GOV. PATRICK PROPOSES SENTENCING, PAROLE CHANGES FOR DRUG OFFENDERS

Mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes that don't involve guns or
children would be repealed, giving more discretion to judges, and
certain drug offenders serving mandatory minimums in state prison
would be eligible for parole after serving half their maximum
sentence, under legislation Gov. Deval Patrick plans to file with his
budget Wednesday.

Patrick's plan will retain mandatory minimum sentencing for drug
offenders who use a gun in connection with the crime and those who
exploit children. Offenders convicted of crimes that did not involve
violence, who did not possess a gun and who did not target children
would become eligible for parole after serving half their sentences.

The governor rolled out the proposal Tuesday afternoon in advance of
his annual budget filing, detailing standalone legislation that he
will file that also lifts the prohibition on drug offenders from
participating in work release programs or earning "good time" credits.

Further, the bill will shrink from 1,000 feet to 100 feet the
drug-free zones around schools that trigger harsher penalties for drug
violations occurring within those areas, according to an
administration official.

In addition to the sentencing reforms, Patrick plans to file
legislation in coming weeks that would consolidate the Department of
Probation, which currently falls under the judicial branch, and the
Department of Parole into a new Department of Reentry and Community
Supervision under the Executive Office of Public Safety.

Patrick says that consolidation, which faltered before the Legislature
last session, will save $14 million if approved, and those savings
will be incorporated in his fiscal 2012 spending plan. The
consolidation will be part of other changes the governor will offer in
the coming weeks for parole and probation based on consensus
recommendations from a joint executive and legislative commission
currently investigating probation and parole operations.

"We need an effective and accountable re-entry program for those
leaving the criminal justice system," Patrick said in a statement.
"Combining probation and parole, and requiring supervision after
release, takes the best practices from other states to assure both
public safety and cost savings."

The new Department of Reentry and Community Supervision would oversee
all forms of community supervision starting from a defendant's
pre-trial period through an inmates' release from prison or jail,
according to the administration.

Both House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray
have questioned Patrick's call to move probation functions from the
judiciary to the executive branch. Chief Justice Roderick Ireland,
appointed by Patrick to lead the Supreme Judicial Court, also
disagrees with the governor.

In a letter to all three leaders this week, Ireland said that the
judicial branch was "fully capable" of addressing the concerns over
leadership at the Probation Department, indicating that corrective
steps had already been taken under the direction of newly appointed
acting Commissioner Ronald Corbett to eliminate patronage.

Independent counsel Paul Ware, after being charged by the SJC with
examining the probation department, last year concluded that the
department was foundering and rife with hiring and promotions abuses
tied to patronage.

Ireland said moving probation functions outside of the judiciary would
"severely disrupt" the functioning of the probation system that has
had the same oversight structure in place for 130 years.

"Probation officers and judges have become vital partners in the
criminal justice department. This relationship is one of trust and
shared objectives in the operation of our courts, and it is essential
to the proper functioning of probation in Massachusetts," Ireland
said. "This crucial trust will be lost if probation officers are
transferred outside the judicial branch, and the important and
cost-effective role of probation in our system of justice will be
compromised."

Ireland said the cost of implementing such a transition would exceed
any savings the governor hopes to squeeze out of the two agencies by
combining probation and parole under the executive branch.

Earlier this month, Patrick highlighted youth violence in his
inaugural as an issue that must be addressed, and Murray told the News
Service afterwards that the drug trade was at the heart of much of the
violence.

"We really have to focus on that. And it's not just Boston, it's
Brockton and it's New Bedford and the Cape . . . It's all
drug-related. You've got to get to the root of the problem. These guys
coming out of prison now want to take back their territory and there's
younger people that have moved in and that's where you're seeing the
violence. They don't have a problem killing each other," Murray said.

As of April 2009, about 2,180 prison inmates in Massachusetts were
serving mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, not counting
those incarcerated in county jail facilities, according to a study
done by the Department of Correction.

Patrick last year signed a law permitting non-violent offenders held
in county jails to seek parole after serving one-half of their
mandatory sentences with good behavior. The new legislation would
expand that law to inmates in state prisons as well.

"On the one hand, this is a bold move by the governor, but on the
other hand it's basic common sense. He's merely trying to realign our
drug sentencing laws so they are in sync with what we know to be true
about who is sentenced to prison under the laws and what they need to
succeed and not reoffend, said Barbara Dougan, state director for
Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

The governor's bill would also allow for medical release of inmates
under certain circumstances and institute mandatory post-release
supervision for all state prison inmates as part of a plan to address
recidivism and overcrowding in the corrections facilities. The
Department of Corrections would have increased authority to move
inmates, as appropriate, to lower levels of security, work release or
community supervision.

"For your basic not-violent drug offender, almost two-thirds of them
have low-level or no prior criminal history, but what happens is when
a first time offenders gets a 10-year or 15-year sentence the taxpayer
is paying for far longer than what is necessary to protect public
safety," Duggan said.

In 2007, Patrick stood with Senate President Therese Murray and
then-Speaker Salvatore DiMasi to reject the state's mandatory minimum
sentencing laws.

"We're taking juveniles, kids who haven't figured out how it's put
together, haven't got the education, haven't got the support at home,
and we're putting them into correctional facilities, and they're
coming out with a stigma that they'll never get rid of," Murray said
at the time. "And they'll never get a job, and they'll never get a
driver's license, and we're going to keep them in poverty and we're
going to keep them into a criminal mindset."

Patrick, a former defense attorney and federal prosecutor, said at the
time, "I think anybody who's actually practiced in court on the
defense and the prosecutor side has concerns about the systemic impact
of warehousing as a strategy to fight crime."

Martin Healy, the chief legal counsel to the Massachusetts Bar
Association, called the bill an "additional step forward,"

"It's appropriate to give judges discretion for these offenders
convicted of non-violent drug offenses and we think should be treated
more as a public health issue," Healy said.

Healy also said the Bar Association agreed with Patrick's decision to
shrink the school zones for drug offenses, calling the current law a
"blunt approach" that has a "disparate impact on poor urban areas."
School-zone drug offenses carry an additional mandatory two to 15 year
sentence.

"Where there is a heavy concentration of schools, people get caught up
when there is no actual intent by an individual to be selling to
school children," Healy said.