Hi ,
We’re a few weeks out from the traditional "end" of the legislative session, and while there’s so much to discuss, I want to shed light on what happened in the final moments of the session surrounding racial justice, abolition, and the fight to improve the rights and protections of incarcerated people, their families, and communities. As an active member of the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, I’ve helped organize regular legislative visits to prisons and jails and fought hard to change our laws to be centered on true justice. Today I want to share what we achieved this session, the ways we fell egregiously short, and provide crucial context for the dire conditions in our state prisons.
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An Abolitionist Session Recap The Bad: No Cost Calls and the 5-Year Prison Moratorium
As you already know by now, the legislature failed to pass the 5-year prison moratorium and eliminate the cost of calls for incarcerated folks this session. Apologies don’t begin to do our incarcerated siblings and their loved ones justice. The fight for abolition does not end here, which is why I am advocating for a special session to work these provisions back into our agenda and get them passed without further delay. Thank you to Families for Justice as Healing and National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls for mobilizing an incredible team of advocates to try and make this happen.
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I encourage you to read this explainer from Progressive Mass, which untangles the nitty-gritty details of what went on to tank the No Cost Calls bill in the middle of the night during our 23-hour-long formal session on July 31st. I'm proud that the House of Representatives held the line on preserving No Cost Calls, in line with the public position of the Black and Latino Caucus and the House and Senate Chairs of the Judiciary Committee.
The Good: Funding the New England Innocence Project
Last month, working in partnership with Senator Pat Jehlen and local advocates, we secured a quarter of a million dollars in funding for the New England Innocence Project (NEIP). NEIP fights to correct and prevent wrongful convictions and ensure justice within the criminal legal system for innocent people throughout New England who are imprisoned for a crime they did not commit. As an independent non-profit, all of their funding up until this point has come from independent donors. They use their funds to provide pro bono forensic testing, investigation, experts, and an experienced legal team to exonerate the innocent and bring them home to their loved ones.
I am deeply grateful to the people before me who have fought for years to get this funding, and honor the legacy of Ray Champagne, an exoneree and one of the founders of the Exoneree Network, who tragically passed away last month. He served 41 years for a wrongful conviction, and was free for 30 months before his passing. Each day, Ray committed himself to developing resources and healing spaces for the growing community of people freed from wrongful convictions. If you watch just one video today, please watch and learn about Ray's life.
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I ask that you join me in donating to the New England Innocence Project in Ray’s honor if you are able and that you spread the word throughout your network. |
Stories from Inside: the inhumanity of our prisons
Trigger and content warning: I want to share some of the things I’ve learned from touring our state’s prison facilities and speaking with incarcerated people in Massachusetts. Some of this content includes references to disturbing living and working conditions, racism, and transphobia. Please exercise caution and self-care when reading. If you would like to skip this content, continue to the section header “Beyond Reformable.” Egregious Health Violations and Slave Labor: The inhumane living and working conditions of the MCI-Norfolk Medical Facility
Massachusetts is one of 20 states that utilizes the loophole in the 13th Amendment that outlawed slavery, “except as a punishment for crime.” That’s right, slavery of incarcerated people is constitutional and acceptable under U.S. and Massachusetts law. Many people experiencing incarceration in Massachusetts are forced to work for cents on the dollar. One of the “better paid jobs” pays 0.65 cents per hour working as a companion in the MCI-Norfolk Medical Facility (named the critical stabilization unit or CSU), which is one of the “better” managed facilities in Massachusetts. The health unit contains people who should be on medical parole — people with dementia, those who are wheelchair bound, and those suffering from extremely poor health conditions. When I walked into the facility, I was immediately overcome by the stench and filth of the facility. It is worth noting that while correctional officers (COs) are paid a living wage, the only sanitary "staff" in the health unit are incarcerated people who are paid a few dozen cents per hour to clean a medical facility, where most people are incapacitated and unable to take care of themselves.
I soon learned that there is also no medical staff in-house. Instead, they use a private vendor called WellPath, a for-profit, private equity owned health care provider. They make a profit by receiving funding from large state contracts while spending the bare minimum on healthcare, such as only sending a CNA to the prison to take vitals of patients while offering little in the way of actual healthcare. There is little-to-no actual care that these patients desperately need. One individual who is incarcerated restated they had never seen a nurse or doctor in the unit until the day legislators visited for a tour. Because they are patients, the COs on duty are not allowed to touch or help them. So, if someone falls off the bed, the CO can’t help them up. They simply stand by the door and cannot do anything.
Because of the desperate lack of care, the outsourcing of medical staff, and lack of funding for proper medical, support, and sanitary staff to the people in the health facility, incarcerated people are picking up the slack and work for 0.65 cents per hour. That means, for example, when a patient with severe dementia soils themself, it’s an incarcerated person that has to clean it up.
When COVID-19 swept through the unit and half of the patients got sick, they were locked in a small “solarium” room together. Individuals recounted that they were passed food through a small "doggy" door and could not leave even to use the bathroom. They instead all used a portable toilet to relieve themselves, which quickly filled and was left in the room for days. One individual broke down while recounting to us the cries and screams of the men in the solarium, who were suffering from a deadly virus, and caged in a room with no bathroom for days. At the end of their isolation, it was the job of incarcerated people to empty the bedpans and sanitize the room.
Protecting Incarcerated Trans People and the Overuse of Solitary Confinement
According to a 2015 survey by Black and Pink of over 1,000 LGBTQ+ incarcerated people, 85% of respondents reported being put in solitary confinement during their sentences, with about half reporting that they had spent two or more years in solitary confinement. The survey found that transgender women are put into solitary confinement against their will at some of the highest rates.
This is because many prisons do not commit the resources necessary to create safe housing for transgender incarcerated people, nor do they abide by current protocols to protect incarcerated trans people. Because of this, trans people are frequently placed in solitary confinement for “administrative reasons,” rather than disciplinary. Unsurprisingly, caging people in solitary confinement for days, weeks, or — as is the case for about half of LQBTQ+ incarcerated people — years, has the same traumatizing and damaging effects regardless of the reason for confinement. It restricts incarcerated folks’ ability to participate in programming or job opportunities, and causes serious psychological and physical harm, which is already known to be a greater risk for trans people.
There are innumerable other horrors that have occurred in our state’s prisons, and I encourage you to read this report from Equal Justice Works Fellow and Attorney Sarah Nawab from earlier this month that amplifies many of these stories and more.
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Beyond Reformable
I share these stories with you for several reasons. One of the ways the DOC keeps the inhumanity of their institutions under wraps is by keeping their abhorrent practices behind closed doors. As a state legislator, I have the unique right — and obligation — to tour these facilities. I have toured our state’s prisons to hear the stories of incarcerated folks and amplify the issues they share with me. The inhumane conditions they endure will not change unless people are aware about them, and enraged by them.
Second, and I cannot emphasize this enough, I share these stories with you to demonstrate how far beyond reformable these institutions are. There is a direct correlation between an increase in DOC funding and an increase in COs' wages. This is despite the fact that there is no evidence to indicate that they’re doing better work to merit raises. Increasing DOC funding will not improve the conditions of incarcerated people — we know this from history, and we know this from incarcerated people who experience firsthand the horrors of the prison industrial system.
The DOC is a corrupt patronage system that relies on our culture that is accepting of the prison industrial complex and the prison economy in order to exploit the labor and humanity of incarcerated people. Simply put: Massachusetts engages in, funds, and enables slavery. Without a strong moratorium that prohibits jail construction and expansion, the Commonwealth will remain preoccupied with incarceration projects rather than exploring and implementing existing, viable, and desperately needed alternatives.
This system will not be disrupted overnight. And devastatingly, it wasn’t fixed this session. But, we must find ways to keep making direct improvements on the daily lives of incarcerated people while we continue the work of abolition.
If you are my constituent, know that I am doing everything in my power to lobby my colleagues and ensure both No Cost Calls and the Prison Moratorium bills are both passed without further delay. And for those of you who reside in other districts, I urge you to contact your legislators and demand they support these measures as well and demand that they join me in calling for a special session to vote on these bills. |
Land Acknowledgement
All of the prisons in Massachusetts have been built on land that was stolen from Indigenous peoples who inhabited the land long before us, and continue to exist today. Indigenous people are overpoliced and subject to appalling treatment from police and incarceration, including increased physical and cultural violence. They are often under-counted or uncounted in prison censuses, which group them into “other,” obscuring the true numbers of Indigenous people subject to state control.
Thank you to Black and Pink Massachusetts for compiling information about our state prisons and the land they were built on. -
Bridgewater/MA Treatment Center, Bridgewater State Hospital, and Old Colony are on the territory of the Pokanoket (PO-KAN-O-KET), Wampanoag, and Massachusett
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Cedar Junction is on the land of the Pokanket, Wampanoag, and Massachusett
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Concord is on the land of the Nipmuc (NIP-MUCK), Massachusett, and Pawtucket
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FMC-Devens and the satellite camp are on the land of the Nipmuck and Pawtucket
- Framingham is on the land of the Nipmuc, Massachusett, and Pawtucket
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MA Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center (MASAC) is on the land of the Pokanket, Wampanoag, and Massachusett
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NCCI Gardner is on the land of the Pennacook (PEN-NA-COOK), Wabanaki (Dawnland Confederacy) (WA-BA-NA-KEE)
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Norfolk and Pondville are on the land of the Nipmuc, Massachusett, and Pawtucket
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Pre-Release Center is on the land of the Pawtucket, Massachusett, and Wampanoag
- Shattuck Hospital is on the land of the Pawtucket and Massachusett
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Shirley is on the land of the Nipmuc and Pawtucket
- Souza-Baranowski is on the land of the Nipmuc and Pawtucket
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Canvass with Team Erika to Get Out the Vote!
We will be launching canvasses to talk with neighbors to ensure they have a plan to vote for the September 6th primary. This is critical work for me because hearing your voice and your issues help drive my priorities in the State House.
This weekend, we really need your help because it is the start of Early Voting on Saturday! We are launching this Saturday and Sunday at 10am, 1pm, and 4pm at locations across Somerville. Hope to see you there! |
It is truly an honor to serve you all, please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office with your thoughts and questions about the budget, if you want to advocate for any bills, or need any help from government services. |
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