THE NETWORK
JUST FOR U!
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CONTENTS
1. Boston Mothers Care Support Haiti Event (TONIGHT--6/26—7:30pm)
2. HEARING STORY UPDATE: Yancey testifies in Favor of the Creation of Commission to Oversee the Department of Corrections—DOC
DETAILS
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1. Boston Mothers Care Support Haiti Event (TONIGHT--6/26—7:30pm)
Boston Mothers Care
UPCOMING EVENTS
Event Website
http://www.iamkreyol.com/
Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 7:30pm
The Red Fez, 1222 Washington Street
Boston 02118
Featuring performances by Zili Misik and Ashley Rose!
Showcasing original fashions created by designer, and sponsor of the event:
Joelle Jean-Fontaine.
Enjoy an evening of culture and caring, while learning more about the work being done in Haiti by
Boston Mothers Care, Physicians for Haiti, and other groups - and how you can get more involved.
$15 in advance, $20 at the door.
Proceeds will help to bring clean water and mobile health care to remote communities in Haiti.
Link to Physicians for Haiti
http://www.physiciansforhaiti.org/upcomingevents.cfm#
Join Us!
If you share our belief that service is the rent you pay for your space on this planet, we welcome your time and commitment.
Boston Mothers Care
234 Kennebec Street
Boston, MA 02126
617-792-1025
bmotherscare@gmail.com
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2. Yancey Favors Creation of Commission to Oversee the Department of Corrections--DOC
Charles C. Yancey
Boston City Councillor
PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Kenneth Yarbrough - Chief Information Officer
(617) 635-3131 Fax (617) 635-3067 Page (617) 461-5548
For Release Thursday, June 23, 2011
Yancey favors creation of Commission to oversee DOC
Boston City Hall (June 23, 2011) – Boston City Councillor Charles C. Yancey today testified during a Massachusetts State House hearing in favor of House Bill 1559, legislation introduced by State Representative Kay Kahn to create a Massachusetts Corrections Commission as a permanent independent oversight commission for the Department of Corrections (DOC).
Yancey said a Commission could lead to the improvement of public safety for inmates and employees in Massachusetts prison facilities and for Massachusetts neighborhoods and communities with regard to successful re-entry.
Yancey also said a Commission could implement policies to decrease recidivism rates in Massachusetts. "Human beings are released from prisons more dangerous, more disabled, more wounded, and less prepared to assume the role of responsible adults than prior to their incarceration," he said.
Yancey also quoted a 2004 report by the Governor's Commission on Corrections in which Edward A. Flynn, former Secretary of the Executive Office of Public Safety, supported recommendations to create an external advisory board to monitor and oversee the DOC and to determine goals for the department's future. "If nothing else, inmates must leave our custody with a belief that there is a moral world. If they believe that rules and regulations can be applied arbitrarily or capriciously, then we fail them, and we will unleash people more dangerous than when they went in," Flynn wrote.
More than 300 Massachusetts inmates are released back into their communities every month, according DOC statistics.
Testimony from Leslie Walker, executive director of Prisoners' Legal Services in Boston, provided several reasons why her organization is supporting the proposed legislation. She cited Massachusetts prison system's overcrowding, its 40 percent recidivism rate, its excessive spending (over $1 billion on corrections alone), and its higher than national average suicide rate among state prisoners in Massachusetts.
Walker called the proposed Commission an inexpensive way to insure that, "Light shines in the dark corners of Massachusetts' prisons. It will let legislators and taxpayers know where their tax dollars are going. The current system of warehousing as opposed to treating, training, and educating prisoners has resulted in public safety concerns and inexcusably high recidivism rates," she said.
Pace University Law School Professor Michael Mushlin called independent, external oversight of conditions in correctional facilities an essential tool for protecting human rights in a closed institutional environment. He called the lack of oversight a situation that is not a healthy state of affairs for either the inmates held in prisons, most of whom will return to their communities, for the staff who work in prisons, or for the public whose tax dollars are used to operate these systems.
Mushlin, author of Rights of Prisoners, said oversight is essential if prisons in the United States are to be humane, effective, and efficient. "I am convinced House Bill 1559, which you have before you, is one that will improve your correction system and help it better serve the public," he said.
Publisher and community activist Jamarhl Crawford, in a telephone interview following the hearing, called the Massachusetts prison system broken and in need of improvement. "There's an epidemic going on," he said, citing problems such as food deprivation, internal corruption, smuggling of contraband, and sexual and physical abuse inside the prisons.
Boston Phoenix staff writer, Chris Faraone, whose six-month investigation of the Massachusetts correctional system yielded a highly acclaimed article, Trouble over Bridgewater, testified that he had spent a lot of time, intensely investigating the DOC. "I came to understand the lack of oversight as the biggest most shameful thing in Massachusetts, and it goes unmentioned," he said.
Others who testified included Reverend William Dickerson, pastor of Greater Love Tabernacle Church; Joanne Miranova of Press Pass-TV; Darrin Howell, ED of Drive Boston and former volunteer community advocate for DOC; and former DOC Commissioner Kathleen M. Dennehy.
H.B. 1559 was submitted for approval by the house and senate committees on post-audit and oversight, the joint committee on public safety and homeland security, and the joint committee on the judiciary.
The Commission would be comprised of six appointees from the governor, two from the senate president, and two from the speaker of the House of Representatives. The Commission would also have individual designees from the departments of probation, parole board, mental health, public health, public safety, and mental retardation. Commission organizations with individual appointees would include the Women's Bar Association, Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services.
The Commission, which would function independently of the control and direction of the executive office of public safety, would study medical services, including mental health and substance abuse treatment services, and educational, vocational, employment, and rehabilitation programs available to prisoners.
The Commission would report annually to the aforementioned state house committees on the allocation of resources as well as recommendations regarding how to allocate such resources in the most efficient and useful manner for both the taxpayer and the offender. The Commission would hold public hearings in which all inmates housed within department of correction facilities would be invited to provide testimony.
Councillor Yancey said he supported and encouraged swift passage of H.B. 1559 as is currently written. "Without the help of government, what are communities to do to address and reverse the hopelessness, mental illness, untreated anger, and the self-hatred that continues to lead to bullying, suicides, and random violence by those who have been exposed to a prison culture of intimidation, brutal violence, rape and murder," he asked.
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One City Hall Square • Boston • Massachusetts • 02201 (617) 635-3131
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We didn't pack the room. But the message was clear, concise and engaged EVERYONE in the room.
The bill is not perfect but it's a start at transparency and public accountability.
It took Rep. Kahn 11+ years because wouldn't hear it. Yesterday they heard her. Yesterday, they heard us!
As you read the materials provided in this email, bear in mind that your help will be needed to ensure the passage of H. 1559
in a strengthened bill or at least not weakened. Please stay tuned. --lef
PS
Attachments include individual testimony given during 6/23/11 hearing.
These links below provide evidence on the need for DOC oversight:
- link to H.1559's exact language = http://www.malegislature.gov/Bills/187/House/H01559
- Chris Faraone's Boston Phoenix article 'Trouble Over Bridgewater' http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/108081-troubled-over-bridgewater/
- Kathleen Dennehy's 2 statements on the culture of prisons (code of silence) http://www.prisoncommission.org/statements/dennehy.pdf AND
- Scott Harshbarger DOC Report http://www.mass.gov/Eeops/docs/doc/DOCAC_prelim_report.pdf
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THIS NETWORK IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY…
THE OFFICE OF BOSTON CITY COUNCILLOR CHARLES C. YANCEY
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