Dear Governor Patrick,<\/p>\n
It with sadness and deep concern for our Commonwealth that I write this letter today. I serve as the minister of the Community Church of Boston, a 90-year peace and justice congregation rooted in the city of Boston. Your choice, this past week, to overhaul the parole system in the way that you have is going to be devastating to the livelihood of my congregation. <\/p>\n
It is without a doubt that the current parole system needs to be investigated and radically transformed. However, that radical transformation should be opposite from what you have done. It is a necessity, for the betterment of our Commonwealth, that more people are eligible for and granted parole, not less. This is deeply personal to the people in my congregation. There are those of us who are formerly incarcerated people and those of us who have loved ones who are serving time. We also have nearly a dozen members of the congregation who are currently incarcerated, individuals who are part of our essential prison ministry. When you make sweeping changes that drastically impact our community, we need to be involved in the decision-making. <\/p>\n
One of our members, Stephen Metcalf, who is incarcerated in Gardner, wrote an article entitled, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Case Against Parole.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His argument is very different from yours. He is familiar with the system as he is directly impacted by it. He suggests that, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153parole is so defective and bureaucratically dysfunctional that it should be disbanded. The millions of dollars freed up will be infinitely better spent on \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcpresumptive probation.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This concept, presumptive probation would best serve all of us. All prisoners, all people incarcerated, need to live with the hope of returning back to their loved ones. All of us on the outside must be prepared for the challenges and joys of getting our loved ones returned to us. If you want to radically transform parole, make it so that all prisoners are given the resources they need to return back into their communities. <\/p>\n
The death of Woburn police officer John Maguire is a deep, deep tragedy and my heartfelt condolences and prayers go to his family. A life taken can never be given back and what Dominic Cinelli did is inexcusable and seemingly unforgivable, his own death in the shootout is also a tragedy. However, this great loss is not the time to create more loss in the lives of tens of thousands of other people across the Commonwealth. Our prisons are desperately overcrowded and the individuals locked up in them are regularly denied the humanity and services they are entitled to as people in our Commonwealth. None of us wish to be defined as whole beings by single moments in our lives, we are all deeply complex with inherent worth and dignity, worthy of a community that will nurture us and hold us accountable to our shared values. <\/p>\n
At this time, Governor Patrick, I hope that you will reconsider the action you have taken. Radically transform the parole system, but do so by releasing more people with greater support systems back into our communities, not fewer. My congregation will be there to help in this process and I know there are many others willing to step up as well. Please, sir, do not let tragedy foster injustice.<\/p>\n
In Faith,<\/p>\n
Rev. Jason M. Lydon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Governor Patrick, It with sadness and deep concern for our Commonwealth that I write this letter today. I serve as the minister of the Community Church of Boston, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}