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CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

The indigent defense counsel crisis continues in #mapoli.

On Friday, Justice Wendlandt issued an order asking for briefing from CPCS, @scdaonews.bsky.social & other parties on whether to ask the full SJC to consider whether judges can raise atty rates.
www.ma-appellatecourts.org/docket/SJ-20...

Finally, the Courts request that I clarify that the Chief Justice is precluded from ordering any increased rate of compensation for attorneys representing indigent criminal defendants. As described above, I previously denied without prejudice CPCS's request to increase attorney compensation rates, and I did so in deference to the Legislature. See July 3 Order, at 21. The Legislature has since acted to address the attorney shortage. See c. 14 of the Acts of 2025, §§ 2A, 48-50, 104-105. But it is not clear from the record before me whether the legislation will cure the current shortage of defense counsel and if so, on what timetable. Nonetheless, the number of unrepresented indigent criminal defendants is substantial. Consequently, I order the parties, including the SCDA, to file with this court by September 8, 2025, briefs and a joint statement of undisputed facts addressing whether I should reserve and report this issue to the full court in the following form or in some other form: "In light of the scope of the present shortage of available defense counsel in the District Courts of Middlesex and Suffolk County and in the Boston Municipal Court, whether and under what circumstances the single justice or any justice of any trial court department is authorized to order increased compensation rates beyond those provided in G. L. c. 211D, § 11 (a), for attorneys accepting representation of indigent criminal defendants." The joint statement of facts shall include any agreed facts deemed by the parties relevant to the above question, including any facts: (a) as to the present scope of the attorney shortage, including the percentages of duty days filled in the Courts for the coming months; (b) as to any case where a judge has ordered an increased compensation rate, and (c) as to any effects of the recent legislation, including whether the increased compensation provided for bar advocates by the new legislation is effecting or will effect any return to work by bar advocates,…

August 26, 2025 at 3:21 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

For what it's worth, the legislative package that just passed includes a sweeping audit provision assigned to the Inspector General. That said, the audit is so broad it may ultimately undermine access to counsel by reviewing if the state is being too liberal in assessing indigency. #mapoli

SECTION 82. Item 0910-0200 of said section 2 of said chapter 9 is hereby amended by
715 inserting the following words:- ; provided, that not later than June 30, 2026, the inspector general
716 shall submit a report to the senate and house clerks, the joint committee on the judiciary and the
717 senate and house committees on ways and means that shall include, but not be limited to: (i) an
718 examination of existing practices, rules and requirements relative to the determination of
719 indigency and the assignment of counsel by the trial court, including an analysis and examination
720 of reimbursement practices and requirements for defendants receiving public representation but
721 who are found not to be indigent; (ii) a review of billing practices and procedures by bar
722 advocates and the oversight thereof; (iii) an examination of the caseload of counsel involved in
723 representation of indigent defendants and the efficacy thereof; (iv) an analysis of the fiscal
724 impact of increasing the proportion of indigent clients represented by public defenders on the
725 total cost of indigent defense; and (v) best practices from other jurisdictions to provide adequate
726 and cost-effective representation of indigent defendants.

August 7, 2025 at 1:39 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Here's a direct link to the #MALeg fact sheet: media.wbur.org/wp/2025/07/B...

TL;DR - $20/hr across-the-board pay raise split over the next 2 years, effective 8/1/25 (Friday).

Among other changes, it would attempt to punish future organizing among bar advocates using MA antitrust laws. #mapoli

Bolstering Public Defenders

Improving the State Public Defender Workforce. With $40 million for the Committee on Public Counsel Services (CPCS), the state public defender agency will be able to more than double its existing workforce. These resources will allow CPCS to hire approximately 320 new public defenders by the end of Fiscal Year 2027. Increasing the proportion of indigent clients represented by public defenders—as opposed to private bar advocates, who are independent contractors—will help stabilize the public defense system in Massachusetts.

Timely Representation for Defendants. This agreement ensures that clients are given access to counsel in a timely manner. It requires that CPCS prioritize the hiring of public defenders serving areas with unrepresented individuals awaiting counsel assignment. That includes counties with a recent history of private bar advocate work stoppages.

Sustainable Increases for the Private Bar

Fiscally Responsible Rate Increases. The agreement sustainably increases rates for private bar counsel by $20 per hour over a period of two years, an increase of more than 30 per cent for district court rates.

With this provision, the Legislature is providing a significant increase in compensation for private bar counsel and upholding a bedrock principle of our justice system—the right to counsel for the accused.

Beginning on August 1, 2025, the annualized rate of pay for private bar counsel would range from $150,000 to $260,000, increasing to $170,000 to $280,000 beginning August 1, 2026. A breakdown of pay rates per court follows.

Chart of proposed hourly pay raises for bar advocates in FY26 and FY27 across courts, documenting a $20/hr raise across the board over the next two years ($10/hr per year) for everyone, effective August 1, 2025

Protecting and Stabilizing the System

Minimizing Disruptions. A series of measures will minimize future disruptions, recognizing the government’s Constitutional duty to provide legal representation to indigent defendants and protect the integrity of the overall justice system.

• All contractual agreements for the appointment of private counsel will need to prescribe requirements for minimum coverage and availability.
• Private counsel contractual agreements must be renewed biannually.
• An agreement among private bar advocates who refuse to compete for or accept new appointments or assignments unless the rates of pay are increased shall constitute evidence of a violation of the Commonwealth’s antitrust laws, consistent with federal precedent.

July 30, 2025 at 7:14 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Justice Wendlandt's decision on the bar advocate work stoppage is now available here:
www.ma-appellatecourts.org/docket/SJ-20...

The Lavallee protocol, allowing release & dismissal for unrepresented defendants, is now implemented in Middlesex and Suffolk County District & BMC Courts. #mapoli

I note additionally that, as the court explained in
Carrasquillo, release or dismissal is not automatic:
"The remedies of release from pretrial detention or
dismissal of charges become available only if, at the time
of [the] subsequent status hearing before the [Chief
Justice], the defendant remains unrepresented and, despite
the good faith efforts of CPCS, there is no attorney
willing and available to represent the defendant."
Carrasquillo, 484 Mass. at 391 n.31. Moreover:
"[N]othing herein prohibits a judge in his or her court
room session from deciding that ordering release of a
defendant who has been held in pretrial detention without
counsel, or ordering dismissal of the charges without
prejudice where a defendant has been unrepresented, is
constitutionally required in the particular circumstances
of an individual case."
Id. at 391.

July 3, 2025 at 1:58 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

The SJC held 36-second vehicular flight was a "direct and immediate" response to the unconstitutional stop & didn't attenuate the violation. Also, rules equal protection violations are inherently flagrant under 3rd factor.

cc: @aclum.bsky.social @statecourtreport.bsky.social @segalmr.bsky.social

GAZIANO, J. After two evidentiary hearings, a judge of the Superior Court found that the defendant, Manuel Diaz, was subjected to an unlawful traffic stop in violation of both his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights and his right to equal protection under arts. 1 and 10 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights. Upon being stopped, the defendant fled in his car at a high rate of speed, lost control of the car, and fled into the woods on foot. Drugs were subsequently found on his flight path. Thereafter, the defendant was charged with trafficking cocaine, and his motion to suppress the drugs and evidence of identity obtained from his car was denied. At issue is whether this evidence should have been suppressed under the exclusionary rule or admitted under the exclusionary rule's attenuation exception. For the following reasons, we conclude that the attenuation exception does not apply as to either the art. 14 violation or the violation of arts. 1 and 10. We therefore reverse the motion judge's denial of the defendant's motion to suppress.1

The second factor, intervening circumstances, presents a closer question. As a threshold matter, a defendant's flight and attempted disposal of the evidence do not automatically constitute an intervening act. See Borges, 395 Mass. at 796 ("Although, in the present case, the defendant attempted both to flee and to dispose of evidence, . . . [these acts] cannot be considered independent and intervening acts"). Nor does a defendant's refusal to submit to a police officer followed by "reckless" driving, even to the extent that such conduct was criminal. See Commonwealth v. Martin, 457 Mass. 14, 22 (2010) (defendant's act of pushing officer's hands away not "a 'new' intervening crime [of assault and battery on a police officer] which dissipated any causal link between the officer's conduct and the discovery of the [evidence]" [quotation omitted]). Rather, the question is whether a defendant's conduct is more accurately seen as a "new, unrelated crime" or instead as a "direct and immediate response to the illegal police action" (quotation omitted). Borges, supra at 796-797.

Second, when viewed as a whole, the illegal stop, flight, and attempted evidence disposal are more plausibly construed as a single "entangled" nexus than as a sequence of distinct and independent events. United States v. Waide, 60 F.4th 327, 340 (6th Cir. 2023) (destruction of evidence was not intervening circumstance where it was undertaken "for [no] reason other than the imminent threat of unlawful police [conduct]," such that defendant's actions "were entangled" with that conduct). Compare Commonwealth v. King, 389 Mass. 233, 245 (1983) ("driver's independent and intervening action of [shooting at] the troopers . . . broke the chain of causation and dissipated the taint of the prior illegality"), with Commonwealth v. O'Laughlin, 25 Mass. App. Ct. 998, 999-1000 (1988) (defendant's "[driving] off at such a high rate of speed that his tires were squealing" and subsequent discarding of jacket containing heroin was "an immediate and direct result" of illegal attempted stop [citation omitted]).

Because of the recognized gravity of racially selective traffic enforcement, and the fact that no "amount" of racial motivation in traffic enforcement is compatible with equal protection, racially selective traffic enforcement violative of equal protection is inherently flagrant under the Borges test. To be clear, this conclusion does not displace an inquiry into the three attenuation factors. And it certainly does not imply that the attenuation exception has no application in the equal protection context; after all, the third factor is "not dispositive," Fredericq, 482 Mass. at 84, and as such can be outweighed by the other two. What this holding does foreclose is the possibility of a racially selective traffic stop that both violates the defendant's equal protection rights and does not count as "flagrant" under the Commonwealth's attenuation jurisprudence. To countenance such a possibility, we would have to disavow our recognition that this specific type of police misconduct is a "particularly toxic" and "pernicious" constitutional problem. Long, 485 Mass. at 715, 717. That we decline to do.

June 27, 2025 at 3:43 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Reupping this message:

Public defenders do themselves a disservice by advocating for their own pay by demonizing their clients, presuming guilt, and fearmongering about safety!

This is *terrible* messaging that breeds distrust among clients and undermines the attorney-client relationship. #mapoli

Suffolk County attorney Elyse Hershon said attorneys “feel like we have no choice,” as neighboring states continue year after year to far outpace Massachusetts pay rates for the same work.

Read more:
https://www.masslive.com/news/2025/06/felony-suspects-are-being-released-in-mass-during-stoppage-attorneys-say-it-could-get-worse.html

“I love this work. I want to continue doing this work, it’s just become impossible to do at such a low rate,” said Hershon, 42, a solo criminal defense lawyer based in the North End with 11 years’ experience primarily on homicide cases.

That shortage has been impacting courtroom outcomes across the state.

“Since Memorial Day ... people charged with very serious felonies are being released on personal recognizance because there’s no lawyer to argue bail. People are being held who are charged with serious felonies, without a lawyer,” Hershon said.

The emergency filing from CPCS resulted in a hearing at 2 p.m. on Thursday, at the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), where attorneys expect the Lavallee protocol to be instilled due to the work stoppage in Middlesex and Suffolk counties.

This would also allow any person held without an attorney since the end of May to be released.

“After Thursday, I think floodgates are going to open ... potentially dangerous criminals are going to get released, and that’s a huge concern for the public,” said Hershon.

Read more:
https://www.masslive.com/news/2025/06/felony-suspects-are-being-released-in-mass-during-stoppage-attorneys-say-it-could-get-worse.html

June 26, 2025 at 8:59 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Can we hold the complexity of advocating for adequate pay for indigent counsel without demonizing clients? Is fearmongering really the best messaging?

Presuming guilt and characterizing a client as a "violent criminal" is precisely what breeds distrust among clients toward public defenders. #mapoli

"There were numerous custodies in Boston Municipal Court Central Division. The judge there held every single one of those over to tomorrow, without an attorney," said Massachusetts bar advocate Mark Perkins.

By law, a person cannot be held longer than a week without an attorney, which Perkins says will result in serious consequences for the general public if this work stoppage continues.

"They have to release them without any conditions after seven days," he said. "So here's someone who might be released, who could be a violent criminal, released back into the community."

"If somebody doesn't have a lawyer and they're released to the street, after 45 days, that case could get dismissed," said Elyse Hershon, a private counsel and bar advocate.

May 29, 2025 at 1:18 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Well, @wcvb5.bsky.social changed the whole article, headline, and byline about this DOC lawsuit settlement without so much as an acknowledgment or correction that their original reporting was wildly wrong. Can you spot the differences? #mapoli

Original article:

Mass. DOC settles for $6M in 2020 prison attack on officers

Updated 6:05 PM EDT May 21, 2025

SHIRLEY, Mass. -- The Massachusetts Department of Correction has reached a $6 million settlement with correction officers after a violent attack by inmates on 2020.

...

Revised article at the same link:

Mass. DOC reaches $6M settlement in class-action lawsuit with prisoners

Updated: 1:34 PM EDT May 23, 2025

SHIRLEY, Mass. -- The Massachusetts Department of Correction agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit related to events that occurred in early 2020 at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.

...

May 23, 2025 at 7:56 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

It appears very few #mapoli departments with active confidential informants divulged information in response to the @globespotlight.bsky.social's public records requests. For those that did, though, a murky picture emerges. Take a look at Quincy, for example:
bsky.app/profile/glob...

Boston Globe Spotlight - Snitch City Data

Quincy Police Department

Does your agency currently have a policy in place governing the use of confidential informants?

Yes

How many active confidential informants, if any, are currently registered with your agency?

212

From Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2023, how many confidential informants, if any, were registered with your agency?

49

From Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2023, how much did your agency spend or pay, in total, on payments to confidential informants?

$3,325

From Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2023, how many confidential informants, if any, were deactivated by your agency?

0

Are members of your agency permitted to use unregistered confidential informants? (That is, can an individual who has not been registered with the agency be referred to as an "informant," "confidential informant," or "CI" in department or court records?)

No

Don't see your town or city listed here?
The Globe requested confidential informant data from every law enforcement agency in Massachusetts. Nearly 100 departments refused to fully answer our questions, including many of the largest police forces in Massachusetts: State Police, Boston police, Worcester police, Springfield police, and New Bedford police. We believe the public has a right to know. Everyone can request records from their government; here’s how you can send your own request:

How to submit a records request [button]

Have a question about this data? Or want to provide a response from your agency? Email andrew.ryan@globe.com.

May 22, 2025 at 6:05 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Hey @wcvb5.bsky.social, your bias is showing. Did you even read the press release?

This is a $6M settlement with @plsma.bsky.social on behalf of a class of 150 prisoners who were attacked in retaliatory collective punishment *by COs.* It's not a settlement for COs!
www.wcvb.com/article/mass...

WCVB article by Veronica Haynes reporting on MA DOC press release (https://www.mass.gov/news/massachusetts-department-of-correction-reaches-agreement-in-class-action-lawsuit-arising-from-2020-events-at-souza-baranowski-correctional-center):

Link to article:
https://www.wcvb.com/article/mass-doc-settles-for-6m-in-2020-prison-attack-on-officers/64843699

Mass. DOC settles for $6M in 2020 prison attack on officers

Souza-Baranowski Settlement
$6 million for 2020 inmate attack
Four officers seriously hurt
Includes new employee misconduct tipline
Discipline for staff who ignore body camera policy

SHIRLEY, Mass. —
The Massachusetts Department of Correction has reached a $6 million settlement with correction officers after a violent attack by inmates in 2020.

May 21, 2025 at 11:15 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Yesterday, the Massachusetts state high court expressed openness to trial courts reviewing whether ShotSpotter tech is actually reliable enough to be admitted in court. #mapoli @newenglandinnocence.org @innocenceproject.bsky.social

More via @bostonglobe.com:
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/14/m...

But critics, including the New England Innocence Project and the national Innocence Project, contend the system has not undergone the rigorous judicial inquiry long required of new science in Massachusetts — as was done for DNA testing — before it was used in criminal cases.

“Flawed forensic science is one of the leading causes of wrongful convictions,” Mitha Nandagopalan, staff attorney for the national Innocence Project, said by email. “It’s past time Massachusetts courts examine whether ShotSpotter is reliable.”

May 15, 2025 at 2:06 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Who is made safer by the arrest & detention of this asylum seeking high schooler?

Certainly not her brother—the nominal "victim" of this sibling spat—who can't sleep in his room anymore from grief.

What are local officials doing to #FreeHer and prevent this for others? @massago.bsky.social #mapoli

Since the arrest, William said he has been sleeping in his parents' room instead of the one the siblings shared; it makes him too sad to be in his room without his sister.

He said he’s trying to be positive like his sister always is, and hopes that he’ll see her again soon.

January 30, 2025 at 4:38 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

This case lays bare the kinds of incidents that are twisted and characterized as "violent crimes" to become fodder for distorted, manipulative messaging about danger that fuels incarceration and deportation alike.

Don't buy the system's lies. Always dig beyond the labels. Be skeptical. #mapoli

The mayor of Lynn, however, expressed frustration at how ICE operations were being carried out in this case.

“We have been told that ICE would be targeting violent offenders whose presence puts our community at risk. Based on what we have learned so far, that is not what is happening in this case,” Mayor Jared C. Nicholson said in a statement to the Globe.

Nicholson said the city has referred the family to legal resources and alerted federal representatives who are looking into the situation. The Lynn Police Department does not ask for immigration status, Nicholson said.

January 30, 2025 at 12:54 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

AccessMA and its From Liabilities to Contributors Initiative of formerly incarcerated organizers have been working hard sorting toys and preparing for six Holiday Toy Giveaway and Community Meal events throughout Roxbury and Dorchester. Details on the fliers below -- all events Dec. 20-21.

December 15, 2024 at 1:50 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Here's an easy way to take action, courtesy of MJL. Tell Boston City Council to stop funding the DHS spy center in our cities!

9 cities are surveilled by BRIC: Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Quincy, Revere, Somerville, and Winthrop. #mapoli

Take action today:
bit.ly/blockbric24

BLOCK BRIC

Mayor Wu & City Council [are] Rushing to Pass $12M Surveillance Grant for BRIC, Shotspotter, License Plate Readers & More

MJL (Muslim Justice League)

December 10, 2024 at 3:36 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Learn about BRIC's funding streams & role in Boston area deportation & policing:

From Muslim Justice League:
muslimjusticeleague.org/our-work/get...

From @aclum.bsky.social:
data.aclum.org/2020/07/22/b...

And read about an alternative vision for #bospoli & #mapoli here:
bsky.app/profile/sshe...

Muslim Justice League graphic on BRIC's Surveillance Network, showing Boston public schools and community colleges, Boston and local police departments in the metro-Boston area, the BRIC Fusion Center as the connector, local institutions like the transit police and the Boston Housing Authority, and federal law enforcement like ICE and DHS

An ACLU of Massachusetts graphic on BRIC Funding Sources, showing different pots of money from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS), the state budget, FEMA Urban Areas Security Initiative Grants, and the BPD Bureau of Intelligence and Analysis

FY17: $6.57M total
FY18: $8.03M total
FY20: $7.82M total

December 10, 2024 at 1:06 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

After reaffirming Boston is a sanctuary city, @mayorwu.boston.gov & Boston City Council vote today on annual funding to maintain federal law enforcement spying on Greater Boston via BRIC. Nearly $12M from DHS for "regional intelligence", extending to #CambMA, Somerville & more. #bospoli #mapoli

December 10, 2024 at 1:06 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

The DOJ civil rights investigation into the Worcester PD is out, finding credible allegations of excessive force; of sexual assaults of women by cops; & targeting of Black & Hispanic people:
www.justice.gov/crt/media/13...

cc: @billshaner.bsky.social @etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social @segalmr.bsky.social

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................. 1
BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................. 3
INVESTIGATION............................................................................................................. 5
FINDINGS ....................................................................................................................... 6
A. WPD Uses Excessive Force in Violation of the Fourth Amendment.................. 6
1. WPD Officers Quickly and Unreasonably Resort to Using Tasers................... 7
2. WPD Officers Use Dangerous and Unreasonable Head Strikes ..................... 9
3. WPD Officers Use Unreasonable Force that Escalates Minor Incidents,
Including During Behavioral Health Calls for Service .................................... 10
4. WPD Police Dogs Inflict Unnecessary Harm................................................. 12
5. WPD’s Inadequate Supervision Contributes to Unreasonable Force ............ 14
B. WPD Officers Violate Women’s Constitutional Rights by Engaging in Sexual
Contact While Undercover................................................................................... 16
C. Credible Reports that WPD Officers Have Sexually Assaulted Women Under
Threat of Arrest and Engaged in Other Illegal Sexual Conduct Raise Serious
Concerns............................................................................................................... 20
D. WPD Lacks Appropriate Policies and Practices to Address Reports of Sexual
Assault, Raising Concerns about Gender Discrimination ................................ 24
E. WPD’s Enforcement Activities Disproportionately Affect Hispanic and Black
People, Raising Concerns about Potentially Discriminatory Policing............. 27
1. WPD’s Enforcement Activities Disproportionately Affect Hispanic and Black
People.....................…

CONTRIBUTING CAUSES OF VIOLATIONS .............................................................. 33
A. WPD Fails to Hold Officers Accountable............................................................ 33
1. WPD’s Intake Process May Discourage Complaints..................................... 33
2. Supervisors, Not BOPS Investigators, Investigate Some Serious Complaints,
Including Complaints of Excessive Force...................................................... 34
3. BOPS Investigators Reach Improper Conclusions and Fail to Interview Key
Witnesses...................................................................................................... 34
4. WPD Officers Are Rarely Disciplined for Misconduct .................................... 35
B. Deficient Policies and Training Contribute to Unlawful Conduct..................... 35
C. WPD Does Not Adequately Supervise Officers.................................................. 36
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 38
RECOMMENDED REMEDIAL MEASURES................................................................. 39

December 9, 2024 at 6:19 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

After a fire at MCI-Norfolk last weekend, those housed on the top floor of Unit 1-1 have lost many of their belongings to damage including clothing, shoes, legal paperwork, pictures, electronics, books etc.

Sign up at the link below to donate to help someone rebuild:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

December 6, 2024 at 1:49 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

10 days left to apply! 🎉

Mass Bail Fund is hiring for a part time salaried bail organizer with benefits. Residents in Suffolk, Worcester, Hampden, Middlesex & Essex counties encouraged to apply. Deadline Dec 15th. They hire formerly incarcerated folks!

More info: massbailfund.org/careers/pt-b...

December 5, 2024 at 7:52 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

This is a transparent use of anecdata to support the sheriff's agenda, @nbc10wjar.bsky.social..

Is it a "troubling" new "trend" OR was the five-year high reached three years ago in 2021? #mapoli

He thinks unrestricted free calls are unreasonable costs to taxpayers, yet he's hiring new staff...

While inmate crime is up this year, numbers were also high in 2019 and 2021.

Back in 2019, 23 drug charges were filed against inmates at the Bristol County House of Corrections.

Comment bubble
JOIN THE CONVERSATION (8)

Charges hit a five year high in 2021, with 24 assault and battery charges, 14 drug charges, three vandalism charges, and three charges involving lewdness.

December 4, 2024 at 9:16 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

This holiday season, please contribute to the Families for Justice as Healing/National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls canteen drive.

🔗
tinyurl.com/canteendrive

This is an annual tradition of love and community care for incarcerated women. #mapoli

Flier for Holiday Canteen Drive

Give $20 directly to incarcerated women

Love. Care. Reimagining Communities.
tinyurl.com/canteendrive

The National Council and Families for Justice as Healing

December 1, 2024 at 2:13 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

This week comrades at Mass Bail Fund were at the Worcester County HOC bailing out 9 people and giving coats away.

Mass Bail Fund is currently hiring for a part-time bail organizer. Please give to the coat drive, but also APPLY to be a bail organizer by 12/15! www.massbailfund.org/careers/pt-b...

Photo of winter coats stacked in a bin on hangers to be given out to people being bailed out of a Massachusetts jail

November 22, 2024 at 4:04 PM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

There are direct, material risks to the safety of Boston's undocumented residents caused by the expansion of BRIC that @wutrain.bsky.social led. Communities deserve accountability from @mayorwu.boston.gov for funding BRIC and a plan to ensure this security state apparatus is dismantled. #bospoli

Read: Wu explains why she changed course on police grants
City Council is expected to vote on the grants Wednesday, which would support the Boston Regional Intelligence Center

By Ross Cristantiello, Staff Writer
October 4, 2023

Photo of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has caught criticism in recent weeks for seemingly reversing course on grant funding that would support the Boston Regional Intelligence Center. Known as BRIC, the center is a data analysis operation that houses, among other things, Boston’s gang database of suspected gang members.

Critics of the database have long said that it is racially discriminatory and enables civil liberties violations. Wu herself voted against funding for the BRIC in 2021 as a City Council member.

November 21, 2024 at 8:28 AM

CourtWatchMA

@courtwatchma.bsky.social

Today the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court reversed a 1st degree murder case where prosecutors had charged only an alleged joint venturer—an accomplice—and never identified the actual shooter.

As in other recent cases, the SJC held prosecutors offered no evidence of shared lethal intent. #mapoli

Our decision here is controlled by a line of cases in which essentially the same argument was raised and rejected, including most recently in Baez, supra at 404-405, and Baxter, supra at 509. See Commonwealth v. Gonzalez, 475 Mass. 396, 414 (2016) (circumstantial evidence showing defendant's presence when murder was committed, even when "supplemented by evidence" that defendant knew about crime in advance, insufficient to support jury finding beyond reasonable doubt that defendant knew of and shared perpetrators' lethal intent); Mandile, supra at 101 (inference of defendant's knowledge and shared lethal intent "impermissibly remote" where evidence sufficient "to prove only prior association and presence outside the scene of the murder"). Here, as in Baez and Baxter, the Commonwealth did not present direct evidence of the defendant's lethal intent or evidence that, at any point, the defendant was a witness to, or participant in, the shooting.

The Commonwealth's attempt to distinguish this case from Baxter and, by implication, Baez, based on the length of time the defendant's vehicle tracked the victims and the purportedly strategic nature of the vehicle's movements, is unpersuasive. The necessary leap between the defendant's inferred intent to cause harm and the defendant's inferred intent to cause lethal harm cannot, without more, be supported by the evidence offered by the Commonwealth. See Baez, 494 Mass. at 405; Baxter, 489 Mass. at 510. In sum, the evidence in this case did not support a reasonable inference, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant acted with the knowledge and shared lethal intent required for a conviction of murder in the first degree under the theory of deliberate premeditation as a joint venturer. Accordingly, the defendant's conviction must be reversed.

November 20, 2024 at 4:11 PM

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