To: Gov. Charlie Baker, Governor of Massachusetts, Stan Rosenberg, MA Senate President, Robert A. DeLeo, MA House Speaker, Senator Bruce E. Tarr, Senate Minority Leader, Marty Walsh, Mayor of Boston, MA, and The Massachusetts State Senate
S911 - An Act to Promote Accountability and Public Confidence in the Massachusetts Judicial System
There shall be a Judicial Ombudsman to investigate citizens' complaints of improper or illegal conducts by police and correctional officers, clerk of courts, probation officers, attorneys, and other court and law enforcement personnel. The Ombudsman will also conduct informational meetings on the law and individual rights, and gather data and statistics to be included in an annual report to the legislature.
Why is this important?
In a country that cherishes freedom, rights, liberty, and the Constitution, to say that our justice system "is not perfect" is an insult to the Founding Fathers who left us so much to build upon. The truth is our judicial system has been broken by decades of unfair public policies and unjust laws aimed at targeting certain segments of our population, criminalizing poverty and mental illness, using the courts to collect revenue to fund government budget, filling the bank accounts of prison corporations, and tube-feeding the failed war on drugs, which has turned our law enforcement personnel into military police, and our country into an occupied territory.
This bill was first introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature in 2006. It has been re-filed in the 189th Legislative Session, and will be scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee before the end of the legislative session in July 2015.
After I accompanied someone in the Lawrence District Court in Massachusetts and observed various abuses and misuse of the judicial process, misapplication of the law, improper and unethical conduct by court personnel, and flagrant violations of defendants' rights, I decided to investigate these problems further, and it was not without some personal costs. When I wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, he contacted me and indicated that the average grade level in reading for the area was grade 6. Over the years, I also discovered that, in addition to being uneducated, a rather large number of the people who are ensnared by this broken system are primarily of minority backgrounds, Caucasians living in poverty, and the mentally-ill. Finally, those who are involved with substance abuse are disproportionately represented within the criminal justice system.
In reality, our judicial system has become predatory. Over the years, government officials have relied on the Court to handle a multitude of societal ills that have been left to fester by political malpractice and official neglect, leading to the absence of sound social policies to address these very solvable problems. In many instances, the criminal justice system is used as a mill to feed the prison pipeline with non-violent offenders, even with people who are accused of crimes--real, made up, or imagined, and yet are coerced into accepting guilty pleas and probation resulting in hundreds of dollars in Court fees, many times as a result of being ignorant of the law, unaware of their rights, as well as incompetent representation by overworked and overwhelmed public defenders.
We are better than this as a people and can do better as a country. The time to correct this course is now. And it can only be accomplished through a vigilant legislative body with the help of an executive branch that is willing to bring about change to improve life for the people. This level of accountability can only be achieved through an independent body made of citizens of the State.
Let Massachusetts become, yet again, a model of citizenry and public confidence in government by signing this petition to the Massachusetts Senate Judiciary Committee and Governor Charlie Baker in support of this bill.
AS OF 2:00 PM TODAY MAY 12, 2015, THIS BILL HAS MOVED TO THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WHERE A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD BEFORE THE 9-MEMBER PANEL. THE BILL IS NOW ONLINE AND CAN BE VIEWED AND TRACKED AT: MALEGISLATURE.GOV.
YOU CAN HELP BY SIGNING THE PETITION AND BY CALLING:
MA Senate President Stan Rosenberg at 617-722-1532 or the Chair of the Judiciary Committee Senator William Brownsberger at 617-722-1280 or email: [email protected], or call Gov. Charlie Baker at 617-725-4005.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND PLEASE FORWARD AND SHARE THIS PETITION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG YOUR NETWORK. WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK!
This bill was first introduced in the Massachusetts Legislature in 2006. It has been re-filed in the 189th Legislative Session, and will be scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee before the end of the legislative session in July 2015.
After I accompanied someone in the Lawrence District Court in Massachusetts and observed various abuses and misuse of the judicial process, misapplication of the law, improper and unethical conduct by court personnel, and flagrant violations of defendants' rights, I decided to investigate these problems further, and it was not without some personal costs. When I wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper, he contacted me and indicated that the average grade level in reading for the area was grade 6. Over the years, I also discovered that, in addition to being uneducated, a rather large number of the people who are ensnared by this broken system are primarily of minority backgrounds, Caucasians living in poverty, and the mentally-ill. Finally, those who are involved with substance abuse are disproportionately represented within the criminal justice system.
In reality, our judicial system has become predatory. Over the years, government officials have relied on the Court to handle a multitude of societal ills that have been left to fester by political malpractice and official neglect, leading to the absence of sound social policies to address these very solvable problems. In many instances, the criminal justice system is used as a mill to feed the prison pipeline with non-violent offenders, even with people who are accused of crimes--real, made up, or imagined, and yet are coerced into accepting guilty pleas and probation resulting in hundreds of dollars in Court fees, many times as a result of being ignorant of the law, unaware of their rights, as well as incompetent representation by overworked and overwhelmed public defenders.
We are better than this as a people and can do better as a country. The time to correct this course is now. And it can only be accomplished through a vigilant legislative body with the help of an executive branch that is willing to bring about change to improve life for the people. This level of accountability can only be achieved through an independent body made of citizens of the State.
Let Massachusetts become, yet again, a model of citizenry and public confidence in government by signing this petition to the Massachusetts Senate Judiciary Committee and Governor Charlie Baker in support of this bill.
AS OF 2:00 PM TODAY MAY 12, 2015, THIS BILL HAS MOVED TO THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WHERE A PUBLIC HEARING WILL BE HELD BEFORE THE 9-MEMBER PANEL. THE BILL IS NOW ONLINE AND CAN BE VIEWED AND TRACKED AT: MALEGISLATURE.GOV.
YOU CAN HELP BY SIGNING THE PETITION AND BY CALLING:
MA Senate President Stan Rosenberg at 617-722-1532 or the Chair of the Judiciary Committee Senator William Brownsberger at 617-722-1280 or email: [email protected], or call Gov. Charlie Baker at 617-725-4005.
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND PLEASE FORWARD AND SHARE THIS PETITION ON SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG YOUR NETWORK. WE NEED ALL HANDS ON DECK!