’s version of a new criminal sentencing bill soon.
The Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (MACDL) notes that the current draft does not appear to include reforms to mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession charges, including school zone cases.
Mandatory minimums cost the state huge amounts of money in incarceration costs for non-violence drug offenders. And these mandatory minimums take away the ability of judges to make rational assessments about the nature of these charges, and the danger to society that such individuals really are.
Mandatory minimums for drug possession in a school zone add a 2 year sentence for distribution of drugs for being within 1000 feet of a school. It is easy for someone to be charged and convicted of this offense having no idea they were even near a school, and being no threat to school age children. But the mandatory minimums take the possibility of a measured response out of the judge’s purview.
We hope a good reform package will make it through the legislative process and be signed by Governor Patrick. The Governor and key Legislators appear open to meaningful reform, so let’s hope they take the matter seriously and are ready to make a big difference in the lives of people caught up in the Massachusetts criminal justice system.
Read MACDL’s full statement on the matter.
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