The Boston Globe today published my answer to JD Vance’s idiocy, You don’t need kids to have a stake in the future.” Its tagline is “I might not have cats, but I am childless by choice. That doesn’t make me selfish or shortsighted” Read here.
Author Archives: Jean
Remembering the Amazing Lillie A. Estes
MOTHER OF COURAGE! Remembering the amazing Lillie A Estes on what would have been her 65th birthday in Style Weekly www.styleweekly.com/mother-of-co…
www.styleweekly.com
Mother of Courage – Style Weekly
A Boston writer remembers her friend, community strategist Lillie Estes, on what would’ve been her 65th birthday.
AFTER MATTIS—CHECK OUT THIS HISTORIC PAROLE HEARING
Pictured: Alfred Therrien and his attorney John J. Barter in front of the Mass. Parole Board in Natick
Please see and share my newest article on the first Mattis parole hearing after the historic ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court in Mass to stop anyone under age 21 from serving LWOP, i.e. life without parole. HERE. It begins
“On July 16, Alfred Therrien appeared with his attorney John J. Barter before the Parole Board and became the first person in Massachusetts to seek parole as a “Mattis case.”
Commonwealth v Mattis, the monumental ruling rendered by the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) this past January, held that life without parole is now a violation of the Massachusetts constitution for those under the age of 21. The decision underscores the importance of developing-brain science, with the judge finding that, “in terms of impulse control, emerging adults are more similar to sixteen and seventeen-year-old juveniles than to older adults. That is, they are less able to control their impulses in emotionally arousing situations.”
Therrien, who committed his crime between the ages of 18 and 20, was the first to be granted a parole hearing because of this recent ruling. He had previously been sentenced to life without parole (LWOP), also known as ‘the other death penalty.'” MORE
GRADING THE PAROLE BOARD
My newest on the Massachusetts Parole Board on Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism It asks “The Massachusetts Parole Board still faces big challenges despite making some improvements this past year. Its final member was approved this week, but is the body equipped to operate efficiently?” MORE
Amazing article by Chris Faraone about MOTHERLOVE
Please check out this incredible interview that my editor at Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism did with me here. Entitled, Prison journalist and writer Jean Trounstine explores unspoken pain around incarceration with new collection of short stories
It begins: “When it comes to writing about prison and parole, there are very few reporters who have as many sources among advocates or the incarcerated population as Jean Trounstine. I would know; as her editor at the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism for the past several years, I have been floored by her ability to unearth major scoops on the strength of those connections.
Jean is also an accomplished educator, activist, and author who has directed stage plays and published multiple books touching carceral topics, among them Shakespeare Behind Bars: The Power of Drama in a Women’s Prison. So with those noted contacts and that much experience, it surprised me to learn that she chose fiction as her next vehicle for impugning the US prison system and its “devastating impact on our communities in Massachusetts and beyond.”
The resulting work is Motherlove, in which Jean compassionately considers an ‘often-forgotten group—the mothers of children who kill, each struggling with the aftermath of murder.’ As she explains it, while fictional, each of the 10 characters is ‘drawn from her more than 30 years of experience with prisoners and their families.’” MORE