Amendment will establish panel to study policies affecting justice-involved women

State Representative Christine P. Barber of Somerville and Medford spoke in the House chamber on Monday evening in support of an amendment she filed to the House omnibus criminal justice reform bill to establish a justice-involved women policy review panel. The House voted unanimously to adopt Barber’s amendment.

“Putting a special focus on justice-involved women is necessary for our Commonwealth,” Rep. Barber said in her speech. “This amendment will ensure that the policy changes in this bill are implemented in a manner that does not leave out women in the justice system.”

Women are a small but growing population of the justice system in Massachusetts; approximately 3% more women are incarcerated every year. Often, justice-involved women have committed lower level or non-violent offenses, and have extremely high rates of substance use, trauma and mental illness. The majority of justice-involved women are mothers, and are the primary caretakers of one or more dependent children; consequently, their incarceration results in separating families.

Rep. Barber’s amendment instructs state agencies charged with overseeing female offenders, those charged with their public health, mental health, and looking after their children, public officials, and those with expertise on trauma and approaches to working with justice-involved women, to convene and review policies and identify new areas to offer positive impacts for this population.

“Women’s life experiences, responsibilities and needs are different than those of men and often, women can be negatively impacted by a justice system that was created for a primarily male population,” Rep. Barber said. “This amendment acknowledges that the Commonwealth requires gender-responsive policies to ensure the best treatment for all justice-involved populations, to ultimately reduce recidivism and harm to families.”

In addition to Rep. Barber’s amendment, many provisions in the House criminal justice reform package will improve conditions for justice-involved women, help the justice system become more responsive to women’s needs, and keep families together. Changes to the Commonwealth’s bail assessment system, reducing debilitating fines and fees, and new restorative justice programs will all help to ensure women in the justice system are treated fairly.

The House passed its final criminal justice legislation Tuesday evening after adopting more than 50 new amendments. The next step will be for the House and Senate to appoint members to a conference committee, which will be charged with discussing the differences between the two criminal justice bills to form a final compromise bill.