Facts and Policy Reforms for Massachusetts
Like most states, Massachusetts’ prison population has exploded in recent decades, nearly tripling in size between 1980 and 2015.
Following a 245 percent increase in the 16 years between 1980 and 1997, Massachusetts’s prison population began to decline, driven in part by sentencing reforms and efforts to improve reentry from prison. As of January 2017, there were 9,496 people in Massachusetts prisons — a 16 percent decrease since 2010.
As with many states, the War on Drugs has played a key role in Massachusetts’ mass incarceration crisis. In 2015, for example, drug offenses accounted for one in four prison admissions for criminal offenses.
Unsurprisingly, Massachusetts’ mass incarceration crisis has had an enormous impact on people of color, especially Black people. As of 2017, the imprisonment rate for Black people in Massachusetts is seven times higher than the white imprisonment rate. While Black people constitute only 7 percent of the state population, they make up 27 percent of its prison population.
Latinos are also being sent to prison at alarming rates. In 2017, the Latino imprisonment rate in Massachusetts was more than four times that of white people in the state. Overall, Latinos constitute only 11 percent of the total state population, but they make up 25 percent of its prison population. Ending mass incarceration is a critical – although insufficient – step towards addressing racial disparities in Massachusetts’ criminal justice system as well as its broader society.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Massachusetts can dramatically reduce its prison population by implementing just a few sensible reforms:
- Eliminating cash bail.
- Reducing the rate at which prosecutors charge people for property and motor vehicle offenses.
- Increasing the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 18 to 21.
- Reforming mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
- Promoting alternatives to incarceration like substance abuse treatment, mental health care, and other programs.
- Enacting “presumptive parole,” which would require the parole board to justify denying a person’s release when he or she is eligible for parole.
If Massachusetts were to follow these and other reforms outlined in this Smart Justice 50-State Blueprint, by 2025 it could have 3,372 fewer people in its prison system, saving over $830 million that could be invested in schools, services, and other resources that would strengthen communities.
For more information, along with detailed breakdowns of Massachusetts’ prison population and the reforms needed to reduce it, click here.