State’s highest court takes inmate release ruling under advisement after lengthy hearing

The state’s highest court has taken under advisement a call to spring inmates as coronavirus cases pop up in jails after district attorneys, sheriffs and criminal defense groups sparred over the move in an unprecedented hearing Tuesday.

Nearly a dozen attorneys spoke in a telephone conference with six Supreme Judicial Court justices that was closed to the public and with an audio recording posted later. Criminal defense groups brought the suit last week asking for the release of pretrial detainees and those in poor health, among other circumstances.

Justice Frank Gaziano told attorney Matthew Segal, representing the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, of the case of Edward Corliss, who gunned down a store clerk in 2009 after being released by the Parole Board.

“If we rule your way, a defendant like Edward Corliss as well as untold numbers of child rapists would be released immediately,” Gaziano said. “Does that case illustrate the danger of this categorical approach versus an individualized approach and assessment?”

Segal said plaintiffs would welcome an approach to permit individualized review rather than a wider categorical release.

Although at least 17 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Department of Corrections, attorney Robert Harnais for the state’s 14 sheriffs defended their facilities’ measures.

Inmates have access to counseling services, opioid addiction treatment and shelter that they wouldn’t have outside prison walls, Harnais said.

DAs Rachael Rollins and Marian Ryan, who made calls earlier this month for detention reform, urged relief balanced with considerations for the safety of the public.

“It is certainly not, at least from our perspective, an abandonment of our commitment to public safety, nor is it a wholesale release of people who would pose a safety risk,” Ryan told the Herald on Tuesday.

Rollins in a statement said inmates don’t deserve to face COVID-19 and the possibility of death as part of their sentences.

Plymouth DA Timothy Cruz said a ruling in favor of inmates would jeopardize the welfare of everyone.

“I listened in today on all four hours and 35 minutes of the hearing,” Cruz said in a statement. “I noted that it was not an hour in that the word ‘victim’ was mentioned. My hope is that the SJC listens to the voice of victims of crime and that of reason.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2wRVEWe