The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

"In my view, the commission and council have made considerable progress in turning around the beleaguered Department of Corrections using the mission and authority it has been given. But we are at a crossroads: we can proceed to implement the much needed changes, or we can blink," Barrios said in the letter.
A spokesman for Barrios said he would not comment on his resignation.
However, at least two members of the panel -- Plymouth District Attorney Timothy Cruz and Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins Jr. -- say they are satisfied with the progress made so far, noting that prisons are institutions that take time to change.

The advisory committee was formed by Gov. Mitt Romney following the August 2003 death of defrocked priest John Geoghan, who was slain in prison allegedly by a fellow inmate. The slaying raised questions about prison security and the ways inmates were classified that determined where they were placed.

Harshbarger said too little has been done since Geoghan, who was serving time for molesting a 10-year-old boy, was strangled and beaten to death in his maximum-security prison cell. The DOC was criticized after Geoghan's death for housing him with hardened criminals and prompted Harshbarger's group to call for changes in the inmate classification system as well as numerous other prison reforms.

State Correction Commissioner Kathleen M. Dennehy declined to discuss Harshbarger's criticisms. She did say that Romney, Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and Secretary of Public Safety Secretary Edward A. Flynn support the Department of Correction and its reform efforts.
The department has "made demonstrable progress" since Geoghan's death, Dennehy told the AP.

Harshbarger, a Democrat who lost the race for governor in 1998, said he submitted his resignation last month because he felt a "lack of commitment" on both the part of the state Legislature and Romney, who is considering a possible presidential bid.
"For whatever reason, there appears to be a loss of focus and a lack of urgency on the part of the executive and the Legislature, who are major players in the system," he said.

"I believe the governor is ... obviously focused on other things, and when he focuses on other things, other people focus on other things," Harshbarger told The Associated Press Thursday.

Romney has been considering a run for president, but the governor denied Thursday that his political ambitions had led to inactivity on the prison reform effort.

"I think there may be some people who want to read that into what
(Harshbarger) said," the governor told reporters during a Statehouse news conference.
A 15-member panel spent eight months visiting prisons before recommending in June 2004 18 major changes, including better prerelease job training and counseling, changes in prison guard contracts, an independent inspector general, and changes to mandatory minimum sentences for some crimes.

Three months later, after an inmate was strangled by another prisoner at the Bridgewater State Hospital, Romney appointed Harshbarger to head a new panel, with many of the same members, to ensure the recommendations were put in place.

In the report, the advisory council said overclassification can be a barrier to the reduction of recidivism because inmates in maximum-security prisons do not receive the same rehabilitative programs and services as prisoners held in minimum- and maximum-security prisons.

Dennehy said a revamped classification system developed with the help of the National Institute of Corrections is being implemented. It is a massive effort that requires a tremendous amount of staff training and follow up, she said.
"This isn't just something that you just roll out and say you are done," Dennehy said.

Leslie Walker, executive director of the Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, said the re-entry issue is critical if the state hopes to reduce the number of inmates who continue to commit crimes after they are released.

"If you are sent behind the wall to a high-security prison, where you are living in a very tense, violent atmosphere for a number of years, you receive no job training, very little education, no alcohol or drug treatment, and then you are released directly to the street, then you're a public safety hazard. You are a crime waiting to happen," Walker said.

AP Political Writer Glen Johnson contributed to this report.