For Immediate Release
Date: November 12, 2007
Contact: Monica Pratt media@famm.org
Families urge lawmakers to correct sentencing injustices at Joint Judiciary committee hearing on mandatory minimum sentencing bills
BOSTON, MASS.: Members of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), the nation’s leading sentencing reform organization, will be at the State House on November 13 asking legislators to support the repeal of mandatory minimum drug sentences. The Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary is hearing testimony on sentencing reform bills, including S. 884, sponsored by Senator Cynthia Creem. Mary Price, FAMM vice president and general counsel, will testify at the hearing.
Growing support for sentencing reform is spurring the committee to take action. In May, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi expressed support for mandatory sentencing reform during a joint press conference announcing proposed anti-crime funding in a supplementary budget for the state. The remarks follow the governor's announcement in April of a comprehensive review of the state's mandatory sentencing laws, which is also supported by the attorney general and the chief justice of the state trial courts.
"We are delighted that Massachusetts lawmakers are considering mandatory minimum reform,” said Mary Price, FAMM vice president and general counsel. “Mandatory minimums are one size fits punishments that often result in unduly harsh sentences. Judges should be able to impose sentences that fit the punishment to the crime, the individual facts in a case and the defendant’s potential for rehabilitation. Cost-effective and rigorous treatment and rehabilitation programs could save the state millions in corrections costs and reduce the human waste caused by inflexible sentences,” said Price.
FAMM is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and proportionate sentences and supports efforts to provide judges with sentencing alternatives, such as treatment and drug courts, in appropriate cases. Many of FAMM's members are personally affected by mandatory sentencing laws.
FAMM spearheaded a successful campaign to repeal the mandatory minimum drug sentences in Michigan, once the harshest drug laws in the nation. The repeal was supported by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate and signed into law in 2003 by former Governor John Engler, a conservative Republican. The change was greeted with widespread public support.
What: Mass. Joint Committee on the Judiciary hearing on mandatory sentencing reform bills
When: November 13, 2007 at 1 p.m.
Where: Room B-2, Massachusetts State House, Boston
For more information or to arrange interviews, contact media@famm.org.