Criminal Justice
Vermont 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.
Read MoreBillboard Prompts Survivors Of Child Sexual Abuse To Come Forward, Decades Later
The mother of a man who says he was sexually abused as a child in a Berkshire County elementary school paid for two billboards this winter to call attention to the case.
Read MoreGroup Of Civilly Committed Men Sues Massachusetts Alleging Gender Discrimination In ‘Section 35’ Law
A group of men is suing the state of Massachusetts over the law, known as “Section 35,” that allowed a judge to involuntarily commit each of them to addiction treatment.
Read MoreExoneree Runs Smoothie Chain, Making Up For 27 Years Of Lost Entrepreneurship
From his prison cot, for 27 years, Mark Schand plotted out a retail empire he’d been envisioning since well before his arrest.
Read MoreIn New England, These Exonerated Prisoners Take A Leap Of Faith
On Memorial Day, Darrell Jones was standing with a group of men who hardly knew each, but who share an unenviable life experience as former prisoners.
Read MoreACLU Sues Boston Police For Access To Gang Database
The ACLU of Massachusetts wants access to the Boston Police Department’s gang database and it’s suing the department to get it.
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