Baker gains backing for pretrial detention bill
Taking aim at the “tremendous damage” wrought by defendants released from the criminal justice system, public safety officials are rallying behind a bill from Gov. Charlie Baker to empower prosecutors and courts to keep people deemed dangerous behind bars.
The bill, which is expected to face pushback from civil rights groups, lengthens the list of crimes where prosecutors can ask for a hearing to determine if a defendant is too dangerous to be released back into the public before trial, and it lets judges consider a person’s whole criminal record when making that decision.
At its root, though, the legislation is the governor’s latest response to a spate of high-profile deaths of police officers at the hands of people who were either out on bail or frequent flyers through the criminal justice system. Officials invoked the memory of Auburn officer Ronald Tarantino, Yarmouth
Sgt. Sean Gannon, and Weymouth Sgt. Michael Chesna.
“With this current system we are working under is that fair to the Tarantino family?” asked Yarmouth police Chief Frank Frederickson, “Was it fair to the Gannon family? Was it fair to the Chesna family? Is it fair to Mrs. Adams and her family?”
Backing the reforms, Boston police Commissioner William G. Gross said they will “bring a sense of justice” to communities who are repeatedly asked to “see something, say something” only for courts to release dangerous people pending trial.
“Within days you see them back on the streets again, with a stay away order and an electronic bracelet,” Gross said. “What is that saying to our communities? What is that saying to our victims? Do you have a sense of justice?”
Under current law and with few exceptions, judges have to set bail at a level that defendants can afford due to court rulings that hold that bail’s purpose is to ensure people’s return to court, not keep potentially dangerous people behind bars. Instead, prosecutors can ask for a hearing to prove the defendant is a danger to the community and should not be released while the trial is unfolding.
Baker’s bill would include assault on a child, indecent assault on a person with an intellectual disability, drugging and kidnapping, human trafficking, child rape and abuse, possession of a silencer, firearms trafficking, assault on a police officer and threats to kill or rape to the list of crimes where a prosecutor could hold a hearing to prove the defendant should not be released.
The bill would let cops arrest people known to be violating terms of release, like refusing to stay away from a victim, a playground or a school. Currently, police have to ask a court to issue a warrant. It also makes cutting off a GPS bracelet a felony.
ACLU Massachusetts says it will take a close read of the bill, but an expansion of pretrial detention could have a negative impact on people charged but not yet convicted of crimes, according to Rahsaan Hall of the group’s racial justice program.
“Too often,” Hall said, “pretrial detention causes people who’ve not been convicted of a crime to lose their jobs, separates them from their families and upends their whole lives.”