HAPPENING TODAY:
9 a.m. | Sex and health education guidelines are set to be updated for the first time in 24 years by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. | 75 Pleasant St., Malden | Agenda
10 a.m. | Over 200 local businesses get schooled at a live event by Constant Contact leaders and marketing experts at a free event breaking down the fundamentals of digital marketing designed to fuel growth for small businesses. | District Hall, Boston
10:30 a.m. | Marijuana bills seeking to limit youth access and regulate ads are on the agenda for a Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy hearing. | Room A-2 and Virtual
11:30 a.m. | Gov. Maura Healey cuts the ribbon for the John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge. | 55 Broadway, Cambridge
Noon | Lawmakers, criminal justice reform advocates and inmates host a legislative briefing about a bill (H 2319 / S 1535) that seeks to eliminate barriers to medical parole for incarcerated individuals. | Room 428
1 p.m. | Hosting a gathering of families and recovery leaders, Gov. Maura Healey will issue a proclamation for National Recovery Month. | Governor’s Ceremonial Office, State House
2 p.m. | State House leadership including Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka convene for a private meeting. | Speaker’s Office, Room 356
There are two vacancies on the state Parole Board and criminal justice reform advocates are telling Gov. Maura Healey to pick members who have spent time in jail themselves.
“An essential lived experience that has too often been excluded from the Parole Board is one that can only be derived from a period of incarceration,” says a recent letter to the Healey administration by Criminal Justice Reform Caucus leaders Acton Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep Mary Keefe.
The board currently has many applicants who are already being vetted by the Healey administration. Traditionally the Parole Board has been stacked with prosecutors and law enforcement and Eldridge told MASSterList it’s a makeup that’s led to a “low” number of annual paroles. The state paroled 1,585 people in 2021, with a successful discharge rate of 73 percent. Eldridge said too many of those wind up back in jail for what he considers technicalities and “relatively” minor violations.
If Healey agrees, Massachusetts’ parole board would be among the first in the nation to include formerly incarcerated people. It’s not an entirely new idea, though. It’s been discussed in other states and it was first floated in Massachusetts two years ago in a report by a legislative commission set up to explore parole reforms in the 2020 criminal justice reform law. Two years later, the most change seen in the backgrounds of parole board members is with Healey’s first appointment: Social worker Sarah Coughlin.
“Gov. Healey really does have a very unique opportunity, because there’s so many vacancies,” he added. Healey has been a friend to criminal justice, shaking up pardon tradition by requesting 11 in her first year in office so far.
A pair of bills currently in the Legislature that propose growing the commission to nine members would extend her reach even further.
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Keller @ Large
Mitt Romney may never have elevated above the Republican Party’s No. 2 spot, but he brought integrity and competence to the GOP during his roughly three decades in politics, WBZ political analyst Jon Keller writes. With the former Massachusetts governor turned Utah senator on his way out the door, Keller warns he is likely to take the last hope for Republican sensibility with him.
MASSterListFor the state auditor, ‘Where words fail, music speaks…’
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio is singing a different tune this week — literally. The Methuen Democrat debuted her new #mapoli single “My Voice” on GBH’s Boston Public Radio yesterday. DiZoglio belted out the song that she wrote, composed, and recorded herself as a way to express frustration and raise awareness for her ongoing fight with legislative leaders over her authority to audit its two chambers. Hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan suggested that she might use her 3-5 slot at the upcoming Democratic convention to sing the song — DiZoglio last week discovered her party tried to snub her and make her the sole statewide candidate without a speaking spot. The party reversed its decision.
Vacancy or no vacancy? 2,300 state apartments bare despite waitlist
There are roughly 184,000 people — including thousands of Bay Staters who are currently homeless, at risk — on a waitlist for the state’s 41,500 subsidized apartments. It’s a long wait, a WBUR and ProPublica investigation found. Reporters discovered that nobody is living in nearly 2,300 of the state-funded apartments, with most sitting empty for months or years. The state pays local housing authorities to maintain and operate the units whether they’re occupied or not. So the vacant apartments translate into millions of Massachusetts taxpayer dollars wasted due to delays and disorder fostered by state and local mismanagement.
Big changes needed to address inequities with school building
Two-thirds of the school buildings in Lynn were standing when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was first inaugurated in 1952, reports Chris Lisinski for the News Service. Much of school building resources funded by state money have been funneled to affluent districts, leaving out cities like Lynn. Lynn officials said Monday, they feel shortchanged by the state funding available through the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
Big changes needed to address inequities with school building
Two-thirds of the school buildings in Lynn were standing when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was first inaugurated in 1952, reports Chris Lisinski for the News Service. Much of school building resources funded by state money have been funneled to affluent districts, leaving out cities like Lynn. Lynn officials said Monday, they feel shortchanged by the state funding available through the Massachusetts School Building Authority.
Time to end scandals on pot board, lawmakers say
With leadership getting suspended and other issues on public display, many are wondering what’s up at the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, which is responsible for regulating the state’s $5 billion cannabis industry. The Boston Herald reports that five lawmakers wrote to the joint committee overseeing the state’s marijuana regulators to ask them to look into what is bringing the CCC to “crisis.”
Lack of racial bias in police database concerns activists
For the Globe, Sean Cotter reports that activists are skeptical about a lack of racial bias complaints in the state’s new police disciplinary records database. Taken at face value, it appears police have all but eliminated racial and ethnic bias from their ranks. The current version of the police watchdog agency’s database, which contains about 3,400 sustained complaints against still-active officers only features 13 complaints of racial or ethnic bias, involving 11 officers.
Lack of racial bias in police database concerns activists
For the Globe, Sean Cotter reports that activists are skeptical about a lack of racial bias complaints in the state’s new police disciplinary records database. Taken at face value, it appears police have all but eliminated racial and ethnic bias from their ranks. The current version of the police watchdog agency’s database, which contains about 3,400 sustained complaints against still-active officers only features 13 complaints of racial or ethnic bias, involving 11 officers.
Haverhill candidate still wants recount after dropout advances him to final
Haverhill mayoral hopeful Guy Cooper says he will go forward with his plans to call for a recount in last Tuesday’s preliminary election even after second-place finisher Scott Wood Jr. said he would drop out of the race, automatically advancing Cooper to November. Cooper, who finished 10 votes behind Wood, said he still wants the recount to “ensure the honesty and integrity of the election process.”
Saugus gets update on migrant crisis
Hotels-turned-shelters in Saugus are now housing as many as 500 migrants and the community is joining the chorus of those asking the state for more financial support and insight into how many more families might be coming. The town’s health director also said one of the most pressing concerns is the uncertain vaccination status of many of the children now enrolling in local schools.
New Bedford council hopes for answers on sober home plans in connected neighborhood
The New Bedford City Council is hoping it can help residents find out whether the new owner of a single-family home in an historic neighborhood plans to seek permission to operate a sober home. The Light’s Arthur Hirsh reports the area is home to a number of local politicians, including Mayor Jon Mitchell, who has already asked the state’s Ethics Commission for advice on whether he could act on such a proposal.