Please see my newest article about the commutation hearing of Tom Koonce (pictured above on left). The support, including his son (Thomas Andrews on right) was enormous. A 9 1/2 hour hearing before the Gov. Council and all that came with it is detailed in my newest article for DigBoston. If Council approves the commutation, then Koonce will apply for parole. Read and share!
Please see and share my newest at DigBoston. There are 16 recommendations and will the Parole Board pay attention to them? More
Please read and share my newest article on DigBoston: The Massachusetts Parole Board has a Transparency Problem. “From secret hiring practices to a revolving door of political appointees, the Mass Parole Board is a “black hole,” and “lives are at risk.” More.
Please see my newest at DigBoston. The title is MA CORRECTIONS OFFICERS’ ANTI-VAXX LAWSUIT FAILS. The pull quote is “The plaintiffs ignore the harm that their requested injunction would cause incarcerated people.”
See my newest article at DIGBoston which begins
“The DOC has failed to control the virus.”
Prisoners’ Legal Services attorney Bonnie Tenneriello made that argument on Feb. 9, in the continuing PLS Superior Court case against the Department of Correction and the Mass Parole Board. An emergency motion was filed in October ordering the DOC to establish a home confinement program for sentenced prisoners, but there has been no significant decarceration since March, claims PLS, and they are still litigating the case.
Tenneriello lambasted the DOC in her opening for their multiple failures: they have not created a home confinement program; they have failed to reasonably release people who are sick and dying; and they are not following a new decarceration law approved by the legislature in December. As she built to her claim that both the DOC and the Parole Board are guilty of deliberate indifference, Tenneriello charged that since March, ‘Twenty-one people have died and over 2,800 people have been sickened by COVID.’
Another failure also was spotlighted in this hearing before Judge Robert Ullmann, who is trying the case: per Tenneriello, while COVID has been “raging,” 53% of DOC staff and correctional officers (COs) have “refused the vaccine.” MORE