Legal advocates urge Legislature to override Baker's prison moratorium veto

BOSTON — Advocacy, legal and faith-based organizations throughout the state are urging the Legislature to hold a special session to institute a jail and prison moratorium — halting construction of new correction facilities in the state for the next five years.

Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed a bill addressing the subject on Aug. 4, after it had passed in the Legislature.

Families for Justice as Healing — a nonprofit dedicated to ending incarceration of women and girls that has backed the bill since April — sent a letter to legislators on Oct. 20 calling on them to act on a slew of criminal justice reform initiatives, including the prison moratorium bill. More than 70 groups signed the letter, and FJAH held a protest Oct. 28 in Ashburton Park on Beacon Hill.

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FJAH Executive Director Mallory Hanora said the state “desperately” needs alternatives to incarceration and has the opportunity to be a model for other states by passing the bill.

“We know more is possible, we know more can get done,” she said. “There's no reason to see good commonsense policy die with this session and have to start all over.”

A special session would require the backing of at least 21 senators and 81 representatives — a majority from each chamber. If it does not pass this session, the bill will have to be refiled at the beginning of the new legislative session.

As midterm elections loomed, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, D-Acton, who serves as Senate Co-Chair of the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, said after the election would be the best time to pass the bill, and any others that didn’t reach resolution.

“We're going to have our plates full next session on transportation, on health care, on education,” Eldridge said. “I'm proud of the work we did this session. Let's finish.”

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House and Senate leaders, including Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, have not commented on whether they plan to address the issue before the start of a new session.

At the center of the issue is MCI-Framingham — among the oldest women’s prisons in the country — in need of many repairs, and that the Baker administration has eyed replacing it through construction of a new women’s prison in Norfolk.

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Sarah Nawab, an attorney for Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, released a report detailing problems and recommendations for incarcerated women in Massachusetts. She said any new prison built could easily fall into the same state of disrepair as MCI-Framingham, and the state should avoid additional construction at all costs.

“We don't want to see the next generations of women incarcerated,” Nawab said. “We want to see our next generations of women empowered.”

Angelia Jefferson, who was formerly incarcerated at MCI-Framingham, said the building was dilapidated, and there were often mice and bugs throughout the facility, which the Department of Correction provided little to no help with exterminating. The building’s disrepair, Jefferson said, directly affects the quality of care.

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“They (inmates) aren't getting the proper help that they need,” Jefferson said, adding that proper medical care is severely lacking.

Jefferson said the state and the DOC, rather than finding permanent solutions to systemic failures, prefer to put Band-Aids on issues, such as with the proposed Norfolk prison.

“They're not fixing a problem, they're just covering it up,” she said.

Stephanie Deeley, a Framingham resident who serves as co-chair of the MetroWest Commission on the Status of Women, said the group fully supports calls for a special session. Deeley said Baker’s decision goes against the will of the people, and if the bill makes it back to the Legislature she foresees it passing.

“It's important for us all to remember that the reason it got to the governor's desk for him to veto is because it has the support in the communities to move forward,” she said.

The bill, Deeley added, provides necessary time for the state to determine a plan of action going forward.

“We're not saying never build prisons again,” she said. “It just means we’re not gonna build a new prison until we make sure that that’s where the money is best spent.”

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Advocates urge Legislature to override Baker prison moratorium veto