A commission tasked with examining structural racism in Massachusetts' parole system has a lot of questions it needs answered.
In its second virtual meeting, the commission Thursday heard from a Columbia University expert on parole reform, who raised a number of specific questions about the state's record on race and parole that could define much of the new panel's work going forward.
"We live in a world that has been constructed to perpetuate racialized outcomes — or in a way that does perpetuate racialized outcomes, intended or not," said Kendra Bradner, director of the Probation and Parole Reform Project at Columbia's Justice Lab. The parole system, she said, is no exception.
The 13-member Commission on Structural Racism in the Massachusetts Parole Process, created under the police reform law Gov. Charlie Baker signed last December, is co-chaired by Democrats Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton and Rep. Andy X. Vargas of Haverhill. The panel has until Sept. 30 to identify racist flaws in the parole system and make recommendations for changes. Vargas said the panel may seek an extension of its deadline.
Bradner saluted the commission for pursuing that goal.
"Undoing these practices really requires intentional dismantling of those structures, policies, [and] practices that produce those racialized effects," she said. "And this commission that Massachusetts has undertaken is an amazing first step in that direction."
While Black people are 30% of inmates in Massachusetts state prisons, she said, they make up 18% of parole releases.
The commission needs to ask important questions about parole when it's granted, she said.
"Are there any differences by race or ethnicity in the length of supervision terms?" Bradner asked. "And I raise that because national research or research in other states has suggested that Black and Latinx people are more likely to have longer terms — and that longer terms increasingly disadvantage people of color in terms of their likelihood of being revoked."
Bradner also raised issues of racial disparities during incarceration, including in the use of solitary confinement, which the state recently announced it would phase out in its prisons.
"Some studies have found that people of color are more likely to experience restrictive housing for low-level offenses. So disciplinary charges that don't involve violence, for example, but might be defiance to an officer or something like that," she said. "So that's something to look into, if possible."
Bradner described research she conducted using data from New York City jails, where Black people were detained at 12 times the rate of white people for technical parole violations.
"Which is, honestly, staggering," she added. She encouraged the commission to study the racial distribution of who is put back in prison for those kinds of violations.
"More information about all of those points will help this commission do its job," she said. "And it is a crucial job because research elsewhere does suggest that racial disparities are likely present at several points, and quantifying those disparities is the first step."
But, Bradner added, understanding the disparities is only that — a first step.
"And then those next steps, those concrete changes that I that I know you all are committed to, require making change at the point where the most significant disparities occur," she told the commission.
The commission also heard from the state's undersecretary for criminal justice, Andrew Peck.
Peck said when incarcerated people with substance abuse disorders are released from prison, they can wind up waiting in the same line as everyone else for inpatient addiction treatment, which puts them at greater risk of reoffending.
"The initiative that we're trying to work on is how can we reserve an acute bed in the community just for parole people," he said.
Peck said the Massachusetts Department of Correction is currently working on getting the budget to keep treatment spots available for people on parole. Once a patient was deemed eligible, MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program for the poor, would pay for the treatment.
Kristyn Henry, an attorney with Prisoners' Legal Services of Massachusetts and commission member, asked Peck if the effort would be targeted at opioid abuse, an issue she pointed out that disproportionately impacts white people.
"As we go forward with this, how is this going to ... affect parolees of color, who may be dealing with substance-use disorder and not able to get the same accommodations or the same beds or the same treatment because they're not dealing with the opioid issue?" she asked. "I think that's something definitely to be looked at."
