In a very unsurprising turn of events, the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union (MCOFU) plans to sue the Baker administration after it issued its vaccination mandate on August 19.

The vaccination mandate reads: “Today, Governor Charlie Baker issued an executive order requiring all Executive Department employees to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination on or before October 17, 2021. The COVID-19 vaccine is the best and most effective way people can protect themselves, their loved ones and their community from the virus.”  This includes correction officers, state police, parole personnel and “any agency, bureau, department, office, or division of the Commonwealth within or reporting to such an executive office of the commonwealth.”

MCOFU, in a letter to its union members, i.e. all state correctional officers, wrote that “it is an individual choice for each person, uniformed or civilian, whether they choose to receive (the vaccine).”

Anthony Benedetti, Chief Counsel for the Committee for Public Council Service, which provides legal representation for those unable to afford an attorney in all matters in which the law requires the appointment of counsel, tweeted a significant phrase in the MCOFU letter. He wrote, “The Massachusetts Correction Officers’ Federated Union, which represents guards and officials in the state’s prison system, said it ‘does not agree with a forced vaccination’ and is pursuing legal options against the governor’s office. 

They stated their intentions to sue the Baker administration in the following way: “The MCOFU Executive Board has begun the process of pursuing all legal and legislative remedies at our disposal, up to and including an injunction in court.”

In February, 2021, I asked the question WHY ARE HALF OF MASS CORRECTION OFFICERS REFUSING THE COVID VACCINE? in an article for DigBoston, which was the first in Massachusetts to report this issue.

The answer, at the time, still holds true: “Even as the pandemic rages in prisons, vaccines and masks are seen as ‘a sign of weakness’. While COVID was raging, 53% of DOC staff and correctional officers (COs) “refused the vaccine.”

As I reported, “According to state data from a Feb. 10 Special Master’s Report, commissioned to fairly assess the situation from all angles, 3,074 DOC employees, or more than half the staff who work for the DOC, have “refused” the vaccine. Some of the COs possibly got the vaccine elsewhere, DOC’s attorney Stephen Dietrich said at the Feb. 9 hearing, although he did not disclose any numbers.” That information is still the same today per the latest August report. 

Baker’s August 19 announcement said, “Executive Department employees who are not vaccinated or approved for an exemption as of October 17, 2021 will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”

UPDATE (July 29): For the first time in Gov. Charlie Baker’s two terms, on July 28, the Governor’s Council rejected the governor’s pick for the Parole Board in a 5-3 vote. Voting for nominee Sherquita HoSang were Councilors Joseph Ferreira, Mary Hurley, and Terrence Kennedy. Voting against were Marilyn Devaney, Paul DePalo, Robert Jubinville, Christopher Iannella, and Eileen Duff. Duff, in an email said, “The MA Parole Board has been put on notice that things need to change dramatically and fast. Justice delayed is Justice denied and the citizens of the Commonwealth are asking for The board to do their jobs in an efficient and fair way which frankly isn’t much to ask.” 

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This is a travesty, again. Read my article on the newest Parole Board applicant about to be voted in by the Governor’s Council of Massachusetts. 

The article at DigBoston begins:

“I am not sure you have done enough homework to be sitting in this seat.”

Those were the words of Governor’s Councilor Eileen Duff on July 21, spoken to Massachusetts Parole Board nominee Sherquita HoSang during a three-hour long hearing, after HoSang said that she had never attended a Parole Board hearing in person or read any parole decisions regarding life-sentenced prisoners (that are published on the Parole Board website). MORE

Joe Irizarry featured (center) with family and friends, July 2020 at his sister’s house

Please see my newest article at DIGBoston, HIRED TO HELP END LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE, SHOWING WHY SECOND CHANCES ARE NEEDED. It details Joseph Irizarry, the newest member of CELWOP, the Campaign to End Life Without Parole, and begins:

““People need to understand how much impact formerly incarcerated people can have on the community,” said Joseph Irizarry, the newly hired community organizer for the Campaign to End Life without Parole in Massachusetts (CELWOP). CELWOP (which this reporter participates in) did a statewide search for an organizer before it hired Irizarry.” More

William Allen in an undated photo. (Photo courtesy of Att. Kristine McDonald, posted WBUR)

Today, a surprise turn of events occurred in the 4th hour of merely the second commutation hearing held for a lifer in more than a decade. William Allen, who has served twenty-seven years of a first-degree life sentence, must have been as surprised as the rest of us when  Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz made headlines with “Today I am taking the unprecedented step in supporting [Allen’s] petition for commutation.”

No one serving a life-without-parole sentence has been granted a commutation since 1997. The Mass Advisory Board of Pardons (the Parole Board) hears these cases and then forwards successful ones to the Governor.

Having the DA support a commutation is certainly unusual. But Cruz mentioned how this is a “rare case,” and he was asking [the Board] to recommend to Gov. Baker that Allen’s petition be forwarded.

Thomas Koonce, who had a commutation hearing on Oct. 27, 2020, and was approved by the Board of Pardons, is still waiting for the Governor to sign off and commute his first-degree life sentence to second-degree with parole eligibility.

Allen, who was charged with armed robbery and the felony murder of Purvis Bester in 1994, received a life-without-parole sentence as a joint venturer. He has admitted that he participated in the robbery but his co-defendent committed the murder, took a plea, served a second-degree sentence, and is now out on parole.

These factors plus the fact that Allen made “a strong case” for himself as Board member Tonomy Coleman and others noted, may be enough for Allen’s sentence to be commuted. Once the Parole Board votes to send his petition to Governor Charlie Baker, the Governor has a year to sign off on the petition. Then Allen will have to seek parole from the Board.

A recent Massachusetts Bar Association Clemency Task Force report pointed out the woeful lack of commutations (reduction of sentence), and pardons (forgiveness of the underlying conviction) in Massachusetts and made recommendations to the Governor.

At today’s hearing, all the Board members commented on the progress and transformation as well as the numerous programs that Allen had completed behind bars. Board member Tina Hurley did specifically mention his powerful work ethic, to which he responded “I try to do a good deed a day.”

Allen, who has been active in a particularly important program for his development, the Companion Program, told a story that detailed his growth. He said that before he became a companion at Old Colony, he helped out at Bridgewater Hospital. There he met Eddie, who was in his 60’s, relegated to the infirmary with slight dementia. Eddie wasn’t allowed out of the unit, said Allen, but one day Allen heard him singing and so he started singing with him. “I saw him dancing, and then I started dancing with him,” he said. In 2004, Allen became Eddie’s companion. “We were The Odd Couple. He was an old white guy.” William is a Black man, now in his late 40’s.

Since then, he has been a companion to seven men. Chair Gloriann Moroney complimented him on helping people feel less alone.

Allen talked about how he thought about Bester every day and lived his life in a way that “honors” him. Allen wants to help young people like his son, whom he feels he abandoned to the streets and is currently incarcerated.

“He’s a very good candidate for commutation,” said DA Cruz.

Please see and spread far and wide my update on Old Colony Correctional Center here. It is titled A STATE REP GOES TO SPEAK WITH MEN INCARCERATED AT OLD COLONY and begins:

“It’s the ‘repeated refrain’ of people incarcerated at Old Colony Correctional Center (OCCC) in Bridgewater: ‘There just [isn’t] enough mental health care.’

So wrote Mass state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa in an email to me after she visited OCCC on June 3, a visit spurred by this reporter’s article detailing the disastrous year of suicide attempts, self-harm, and COVID at the institution.” MORE