criminal justice

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, who has caused controversy with her campaign promise not to prosecute 15 minor crimes, was sworn in last week in a ceremony at Roxbury Community College.

This is the Trump era. That means that there are legions of managers and employees of big and little firms who see absolutely nothing wrong in eyeing black patrons in businesses as interlopers and even potential criminals.

Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins was sworn in last Wednesday afternoon in a ceremony at Roxbury Community College, becoming the first woman of color in the state’s history to hold the position.

For decades the U.S. has imprisoned a higher percentage of its residents than any other country. It has always seemed inconsistent for the nation of “liberty and justice for all” to have so many people in jail.

What I’ve come to learn as a physician is that the ER is where the failures of public policy present themselves in their most crude, violent, and visceral form. Yes, we must have strong gun control laws on the books, but we must also address the conditions that allow violence to foster and create a situation where a young woman can be shot in the head during daylight hours.

The present system does not work. With Jeff Sessions no longer serving as attorney general, perhaps astute politicians will see that severe punishment for minor offenses does not solve the crime problem.

Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts announced Nov. 15 that they are suing Boston police and the mayor’s office for the public release of the city’s “gang database.”

If former Balch Springs, Texas police officer Roy Oliver was stunned when he was found guilty of murder in the slaying of 15-year-old Jordan Edwards, there was good reason. He was the rarest of rare breeds. That is a cop who wantonly kills an unarmed civilian and then is prosecuted, let alone convicted.

Five of the six candidates for the Suffolk County district attorney seat and the two running for Middlesex County DA gathered at a Greater Boston Interfaith Organization forum last week, with most signaling agreement with the group’s progressive-leaning criminal justice reform agenda.

William Gross is set to become Boston’s first African American police commissioner, intensifying activists’ demands for discrimination within the department and public safety to become his top priorities.

Calvin Feliciano was looking forward to attending a spiritual retreat on an island in British Columbia when he picked his luggage off a carousel at Vancouver International Airport. He wasn’t expecting to be detained and questioned about his gang record.

The owner and operator of a Roxbury sober home has been indicted on 34 charges in connection with distributing drugs to recovering substance users in exchange for sex, Attorney General Maura Healey announced last week. The defendant is also a lawyer and offered substance users legal representation and advice as well as cash and free rent at the sober home in exchange for sex, according to Healey’s office.