Former Secretary of Public Safety and Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral joined Boston Public Radio Thursday to discuss a recent report from the group CourtWatch MA that highlights what they say are questionable trends in Massachusetts courts.
One major area of focus in the report is Berkshire County's 83% increase in pretrial detentions under District Attorney Andrea Harrington, who took office in January 2019. Under pre-trail detention circumstances, defendants are held in jail without the option of paying bail.
But Cabral said she was not convinced that Berkshire County courts were abusing their power, and said an increase in pretrial detentions is not necessarily an indicator of malpractice.
"The fact that there’s an increase in [pre-trial detentions] may very well be true, but I think you need to look at the data, and you also need to look at who they’re asking,” she said.
Cabral argued that dangerousness hearings, which are required for courts to determine whether a person is held without the option of bail, are far from ideal for prosecutors.
"They are time consuming, and, you know, if you put someone up there for a dangerousness hearing, you may very well be putting your victims [and] your witnesses on the stand ... and your defense gets a crack at them,” Cabral said.
