Background:

Massachusetts is planning to spend $50 million to build a new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham. As of January 1, 2024, the population in MCI-Framingham stood at 213. In part as a result of sentencing reforms, Massachusetts’s incarceration rate has been falling, which raises the question: Why expand a system that costs more than $200,000 per person and only causes further harm?

Studies have repeatedly shown that society cannot incarcerate its way to safety, and the family separation of incarceration and the well-documented inhumane conditions in Massachusetts’s prisons and jails fuel the community instability that is detrimental to public safety. Instead, investments in housing, health care, economic opportunity, and other social supports have been shown to be the true foundation of public safety for all.

More about the Organizing Effort from Families for Justice as Healing:

The MA legislature passed the Prison Moratorium in 2022 - the first session it was filed - after a historic organizing effort led by formerly incarcerated women, including a ninety mile march across the state. Unfortunately the bill was vetoed by then Governor Baker and the legislature did not reconvene to override Baker’s veto.

History was made again in 2023 when formerly incarcerated women testified virtually from prison for the first time in Massachusetts history. Incarcerated women who testified unanimously supported the Prison Moratorium. You can view their testimony here: https://bit.ly/FraminghamTestimony

Incarcerated women also sent a letter to the Healey administration about their urgent material needs, their demands to maximize and expand pathways to release, and their opposition to prison construction. Almost forty organizations signed on to support the letter from incarcerated women to Governor Healey: https://tinyurl.com/framinghamletter

Where You Come in:

The Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight has a hearing on Tuesday, May 13, about the bill. Send in testimony to make clear that there is broad support for passing the moratorium!