Criminal Justice Reform
193rd General Court (2023-2024)
S. 1511
An Act to provide criminal justice reform protections to all prisoners in segregated confinement
This bill fills a loophole in the Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018 which allowed for fewer protections for prisoners in solitary confinement than the legislature intended by creating an airtight umbrella term of "segregated confinement" to afford protections to all prisoners who are, for all intents and purposes, in solitary confinement. This bill also bans postpartum moms and people with developmental and physical disabilities from being placed in solitary confinement
S.959
An Act to prevent the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences based on juvenile adjudications (Give Youth a Future)
This bill prevents courts from lengthening certain mandatory-minimum sentences based on a person’s actions as a child (i.e. juvenile court adjudications). Utilizing juvenile adjudications to increase prison sentences is immoral. Scientific evidence demonstrates that, due to developmental differences between children and adults, the two should be treated separately within the justice system. A person should not be subject to additional mandatory punishment based on things they did when they were children, as young as age 7.