BOSTON – Governor Charlie Baker has tapped a statewide group of elected and law enforcement officials to review the process and policies of the criminal justice system in Massachusetts.
The working group will begin the review next month, and includes a number of local officials, including State Representative Randy Hunt (R-Sandwich).
“I believe that everything is on the table,” said Hunt of the review process. “That would include minimum mandatory sentencing, what programs are available for incarcerated inmates, care and programs that are offered to people that have come out of the criminal justice system.”
“This certainly ties in in a great deal to the drug addiction issues,” Hunt added.
But Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, also a member of the working group, has cautioned against reform for the sake of reform.
“I frankly look at my role on this as hopefully keeping an eye on that impulse so that we don’t do things in an effort to reform things that actually make things worse,” O’Keefe said. “It’s always appropriate from time to time to look at how we do things and examine ways in which might help us to do them better, but yet at the same time to not be so involved in the impulse if you will to reform that we throw out the baby with the bathwater.”
The Governor has named 25 members to the bipartisan group.
“This group of distinguished individuals with backgrounds in criminal justice and law enforcement will serve the Commonwealth well in our endeavor with the Council of State Government to further reform and improve the judicial process, and reduce recidivism and incarceration rates,” Baker said.
Baker is one of five members of the review steering committee, along with Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, State Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants.
Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald is also a member of the working group.
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