Join the Campaign to Advance Equity and Justice for Youth
2023-2024 Youth Justice Legislative Priorities
CfJJ, in partnership with the statewide Juvenile Justice Reform Coalition, advocates for comprehensive reforms to promote transparency, best practices, and better outcomes for children and communities. Building on the legislative successes of criminal justice and policing reforms, we will continue to advocate for reforms that continue to advance youth justice.
An Act Improving Juvenile Justice Data Collection (Rep. Vargas H.1802/ Sen. Creem S.931) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-Sponsors
Demand transparency in legal system responses to youth by requiring reporting of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity data at major decision points to allow us to see disparities where they occur and to identify policies or practices to reduce these disparities. For too long, we have waited for transparency on how our legal system responds to children and youth by collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data to allow us to see disparities where they occur and to identify policies or practices to reduce these disparities.
An Act to Promote Public Safety and Better Outcomes for Young Adults (Reps. O’Day & Cruz H.1710/ Sen. Crighton S.942) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-Sponsors
Reduce crime in our communities by ending the automatic prosecution of 18-to 20-year-olds as adults to prevent long-term criminal justice system involvement by ensuring young people are held accountable and engaged in treatment, education, and vocational training that are more effective to get them back on the right track. This age group has the highest recidivism rate of any in the adult system and double the recidivism of similar teens in the juvenile system. Massachusetts’ youth of color bear the harshest brunt of our legal system with their over-representation in the adult criminal justice system.
An Act promoting diversion of juveniles to community supervision and services (Rep. Fluker Oakley H.1495/ Sen. Creem S.940) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-Sponsors
Expanding judicial diversion allows for a neutral party to decide if a youth and public safety are better served through alternatives to the juvenile justice system. The collateral consequences of court processing are harsh and long term. Through diversion, courts can still hold young people accountable without the risk of detention or adjudication.
An Act to Ensure Educational Rights are Upheld for Incarcerated Youth (Rep. keefe h.515/ sen. miranda s.1542) – Fact Sheet — House & Senate Co-sponsors
While Massachusetts prides itself as having one of the highest rates of educational quality and education in the nation, these rankings hide local and state failures at upholding the educational rights of all children and youth. Unlike teens in the juvenile system, school-aged youth incarcerated in adult correctional facilities do not receive the education that they are entitled to by law. Despite the role of education in lowering recidivism and helping young people reach their highest potential, only a small fraction of youth aged 18-21 with IEPs receive the special education services. Further, DOC's waiting list for educational programming is over 3,000 people long. This bill proposes systemic reforms, modeled after the Department of Youth Services' educational services, to ensure that youth are regularly engaged in education, including high school, special education, higher education, or vocational educational programs.
An Act Relative to Expungement of Juvenile and Young adult records (Rep. Decker & Khan H.1451/ Sen. Creem S.936) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate Co-Sponsors
There is overwhelming evidence that racial disparities at every stage of the legal system – from policing and profiling, court proceedings to sentencing and every stage in between. Expungement is an important tool to rectify the over-policing and disparate treatment of people of color expand eligibility for expungement. States where there are minimal administrative barriers to sealing and/or expungement of juvenile records have significantly reduced re-arrest/recidivism rates and increased college graduation and incomes as these young people transition to adulthood.
An Act to Prevent the Imposition of Mandatory Minimum Sentences Based on Juvenile Adjudications (Rep. frank moran H.1688/ Sen. Eldridge S.959) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-Sponsors
Juvenile adjudications (though legally not convictions) count towards mandatory minimum sentences in adult cases, and particularly young people in the adult system. This bill excludes juvenile cases as predicate offenses that trigger extreme mandatory minimum sentences in a future case as an adult.
An Act Relative to Safer Schools (Rep. Khan H.517/ Sen. kennedy S.300)– Fact Sheet House & Senate co-Sponsors and
An Act Relative to Location of SROs (Rep. Sabadosa H.565) – Fact Sheet – House co-Sponsors
These bills support schools seeking to transition to police-free school safety and set the guiding principle to differentiate between conduct requiring disciplinary or law enforcement responses. H.565 requires SROs be stationed off-campus while H.517/S.300 differentiate between conduct requiring disciplinary or law enforcement responses and creates a grant program, administered by DESE, to assist schools and districts to plan and implement holistic safety practices to all for their transitioning to police-free schools.
An Act to remedy disparities in students’ educational achievement (Reps. Ultrino & Meschino H.597/ Sen. Jehlen S.294) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-Sponsors
Current law allows a student charged (prior to arraignment or adjudication) with any felony to be suspended or expelled from school without the opportunity for any due process in the juvenile court. This bill preserves a child’s right to education by requiring a basic determination that the case will move forward in court and requires that the felony be a “serious violent felony” before a student is excluded from school.
An Act protecting youth during custodial interrogations (Rep. Livingstone H.1650/ Sen. Creem S.69) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-sponsors and an act ensuring integrity in juvenile interrogations (Rep. Sabadosa h.1756/ Sen. DiDomencio S.954) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-sponsors
Interrogations of adolescents by law enforcement, particularly with coercive or deceptive means, are more likely to result in false confessions and wrongful convictions, with socio-economic status and foster care involvement driving these unjust outcomes. This bill protects the constitutional rights of young people by requiring videotaping and that an attorney is present at the reading of Miranda rights and during police interrogations when a youth has a pending felony charge.
An Act Relative to Consensual Adolescent Sexual Activity (Rep. Lewis H.1617/ Sen. Rausch S.1110) – Fact Sheet – House & Senate co-Sponsors
Massachusetts is one of only three states that criminalizes consensual sexual activity between two adolescents. Most states have “Romeo and Juliet” laws to ensure that these relationships are handled by parents, not judges. This bill would create a peer exception to protect teens from criminal prosecution for consensual sexual activity with peers.
An act relative to juvenile fees, fines, and restitution (Rep. decker h.1461/ sen. gomez s.1005) – Fact Sheet — House & Senate Co-sponsors
In past sessions, the Legislature abolished monthly probation fees and legal counsel fees for juveniles. The legislation recognized that children do not control their own finances, are typically in school rather than working, and that harsh consequences for failure to pay unfairly penalized them for financial decisions that were beyond their control. National research supports the conclusion that fees imposed on children in the justice system lead to higher rates of recidivism, deeper justice system involvement, heightened racial disparities, family stress and tension, and economic hardship in families already struggling to get by. Nonetheless, Massachusetts law still permits many fines and fees to be assessed upon children. This bill will ensure Debt Free Justice for children while ensuring victims are able to access victim assistance funds.