We believe the people of the Commonwealth have a right to
safety in their homes, on the streets, and in our schools and workplaces. We
endorse a strategy that focuses on reducing the number and severity of criminal
offenses while creating and strengthening crime-resistant communities. We
support arrest, conviction, and punishment for the perpetrators of crime, and
stand fast for the victims of crime so that they do not, in turn, become
victims of the system. In order to correct the unconscionable delays that have
compromised many criminal investigations in the Commonwealth, we strongly
support enhanced funding of the State Crime Laboratory and the Office of the
Medical Examiner. We favor legislation to extend the statute of limitations for
a criminal or civil action relating to rape to one year from the date on which
the identity of a suspect is established by DNA testing. We strongly oppose the
use of discriminatory racial profiling practices in law enforcement.[Ed.: See "Civil Rights" for mention of racial profiling.]
• Massachusetts Democrats support
comprehensive crime fighting policies that are not only tough, but also smart,
ensuring that we target violent and repeat offenders, reduce recidivism, and
maximize taxpayer resources.
• We believe the best possible anti-crime strategy issupport early intervention and prevention programs for youth and at-risk individuals. We
seek to build on the proven success that prevention-based approaches such as
community policing and outreach to troubled young people have had in
dramatically reducing crime, including violent crime and homicide, in the
Commonwealth and across the country. We support increased efforts to work with
troubled young people and we support the development of secure substance abuse
treatment facilities for adolescents and women. We call for increased efforts
to provide parental training to young parents. We support heightened efforts to
provide teens with summer jobs, expanded employment opportunities, and safe
community centers.
• We believe thatsupport strong state and federal gun laws to help keep firearms out of the hands of criminals
and children, and to reduce violence in
communities, homes, workplaces, and schools. We strongly oppose efforts
to repeal or roll back vital protections like the Brady Bill, and the Assault
Weapons Ban, and background checks for gun buyers. We support measures to close
existing loopholes in the state ban on the sale of assault weapons, requiring
safety devices on guns, and the establishment of a ballistic fingerprinting
data bank. We endorse increased efforts to track and prosecute illegal gun
distributors.
• We restate our Party’s
continuedIn oppositionng the reinstatement of to the death penalty, Massachusetts Democrats join with other western democracies
in upholding the Universal Doctrine of Human Rights. Instead, the Commonwealth
imposes and its support for the alternative, life in prison, without
parole for first-degree murderers.
We support sentences that are tough and fair, consistent
and proportionate. We support sentencing guidelines as one way of ensuring
fairness and uniformity, as well as providing the most efficient use of state
resources in the fight against crime. We believe in consistent, long-term
sentences for serious and violent criminals, and the option of alternative
sanctions for nonviolent criminals. We favor expanded use of drug courts. We
are deeply concerned by evidence of striking racial disparities in certain
sentencing patterns among persons convicted of similar or identical offenses.
We support measures to stop family violence, including
putting full-time, trained advocates in court rooms to assist victims of
domestic violence in obtaining protective orders, developing personal safety
plans, and securing other available services. We support programs for children
who witness violence, and measures to protect children from domestic violence
in custody proceedings. We urge a greater focus on batterers who demonstrate a
high probability of repeating or escalating their violence. We support
expansion of programs that provide adequate shelters for victims of domestic
violence.
We support the changes that have made our criminal
justice system more attuned to the concerns of crime victims and their
families, and urge continued work to increase this responsiveness. We support
greater use of restitution and other means of restorative justice. We recognize
the need for expanded counseling services for all those who may feel the impact
of a crime, such as the family members of convicted batterers.
We call for probation to be integrated into a unified
approach to law enforcement and corrections. We support policies that allow for
swift and consistent punishment of probation violations and call for and
community corrections programs We support increased use of tools such as
substance abuse testing, electronic position monitoring, and day reporting
requirements to tighten our control over the behavior of probationers.
• We must continue to dealsupport swiftly and firmly punishment for with violent juvenile
offenders, holding violent juveniles accountable, while providing immediatealternative sentences and early intervention for
lesser offendersces. We support the
community-based juvenile corrections system that has become a national model,
providing a broad range of alternatives with respect to young people who have
broken the law.
We support efforts to ensure adequate prison space to
house convicted violent offenders. We view prison overcrowding as a threat to
the safety and welfare of the public, correctional officers, and inmates. We
believe that it is a responsibility of government to incarcerate persons
convicted of serious crimes. We oppose housing Massachusetts inmates in
out-of-state facilities, and we oppose the privatization of correctional
facilities. We call for more appropriate and secure facilities for female
prisoners.
We support increased literacy education and similar
skills training to better direct inmates into new lives as productive and
contributing members of society following their release. • We support drug and alcohol treatment, increased
mentoring opportunities, post-release incarceration
supervision, and AfterCare initiatives for inmates and persons on
probation as a common sense approach to reducing repeat offenses and recidivism with adequately funded treatment programs.
• We support rational classification of incarcerated persons that maximizes
rehabilitation and parole eligibility for appropriate inmates.
We support publicly funded legal services to provide
legal representation and advice on issues such as housing, employment, domestic
violence, health, elder law, public benefits, and immigration. We urge full
state and federal funding of such services. We support efforts to encourage
members of the bar to provide pro bono legal services.
We reaffirm our intolerance for verbal and physical
assaults against any person on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity,
disability, gender, or sexual orientation. We support efforts to eliminate
prejudice through education and advocate training for our law enforcement
personnel to assist them in recognizing and responding more effectively to this
type of crime. • We support strong legislation to combatagainst hate crimes, and the collection and
dissemination of information about their prevalence by governmental agencies
such as the U.S. Department of Justice domestic
violence, elder abuse, child abuse, and sexual assault.
• We believe that law enforcement, fire, and other first
responders are the primary line of defense against terrorism.
• We support increased local aid to cities and towns across the Commonwealth,
to provide for more law enforcement and fire protection.
• We oppose the Republican budget cuts in Homeland Security funding, which
provide for emergency teams.
• We oppose the Republican cuts to the Massachusetts Community Oriented Police
Program providing for more street police.
• Recognizing that white-collar crime has many victims, we support vigorous
enforcement of securities and commodities law.