Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice

Please join us this Friday, July 1st at noon for the annual "Reading Frederick Douglass Together" event on Boston Common at the State House, Shaw-MA 54th Memorial.

This will be Boston's 14th annual communal reading of Frederick Douglass’s 1852 speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Part of a series of statewide events supported by Mass Humanities, the reading provides an opportunity to open up discourse between community members about race, rights, and our responsibilities to the past and to each other.

Members of the public will take turns reading parts of the speech until they’ve read all of it, together. Everyone is welcome to read; this event is free and open to the public, no registration required.

*Rain date: July 8th at noon

Co-conveners:
Mass Humanities — Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School — Community Change Inc — Museum of African American History - Boston and Nantucket

Co-sponsors:
Boston Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity ―
Community Conversations: Sister to Sister - A Women's Health Initiative ― Hutchins Center for African & African American Research ― National Parks of Boston ― The New Democracy Coalition ― Royall House & Slave Quarters ― Underground Railway @ Central Square Theater ― Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry

Massachusetts was the first state in the country to create a parole system in 1837. The aim was to give prisoners a chance to finish their sentences while rebuilding a life outside of prison. But instead of being a system of reentry support, too often parole is a system of punishing rules, restrictions, and fees without any of the needed support for housing, employment, or healthcare to rebuild one’s life after incarceration.

This session, we can transform parole in Massachusetts:

* An Act to Promote Equitable Access to Parole (H.2503/S.1560) has been extended to May 4th in the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, Chaired by Carlos Gonzalez Walter F. Timilty, with Vice Chairs State Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz State Representative David Biele

* An Act to Reform Parole Supervision in the Interest of Justice (H.1798) has been extended to April 15th in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, Chaired by Senator Jamie Eldridge State Representative Michael Day, with Vice Chairs State Rep. Chynah Tyler Eric Lesser

Together, these bills will improve the efficiency and balance of the parole board, account for the rights and needs of persons with disabilities, improve transparency, reduce the amount of time incarcerated people must wait between parole reviews, ensure that people accused of a violation await their hearings in the community until the violation is proven, eliminate parole conditions that perpetuate systemic racism, and eliminate reincarceration for technical violations of parole conditions that do not result in a new conviction. Let’s pass !

Please ensure these bills get favorably voted out of committee! Take action to contact your legislators:
bit.ly/MAParoleJusticeNow

Day of Action | Parole Reform Background: The asserted purpose of parole is to support people released from incarceration as they reenter their communities. But for years, the Massachusetts Parole Board and parole system have been plagued by structural racism, secrecy, dysfunction, and a draconian focus on punishment instead...

Our Faculty Director Guy-Uriel Charles has a new essay in The Regulatory Review based on remarks delivered at the Annual Distinguished Lecture on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on November 2, 2021. An excerpt is reproduced below:

"[W]e need to build a new movement worthy of the civil rights movement that led in the mid-1960s to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. It is ultimately up to us to make that happen. It is up to us to move the ball forward to make political power and representative democracy true for everyone and for all of us."

Check out the full essay:

Creating an Inclusive Political Order - Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice Faculty Director Guy-Uriel Charles has a new essay in The Regulatory Review based on remarks delivered at the Annual Distinguished Lecture on Regulation at the University of Pennsylvania Law School on November 2, 2021. An excerpt is reproduced below. Read the full essay by clicking the button below....

The Supreme Court appears ready to strike another blow at the Voting Rights Act.

In a 5-4 decision Monday night, the Supreme Court imposed a stay on a preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court in Alabama, which had found that a map of voting districts which included only one majority-Black district likely violated the federal Voting Rights Act. At least temporarily, the Supreme Court has allowed this congressional map to be used -- signaling potential substantive changes to voting rights protections in the near future.

Check out this short interview with our Faculty Director, Harvard Law School Professor Guy-Uriel Charles, about the case and the future of the Voting Rights Act:

Supreme Court upholds congressional map accused of racial gerrymandering In a 5-4 decision Monday night, they upheld a congressional map a lower court had tossed out.

Check out this interview with a range of voting rights & election law lawyers, including our Faculty Director Guy-Uriel Charles, in the January/February 2022 issue of The Practice, a publication of the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession.

“Election law is what makes it possible for us to be a self-governing people.” - Guy-Uriel Charles

Polling Election Lawyers - The Practice Who are election lawyers and why do they do what they do.

“Our expungement statute has been an utter failure,” said Katy Naples-Mitchell, an attorney at Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice who specializes in criminal justice policies.

“We could be helping people on a much grander scale, but instead we’re seeing this paltry, piecemeal effort — and even that has been almost totally frustrated, in part by a bench that is often a lot less progressive than the legislation it’s charged with carrying out.”

Read the whole article:

‘An utter failure’: Law meant to clear old convictions, including for ma*****na possession, helps few - The Boston Globe While the state could not say exactly how many people are potentially eligible for expungements, advocates insist those carried out so far represent a minuscule proportion of a pool that they estimate totals in the tens of thousands.

The New Bedford Police Dept's new gang database policy confirms these point systems are fundamentally arbitrary. The criteria continue to be unreliable, overbroad & racist.

"Katy Naples-Mitchell, an attorney with the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, said the Boston Police Department also amended its policy in 2021 and now uses the term “associate.” Boston police currently use a 10-point threshold to verify someone as a gang associate, according to a policy document.

The Boston policy establishes that its intelligence center maintains discretion to decline to enter individuals in the database who meet the 10-point threshold but are determined to not be engaged in gang activity. The New Bedford policy does not contain such language.

“The linguistic change is not particularly meaningful,” said Naples-Mitchell of the label switch from member to affiliate. “It will still operate as the same marker — and, if anything, allows the police an even broader sweep of suspicion.”

Advocacy groups have criticized criteria lists used to “validate” or “verify” an individual as a gang member, arguing it is highly arbitrary and subjective. A known group tattoo or marking counts for eight points with the Boston Police Department, but only four points with New Bedford police under the new criteria list.

A case currently before the state’s Supreme Judicial Court concerning a New Bedford man calls into question the police department’s methods of labeling people as gang members and argues how it can be used to serve as a workaround to pat frisk someone. Eight organizations filed a joint brief with criticisms, including Citizens for Juvenile Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts."

Read all the critical insights from Citizens for Juvenile Justice & our staff attorney in New Bedford Light - A community-news organization:

New Bedford police unveil new policy for labeling gang members - The New Bedford Light Now, those who are labeled as being gang affiliated will be notified by certified mail and given 14 days to respond to a request to meet with the personnel who approved and verified the information.

"The Building Up People Not Prisons: Reimagining Communities campaign seeks an end to all new jails or prisons in Massachusetts. Campaign member Katy Naples-Mitchell, an attorney at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, says any new prison would be out of step with the state’s decreasing incarceration. That’s where S.2030 comes in, allowing legislators to rein in costly prison building and expansion and refocus energies and funds on preventive and reentry initiatives."

Read more:

Unlock Them Up! In Massachusetts and elsewhere, advocates are pushing for alternatives to incarceration.

For ten months, the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) has defied a legislative mandate to release people who may be safely released in the interests of public health and to establish an independent ombudsperson to oversee the COVID-19 pandemic response.

In the spring of 2021, pursuant to a required budget process, Attorney General Healey fully vetted Dr. Monik Jiménez, Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, to serve as the independent ombudsperson. The Department of Correction failed to finalize a contract with her and did not provide her with the resources necessary to carry out the mandate of the budget language.

Instead, the DOC eventually filled the vacancy it had left open for another six months with Seth Peters. Days later, Mr. Peters was placed on leave and then subsequently fired from the role after reporting revealed his involvement in a wrongful death lawsuit which alleged he had forged records to cover up his own violation of care protocols when he was an EMT.

The position is now vacant once again, over 10 months since the budget language first mandated the appointment by the Attorney General. We're imploring the Attorney General to call on the Department of Correction to honor her appointment and develop a contract with Dr. Jiménez to serve as the independent ombudsperson as soon as possible.

Read our full coalition statement with Black and Pink Massachusetts, Building Up People Not Prisons: Reimagining Communities, Families for Justice as Healing, and Prisoners' Legal Services:

Coalition Demands End to Obstruction of Required Appointment of Independent Public Health Expert to Oversee State Prison System - Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice STATEMENT OF BLACK AND PINK MASSACHUSETTS, BUILDING UP PEOPLE NOT PRISONS COALITION, CHARLES HAMILTON HOUSTON INSTITUTE FOR RACE AND JUSTICE AT HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, FAMILIES FOR JUSTICE AS HEALING, AND PRISONERS’ LEGAL SERVICES OF MASSACHUSETTS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | October 7, 2021 For ten months...

Join us tomorrow, Wed. 9/22 at 11 AM for a Legislative Briefing on pending bills to improve parole access, diversify the Parole Board, reduce parole conditions and parole policing, eliminate technical revocations of parole, and improve compassionate release.

Register here:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArcOGtpjMuG9KB4tn5xS0bjqOdsFtviaAy

Cosponsored by Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, Prisoners' Legal Services, ACLU of Massachusetts, Families for Justice as Healing, Black and Pink Massachusetts, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Massachusetts Bail Fund, Criminal Justice Policy Coalition, Real Cost of Prisons Project, Campaign to End Life Without Parole, FAMM, The F8 Foundation, and more.

More information on our website:
https://charleshamiltonhouston.org/events/legislative-briefing-reforming-parole-and-medical-parole-to-enhance-public-safety/

Save the date!

Join us in one week on Wednesday, September 22nd at 11 AM (Zoom registration forthcoming) for a legislative briefing about three significant bills to reduce harm and redress structural racism in the parole and medical parole systems in Massachusetts.

Then, on October 14th at noon, join us for part two of this series sponsored by the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus focused on pending legislation to end life without parole!

Both events will feature experts including directly impacted people, lawyers, and academics working within these systems.

for a two-part legislative briefing series on parole! Part 1 on 9/22 will focus on reforming parole and medical parole, and Part 2 on 10/14 will focus on ending life without parole. Actions below:

* Check out the flyer with more information here: bit.ly/ParoleFlyer

* Check out an with a script to invite your network and legislators here: bit.ly/ParoleAction

The briefings are sponsored by ACLU of Massachusetts, Actual Justice team of the Southern New England United Church of Christ, Campaign to End Life Without Parole, Black and Pink, Massachusetts Bail Fund, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, Coalition for Effective Public Safety - CEPS, Criminal Justice Institute - CJI- Harvard Law School, New Vision Organization, Inc., Prisoners' Legal Services, and Real Cost of Prisons Project. Many thanks to the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, Senator Cindy Creem, Senator Pat Jehlen, Representative Andy X. Vargas, Rep. Mindy Domb, Rep. Liz Miranda, and Rep. Jay Livingstone for hosting this two-part series!