FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
75 ORGANIZATIONS ACROSS THE COMMONWEALTH URGE BOND BILL CONFERENCE COMMITTEE TO PASS STRONG JAIL AND PRISON CONSTRUCTION MORATORIUM
Media Contact: Mallory Hanora, mhanora@justiceashealing.org | 860-268-1369
Social media info: #NoNewWomensPrison
Boston, MA - Today, July 12, 2022, 75 organizations across Massachusetts joined Families for Justice as Healing (FJAH) and The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls in urging the Infrastructure Bond Bill Conference Committee to pass a strong Jail and Prison Moratorium that would create a five year pause on construction and expansion of incarceration in the Commonwealth, including the proposed new women’s prison.
Signers include the ACLU of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Public Health Association, Jane Doe Inc.,T’ruah: the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, Progressive Massachusetts, and the Women’s Bar Association as well as grassroots groups from Barnstable County to the Berkshires. “Constituents have been clear in their demand: pause all jail and prison design and construction for five years to make good on the promises of reform and to carry out further decarceration,” the coalition letter reads.
The coalition explicitly urges the Infrastructure Bond Bill Committee members to include the House version of the Moratorium language in the final bill. “The Senate language falls short of the protections needed to prevent any expansion of jails and prisons…The Senate language also fails to restrict jail construction in any way,” the letter explains. “By contrast, the House language allows for any necessary repairs while still preventing new jail and prison construction and expansion.”
Directly affected women have been pushing back against the new women’s prison project since the first request for proposals was released by the Department of Correction and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance in December 2019. Despite coordinated and sustained resistance to the new women’s prison, the state contracted with HDR, Inc to study and design the prison project for $550,000 in the spring of 2021 and allocated $250,000 for the Ripples Group, a boutique consulting firm based in Boston, to produce a report entitled “Strategic plan for women incarcerated in the state.”
The Ripples Report rubber-stamped the proposed $40 Million women’s prison project without considering any alternatives. The report features glaring errors, including basic information about Massachusetts criminal legal policy affecting women. In a section about “Family and Community Integration,” the report mistakenly states that groundbreaking legislation written by formerly incarcerated mothers called “The Primary Caretakers Act” did not pass. In fact, Primary Caretakers became law in 2018 as part of the Omnibus Criminal Justice Reform Act. This law allows parents to motion criminal court judges for alternative community-based sentences so they can be held accountable for their transgression while continuing to care for their children. The Primary Caretakers law is exactly the kind of intervention that should have been centered in the report.
“No longer shall we allow a failed system to continue. We will not turn back. We know that a jail or prison will not help women heal and advance their lives,” said Andrea James, founder of Families for Justice as Healing and founder and Executive Director of The National Council For Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. “We’re already creating what different looks like and building up our community infrastructure. We’re asking for a five year pause on jail and prison construction to continue our work to release women and reimagine communities.”
Coalition members share the urgency of passing a strong moratorium before the end of this legislative session. “Communities most impacted by the carceral system have made clear that they do not think that mass incarceration has made their communities safer; instead, it has broken up families and destabilized communities,” said Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director for Progressive MA. “We know that true public safety comes from investing in health care and housing and education, not in investing in policing and prisons.”
Community members recognize that a new women’s prison will cause generations of harm in Massachusetts, and passing the House version of the Moratorium will create a precious opportunity. “As a rabbi dedicated to the building of a just society, I am grateful for the prophetic leadership of formerly incarcerated women at Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council in rejecting the construction of a new women’s prison. Jewish tradition promotes the belief that every human being is capable of teshuvah, repentance, and that our actions must be grounded in the understanding that human beings are created b’tzelem Elohim—in the image of God,” said Rabbi Jim Morgan of Harvard Hillel and Hebrew SeniorLife, and member of T’ruah. “With this in mind, we must invest in alternatives to incarceration that will allow families to remain together and women who have committed transgressions to recommit themselves to their communities.”
Incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and directly affected women know there is no such thing as a safe prison for women. Bay staters believe something better is possible. Volunteers for Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council’s “FreeHer Campaign” knocked on almost 1,500 doors over the weekend to speak with state residents. Support for a five year pause on jail and prison construction was resounding: to implement alternatives, further decarceration, and invest in communities.
The coalition supporting the House version of the Jail and Prison Construction Moratorium agrees: “Instead of designing another building for the Department of Correction with a new paint color but the same culture of surveillance, isolation, deprivation, neglect, and abuse, we can continue to lead the country by creating what different looks like here in Massachusetts.”
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