Commonwealth Magazine reports on yesterdays Rally for Reform.
CommonWealth Magazine
Codcast on Criminal Justice Reform
Nice overview discussion of the Criminal Justice Reform issue in this podcast from MassInc.
Senator Brownsberger Appears on Commonwealth Magazine’s Codcast to Discuss Pay Raise Package
Senator Brownsberger joined Jack Sullivan and Bruce Mohl on Commonwealth Magazine’s weekly podcast on politics and policy, The Codcast, to discuss legislative pay increases, which were debated by the House …
Fingerprints fail in Senate Uber bill
CommonWealth Magazine reports on the ride-sharing bill that ultimately passed the Senate. Fingerprint based background checks were left out of the bill however the Department of Public Utilities could implement …
State kicks-off criminal justice review
CommonWealth Magazine reports on the initial meeting of the Working Group formed by state leaders to partner with the Council of State Government’s Justice Center to conduct an independent policy review of the Commonwealth’s criminal justice system and provide reform recommendations. The article focuses on the data-driven approach being taken as the “Council’s Justice Center laid out the scope of the review and some baseline data on the state’s criminal justice system.” Senator Brownsberger is legislative co-chair of the Working Group.
Rethinking tough-on-crime
CommonWealth Magazine’s summer 2015 cover story on criminal justice policy reform by executive editor Michael Jonas, focuses in on the debate over repealing mandatory minimum sentences, which is one aspect of Senator Brownsberger’s legislative priority to reduce the footprint of the criminal justice system and to help make it easier for people to get back on their feet. As reported in the piece, “Sen. Will Brownsberger, who co-chairs the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary, thinks the state should pull back the entire “footprint” of the criminal justice system, not only the length of many prison sentences but also various sanctions and fees that hit people once they’re out of prison. Rather than help ease offenders back toward productive pursuits, Brownsberger says, these often seem more like tripwires setting ex-prisoners up to fail.”