Criminal Justice
Police Access To Cameras In Springfield Schools Unleashes Debate On Police Protection And Overreach
The school department in Springfield, Massachusetts, is entering into an agreement that gives police access to surveillance camera footage recorded inside and outside of public school buildings. One of the goals is to help police see, in real time, what’s occurring during an emergency, such as a school shooting. But giving police access to the cameras has…
Read MoreVermont Prisons Used Lockdowns To Slow Coronavirus, But Prisoners’ Mental Health Suffered
None of the 1,200 or so people held by the Vermont Department of Corrections died from COVID-19, making it the only state in the country with no coronavirus fatalities among its incarcerated population. But while protocols like regular testing and lockdowns might have helped Vermont prisons avoid the worst of the pandemic, the strict lockdown…
Read MorePolice Dash Cams, Body Cams Remain The Exception In Massachusetts
When someone dies in a violent encounter with police, people have come to expect to see the video. A police body camera captured Daniel Prude’s death after he was physically restrained by police in Albany, New York last year. In Minneapolis, both police and private cameras caught officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck…
Read MoreN.H. Advocates: Driver’s Licenses Would Improve Relations Between Undocumented Immigrants And Police
A bill in the New Hampshire State House that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain a driver’s license faces an uphill battle this year. Immigration advocates say the legislation is key to improving relationships they’ve been building with police chiefs across the state’s Southern tier. Aloisio Costa spends a lot of time doing what pastors…
Read More‘Why’d You Pick Me?’ Eyewitness Reforms Offer Limited Help To Those Convicted Decades Ago
In 2011, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court put together a task force of people from all over the criminal justice community. They studied how eyewitness evidence is used in the courtroom and offered science-based recommendations going forward. But it left many people who were convicted before the report still in prison. Read the rest of…
Read MoreVermont Is Trying To Shrink Its Prison Population, But 350 Inmates Are Locked Up Past Their Minimums
Prisons are like cruise ships or nursing homes: they are among the riskiest places to be during this pandemic. Today, about 350 Vermont inmates are past their minimum sentences and could be released. And while Vermont prison officials frequently mention that the department has reduced its population by nearly 300 people in response to the…
Read MoreHis Aunt Saw Red Flags, Police Got A Risk Warrant
Melissa Potter was standing in her kitchen when the call came in. It was her estranged nephew, Brandon Wagshol, and she was surprised — he’d never called her before. “When I saw his name on the caller ID, I got worried that maybe something horrible had happened,” Potter said. “Or, you know, maybe something was…
Read MoreWhy Vermont Raised Its Juvenile Court Age Above 18 — And Why Massachusetts Might, Too
As Massachusetts considers changing the way it handles young criminal offenders, it is looking at what’s happening north — specifically, to Vermont. Vermont is the first state to raise the age above 18 for when someone criminally charged goes to juvenile court, expanding what it’s doing in hundreds of lower level criminal cases now. For…
Read MoreMassachusetts County Sheriffs, State DOC Will Re-Up Contracts With Federal Immigration Officials
There’s an ongoing battle over just how much Massachusetts authorities can legally partner with federal immigration officials. A Supreme Judicial Court decision in 2017 appeared to offer some clarity.
Read MoreAs Prison Population Grows, Maine’s DOC Plans to Relocate Women to Long Creek
The number of women incarcerated in Maine is rising fast. In the past six years the number of female inmates at the Maine Correctional Center (MCC) in Windham has grown from about 150 to more than 220, as of April. And the state Department of Corrections has a problem: the overcrowded women’s facility is housed in a men’s prison.
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