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Deval Patrick on Crime
Democrat
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Reform mandatory sentencing law: longer time for 3rd felony
We have proposed reforms to both our Habitual Offender law and to our mandatory minimum sentencing laws to make the public safer. In the past ten years, 84 people have been convicted and sentenced under our existing Habitual Offender law for committing
three felonies. I proposed to lengthen the time before a third-time violent felon would become eligible for parole, and will support a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole for anyone whose third felony is murder or a similarly
heinous act of violence. These reforms are not about sweeping up the innocent or the unlucky. They rightly focus on the worst of those who repeatedly prey on our residents. We cannot and will not pursue a strategy that categorically rejects the proper pl
Source: Massachusetts 2012 State of the State Address
, Jan 23, 2012
Comprehensive reentry program with job training & education
Alongside our reform of the Habitual Offender rules, we must have a comprehensive reentry program. We need more education and job training, and certainly more drug treatment, in prisons and we need mandatory supervision after release.
And we must make non-violent drug offenders eligible for parole sooner. By permitting them to have supervised release after serving half their sentence, we can begin to re-integrate
400 to 500 non-violent offenders in the next year and save millions in prison costs every year.We must be smarter about how we protect public safety. That means targeting the most dangerous and damaging for the strictest sentences,
and better preparing the non-dangerous for eventual release and reintegration. We don't have to choose the one or the other, and emphasizing prison time without successful re-entry has failed.
Source: Massachusetts 2012 State of the State Address
, Jan 23, 2012
Misuse of CORI system prevents getting back on their feet
Public safety cries out for a better approach. Sentencing in the Commonwealth has become about warehousing people; and we do little to prepare the 94% of those incarcerated who will one day re-enter civic life. Once released, the misuse of the
CORI system makes it nearly impossible for some people to get work, a place to live, and back on their feet. Let's focus less on old rhetoric and more on preventing crime, and pass a meaningful, comprehensive Anti-Crime Bill.
Source: 2009 State of the State speech to Massachusetts Legislature
, Jan 1, 2009
Supports criminal rehabilitation and alternative sentencing
Indicate which principles you support regarding crime. - Support programs to provide prison inmates with vocational and job-related skills.
- Implement penalties other than incarceration for certain non-violent offenders.
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Increase state funding for community centers in areas with at-risk youth.
- Strengthen sex-offender laws.
- Allow police to ticket motorists for not wearing their safety belts, even if they have committed no other traffic violation.
Source: 2006 MA Gubernatorial National Political Awareness Test
, Nov 7, 2006
Focus on guns & gang violence, not immigration status
HEALEY: Our administration has already begun the process of training our state police officers in working with the INS so that they can, when they make a stop, determine whether somebody is in the country legally.PATRICK:
Well I think it’s a matter of priorities is what it is. The idea of training the state police so that they can recognize and do their duties, who can argue with that.
But with gun and gang violence as soaring as it is in urban communities all over the Commonwealth it seems to me that there’s a whole lot else that we ought to have the state police and all law enforcement concentrating on.
What I will do as governor is get engaged in the Congress with a balanced and rational approach advocated now on a bipartisan basis by Senator McCain and Senator Kennedy to bring some reason and some real solutions to our immigration issues.
Source: 2006 MA Gubernatorial debate on Fox News with Chris Wallace
, Sep 25, 2006
Opposes death penalty
Deval Patrick On the issues- Death penalty: Opposes
Source: Greater Boston with Emily Rooney: Election2006 Coverage
, Jun 7, 2006
Page last updated: Apr 25, 2013
