Please Support Carceral System Reform!

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS TO ASK THEM TO COSPONSOR PRISONERS' LEGAL SERVICES LEGISLATIVE PLATFORM!

Prisoners' Legal Services of Massachusetts aims to challenge the carceral system through litigation, advocacy, client counseling, partnership with impacted individuals and communities, and outreach to policymakers and the public in order to promote the human rights of incarcerated people and end harmful confinement.

For the 2025-2026 legislative session, we grounded our legislative platform in input from our clients, people who are in prisons and jails throughout the Commonwealth. We surveyed more than 160 people who have served a combined total of 972 years in Massachusetts prisons and jails to ask what the most pressing issues are for us to focus on for reform.

The results were clear: People who are in prison and jail need meaningful pathways to release, conditions of confinement that support personal growth and prepare them for re-entry, and to strengthen their connections with family and community.

Please contact your legislators and ask them to cosponsor the legislation below.

Please act now by asking your legislators to cosponsor the bills in this fact sheet.

You can enter your information below to easily send this email to your legislators or you can find your legislator at this link and contact them using the script below. You will have the opportunity to edit the message prior to submitting it.

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Please support carceral system reform legislation

Dear [elected official],

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Dear legislator,

I am writing to ask you to please cosponsor and support the below legislation, which aim to create meaningful pathways to release for incarcerated elders and those who are sick, create conditions of confinement that support personal growth and prepare people for successful re-entry, strengthen family and community connection, and reduce structural racism in corrections.

An Act relative to elder and medical parole (S.1722/H.2693) Senator Miranda, Reps. Sabadosa and Uyterhoeven:  We have a crisis of aging and sickness in the commonwealth’s prisons, with our correctional system too often becoming expensive, high security, nursing care for a population that has already served decades of time behind bars, and which poses little to no risk to public safety. This bill creates a safe and reasonable pathway for our elders to be considered for parole once they have reached the age of 55 and served 15 years or half of their sentence, and makes needed changes to our medical parole system to ensure that people who are terminally ill and permanently incapacitated have access to medical parole as our legislature originally intended.

An Act to build restorative family and community connection (S.1720/H.2591) Senator Miranda, Rep. Decker: One of the cruelest aspects of imprisonment is family separation, with mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters paying the price alongside their incarcerated loved ones. This bill protects access to daily visits, eliminates draconian caps on the number of visitors, creates child-friendly spaces, and reduces discrimination. Instituting a fair process to facilitate visits sustains families during periods of incarceration and promotes successful re-entry.

An Act relative to human rights and improved outcomes for incarcerated people (S.1651/ H.2608) Sen Creem, Rep Fluker-Reid: Even while prison and jail populations decline, and budgets increase, the prison system continues to prioritize punishment and deprivation over supporting people to work towards personal growth and successful re-entry into the community. Right now, one out of every six people in state prison is in maximum security, with little to no access to programming, educational, and vocational training. We are setting people up for failure on release and contributing to cycles of violence and harm. This bill would establish universal access to programming, education, and vocational training opportunities, meaningful and productive out of cell time, and ensure that people’s human rights are protected while they are behind prison walls.

An Act creating an independent correctional oversight office to facilitate the recommendations of the Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the Commonwealth (S.1725, H.2636) Rep. Holmes, Rep. Uyterhoeven, Senator Miranda: In this country and state, structural racism is inescapable in carceral institutions. These systems continually perpetuate harm against Black and Brown incarcerated people with impunity, hidden by the lack of available data and systemic non-compliance. This bill will establish an independent oversight office within the Office of the Inspector General to oversee and investigate these issues and empower it to enforce the reforms it deems necessary.

Sincerely, [Your information here]