Wayland teen collects books for prisoners<\/a><\/p>\nThe state can use the money it saves with fewer people in prison on halfway houses, drug treatment programs and reentry programs to help those leaving prison transition back into their communities, Wozniak said.<\/p>\n\n
Better yet, he said, the state can prevent crime in the first place by using this money to invest in communities with high rates of poverty and unemployment, factors that tend to increase crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don’t we invest in those communities to create jobs and to improve schools and after-school programs so that youth are involved in activities and have something to do,\u201d Wozniak said.<\/p>\n
Staffing issues<\/h2>\n
However, Natasha Frost, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern University, cautioned that the Department of Correction is understaffed and should not lay off personnel in response to lower prison populations.<\/p>\n
COVID-19 forced the DOC to hold smaller correctional officer academies, which exacerbated a staffing shortage due to retirements, Frost said. Having a well-staffed facility benefits staff and prisoners because officers tend to have more positive interactions with prisoners when they work less overtime.<\/p>\n
Correctional officers sometimes arrive for a shift and are told they need to work several extra hours of overtime because their co-workers are out sick, Frost said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat officer then has to let his or her family know that they’re not going to be home to pick up the kids and whatnot,\u201d Frost said. \u201cIt can cause decreases in morale of staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leon Smith, executive director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice, which advocates for improvements in the juvenile justice system, said the adult justice system could learn from successful reforms in juvenile facilities.<\/p>\n
Smith said it is \u201castounding\u201d how much decarceration has occurred on the juvenile level in the last 15 years. The Department of Youth Services had 89 first-time commitments in 2021, down from 366 in 2015, according to state data.<\/p>\n\n
Punishment vs. rehab<\/h2>\n
The adult system, utilizing solitary confinement, is more oriented toward punishment than the youth system, which prioritizes rehabilitation, said Joshua Dankoff, director of strategic initiatives at Citizens for Juvenile Justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe average time of a young person in DYS being confined to their rooms for an incident is 45 minutes,\u201d Dankoff said. \u201cThey give the young person a time to calm down and then they continually interact with that person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Young people ages 18-20 who are committed to DYS instead of adult prisons have lower rates of recidivism, Smith said. Youth facilities have better family engagement and access to mental health care, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference between a mom sitting next to their child and having a conversation and offering encouragement instead of holding a phone and looking through glass \u2014 that stuff matters,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Communities with less recidivism are safer because there is less crime and fewer repeat offenders, he said.<\/p>\n
Diversion programs, in which a youth completes mental health counseling, education programs, community service or another alternative to prosecution, have reduced youth incarceration in the state, Smith said. Some areas of Massachusetts have better diversion programs than others, however, so Smith said the state needs to ensure programs are used equitably.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat it\u2019s not just white kids or kids from a higher socio-economic background that are getting those breaks,\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut the kids of color, kids with disabilities, kids from impoverished backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
The more opportunities young people have to attend educational or vocational programs, the less likely they are to be arrested, Smith said. Social programs that help meet people\u2019s basic needs \u2014\u00a0such as the last temporary child tax credit increase \u2014 reduce crime rates and, therefore, incarceration, Dankoff said.<\/p>\n\n
Especially coming out of the pandemic, many have faced worsening mental health, Smith said. Massachusetts must address this on a community level before they enter the justice system, he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndividuals who’ve suffered trauma and who are grappling with mental health issues are funneled into across the whole system, which will not make that better, but in turn make that worse,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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