Dear District Attorney Marian Ryan,

We are writing to you as concerned constituents from Middlesex County. We know from personal experience and from decades of research that the criminal legal system has failed to create safety and wellbeing; instead of preventing harm, prosecution and incarceration cause further harm and trauma in our county. Since you are running unopposed, this is your constituents’ way of engaging with you as our elected official about what we expect and demand from your office over the next four years.

We are asking you to do more to counteract the devastation of women’s lives, the separation of families, and the destabilization of our communities that happens in criminal courts. We know something different and better is possible for women in Middlesex, and you can play a key role in leading our county toward that change.

Women are never safe in any jail or prison. When women prosecuted in Middlesex County are detained pretrial or sentenced to serve time, they are put in the custody of the Department of Correction and incarcerated at MCI-Framingham (Framingham) - the oldest women’s prison in the United States. Women incarcerated at Framingham report frequent verbal and physical abuse, sexual harassment, and violence by staff. Women are subjected to regular, invasive, and degrading strip searches. Women receive inadequate and dehumanizing mental and physical health care, if any at all, while incarcerated at Framingham.^[1]

The Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office is responsible for well over one third of the incarcerated population at MCI-Framingham. On August 8, 2022 there were 39 women in pre-trial detention and 17 Middlesex County county-sentenced women at Framingham out of 200 total women. Additionally, there are state-sentenced women incarcerated at Framingham who were prosecuted by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office.

The Commonwealth is currently advancing plans to build a $50 million women’s prison.^[2] A new women’s prison is the last thing we need in Middlesex County or anywhere in Massachusetts. Instead, we follow the leadership of directly impacted women demanding that system stakeholders release women and implement real alternatives to incarceration so we can close MCI-Framingham forever. We are calling on your office to use every tool at your disposal to meaningfully decarcerate women and stop the flow of daughters, mothers, aunts, and grandmothers from Middlesex County into incarceration.

Demands

We’re at a turning point in Massachusetts. Your constituents are asking you to rise to your commitment to be an outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform. This is your opportunity to be a creative collaborator and work with directly impacted women to create a different way forward that serves our shared goals of safety and wellbeing.

Now is the time to change the standard practices of the District Attorney’s office in order to prioritize the wellbeing of women, children, and families, and make Middlesex County a model for the rest of the state. We constituents demand that you:

1. Decline to prosecute charges which are frequently the result of poverty and instability–especially those which are commonly brought against women including driving charges, drug charges, and property charges;
2. Review bail for women who are currently incarcerated, and file motions to reduce their bail to personal recognizance; moving forward, decline to request bail for women so they are not held pretrial and prohibit requests for 58A hearings to hold women without bail;
3. Divert women from conviction and incarceration by utilizing policies such as the Primary Caretakers Act and work with system stakeholders to place women currently serving sentences in the community;
4. Proactively review any cases of women sentenced in Middlesex County and serving life without parole; support releasing women serving second degree life sentences on parole, and support releasing aging and sick women on medical parole and clemency.

1. Decline to prosecute charges 

Women frequently come into contact with the criminal legal system while struggling with addiction, trauma and unmet mental health needs, and poverty.

Having a criminal record has devastating consequences in community members’ lives by creating barriers to employment, housing, and education. On the other hand, declining to prosecute driving, property, and drug transgressions offers people the opportunity to heal and advance their lives and improves community safety and wellbeing.  

A 2021 study for the National Bureau of Economic Research determined that declining to prosecute “non-violent misdemeanors” leads to a significant decrease in future contact with the criminal legal system.^[3] The study uses data from neighboring Suffolk County, where District Attorney Rachael Rollins set a policy of declining to prosecute fifteen of the most commonly charged misdemeanors before arraignment, and confirms that policy had a positive impact on people’s lives and futures.  

A policy of declining to prosecute charges is long overdue in Middlesex County. Your office regularly prosecutes women for “low-level” offenses which are likely the result of poverty, unmet mental health needs, and addiction. Here is a breakdown of lead charges filed by your office against women in 2021:

• 563 cases with a lead charge of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle
• 490 cases with a lead charge of driving with a suspended license,
• 138 cases with a lead charge of uninsured motor vehicle charges
• 115 cases with a lead charge of suspended registration charges against women
• 186 cases with a lead charge of shoplifting less than $250
• 125 cases with a lead charge of drug possession
• 55 cases with a lead charge of trespassing

Driving transgressions were the lead charge in 30% of cases against women in Middlesex County in 2021.^[4] Prosecuting women for the transgressions above only further destabilizes women’s lives, and causes suffering with no public safety benefit for county residents. Stop using our resources to seek punishment for women who are already struggling.

Instead, we ask that you work alongside directly impacted women leaders in the Commonwealth with relevant expertise to develop a public, binding, evidence-based, and measurable policy requiring line prosecutors to decline to charge transgressions related to driving, drugs, and property before arraignment. You have an opportunity to strengthen the precedent set in Suffolk County. Data from the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office can contribute to the growing body of evidence that declining to prosecute certain transgressions substantially reduces the likelihood people will be charged in criminal court in the future.

2. Bail

In 2018, you established a “practice” of not requesting cash bail for “non-violent low-level cases.” In your press release about the practice you acknowledged “even a short period of incarceration can cause tremendous upheaval in one's life, including loss of employment and housing.^[5] Additionally, it’s important to note that any period of detention increases people’s likelihood to overdose.^[6]

A 2020 report using data from your office^[7] documented that indeed a majority of people prosecuted in Middlesex County are not held on bail before their trial and people in Middlesex County are more likely to be free to fight their case than in some other counties around the country. We appreciate your commitment to minimizing the disruption caused by pre-trial detention. We encourage you to keep going because so much more can be done.

Despite your stated practice, your office sends dozens of women every year to MCI-Framingham before their trial - separating them from their children, families, or support networks and further destabilizing their lives. Importantly, the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office continues to request bail more often in cases against Black and Latinx people than white people.

We are asking you to strengthen your office’s practice by no longer requesting bail for women so they do not end up in MCI-Framingham. We also demand that your office no longer requests 58A hearings in order to hold women without bail. Pre-trial detention does not create safety in our communities. If women cannot return to where they were prior to their arrest for any reason, we should work to find alternative placements and consensual services that do not include incarceration.

We are also asking you to immediately review the cases of the at least three dozen women currently in pre-trial detention at MCI-Framingham and file motions to reduce their bail to personal recognizance so they can return to our community. We’re aware that some women in pre-trial detention may be there for bail revocations and violations of probations. We hope your office will work with the necessary stakeholders to ensure that women who have not been convicted of transgressions can be released as soon as possible.

3. Diversion and community-based placements

Decarcerating women from Middlesex County is not only doable, it’s a better way forward for all of us. We are asking you to be a nationwide leader by setting a standard practice of diverting women from convictions and recommending alternative community-based sentences for women with convictions.

There are currently more than 30 women from Middlesex County serving county and state sentences in Framingham. Dozens more cycle in and out of pretrial detention. Yet with these relatively low numbers, we must set our sights on doing everything possible so that zero women are incarcerated from our county.

Knowing a criminal record will prevent women from accessing the basic things they need to provide for themselves and their children, your office should proactively offer women the opportunity to successfully complete conditions and/or programming that’s consensual and beneficial to their lives before seeking a conviction.

There are many tools available to your office to divert women from conviction and mitigate sentencing. In 2018, Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated women passed the “Primary Caretakers'' law as part of the landmark Criminal Justice Reform Act. Legislators took heed of public health research^[8] and the Center for Disease Control’s classification of parental incarceration as an adverse childhood experience.^[9] The statute allows parents to request a community-based sentence for any transgression that does not require a mandatory minimum sentence so they can continue parenting their children. There is no reason the principles of Primary Caretakers cannot be applied at every decision-making point where your office makes a recommendation to the court.

There’s recent precedent for reducing the number of women incarcerated at Framingham. During the height of COVID-19, the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department moved all of our county-sentenced women out of Framingham into the community except for one who was serving a mandatory minimum sentence^[10]. The Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department has a Memorandum of Understanding^[11] with at least one community-based organization called Megan’s House, where women can be housed and receive support rather than be incarcerated.

There are many existing programs and organizations in the Commonwealth that provide women with support and services instead of incarceration and punishment. There are also many more that could grow with adequate resources. Some of these initiatives are led by directly affected women who know best what women with shared experiences need. These groundbreaking programs could serve as alternatives to incarceration and staff are experts that can consult on expanding community-based diversion and sentencing:

• Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council - guaranteed basic income program; guaranteed basic housing program; Reimagining Communities organizing; Women’s Circle;
• New Beginnings Re-Entry Services - transitional house for women with a holistic healing approach and full clinical and wrap around services;

Middlesex County is home to community-based organizations and service agencies which could support women diverted from conviction or serving their sentence in the community. We are asking you as the District Attorney to instruct and hold your line staff accountable for proactively supporting case resolutions that allow women to access the services and resources they need to heal and advance their lives.

Your office should also recognize involvement in any community-based programs as an opportunity for that person to continue to rebuild their lives and be held accountable without incarceration. A non-exhaustive list of Middlesex-based organizations that serve women are:

• Parents helping parents - peer led support groups for parents;
• Cambridge center for adult education - high quality, low cost educational experiences for adults with scholarships available’
• Just- A- Start - affordable housing, education, and job training for Middlesex residents
• Right Turn - caring and evidence based treatment for substance use including daytime Partial Hospital Program, day and evening Intensive Outpatient Programs, Medication Assisted Treatment, Outpatient therapy, DUI assessment, and Intervention services
• The Women’s Center - drop in center and space for healing and educational programming
• Material Aid and Advocacy Program - support, empowerment, referrals, and resources for unhoused and underhoused people
• CASPAR (Cambridge And Somerville Programs for Addiction Recovery) - residential treatment programs for women including pregnant and parenting women
• On the Rise, Inc. - day program and housing support for homeless and formerly homeless women, trans, and gender non-conforming people
• Transition House - housing resources and support services for women experiencing domestic violence

4. Case review and parole   

There are legal pathways home for every woman currently incarcerated in Framingham. Many women in Framingham are aging, sick, and have served decades of time already - including mothers and grandmothers. Your constituents demand that your administration proactively support all available avenues to release women from incarceration.

MA has a disproportionately high number of women serving life sentences.^[12] One of the Commonwealth’s justifications for its proposal to build a new $50 million dollar prison are the 24 women serving life without parole sentences and 24 serving life sentences with the possibility of parole.

We are asking your Conviction Integrity Unit to review the cases of any woman sentenced in Middlesex County and serving life without parole for conviction, constitutional, or sentencing issues.

There are multiple women serving life with the possibility of parole sentenced by Middlesex County. We also ask that your office support their release at their next parole hearing so they have an opportunity to return home to heal and make a positive contribution to our community.

District Attorney’s offices are also consulted when women petition for medical parole and clemency. We urge you to support the release of sick women, elder women, and women who have served longer than ten years.

Conclusion

Now is the right moment for our county to address the harm caused by prosecution and incarceration and our vision for what different looks like - before a new women’s prison is built here or anywhere.

We are asking you to strengthen your commitment to change and further evolve the policies and practices of the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office in order to stop incarcerating women.

Punishing women has failed to create safety and wellbeing in our county and will continue to fail women, children, families, and communities. The demands we highlighted are the beginning of a path toward real healing, accountability, and wellbeing in Middlesex. At the same time, all of us must demand a shift of investments from policing, prosecution, and prisons into what communities need to thrive: housing, healthcare, treatment, education, childcare, and economic development. You can be a statewide leader in public safety using this approach.

We request that you and your office meet with Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council to discuss implementing policy changes that center the most directly affected women, their children, and communities.

Sincerely,

Families for Justice as Healing

The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls

Over 800 Middlesex County constituents

& a coalition of organizations based in Middlesex County or serving Middlesex county residents

Below please find the list of signatories:

Statewide organization with members or services in Middlesex County:

Boston Knapsack Anti Racism Group

Black and Pink Massachusetts

UU Mass action

Justice 4 Housing

Massachusetts Bail Fund

Indivisible Worcester

Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine

Organizations based in Middlesex County:

Safe Medford

Social Justice Committee, Temple Reyim

YWCA Cambridge

Solidarity Lowell

Arlington Fights Racism

Peace Flag Movement

Harvard Law School LAMBA

Arlington MA Democratic Town Committee

Wakefield Ant-iracism Group

Defund NPD

Congregation Dorshei Tzedek, West Newton

Congregation Beth El Antiracism Working Group

United Women in Faith at Fisk Methodist Church, Natick

Elected officials representing a part of Middlesex County:

Residents of Middlesex County: