On August 20, 2020, CPCS and MACDL submitted an amicus brief to the SJC in Commonwealth v. Dinkins, the parole board’s regulation which makes it so people serving life sentences are “paroled” to any consecutive sentence, rather than having their parole eligibility periods aggregated to one date on which they have a true parole hearing that might actually result in their release into the community. When the Board denies non-aggregated “parole” to lifers with consecutive sentences, it indefinitely defers their true parole eligibility date, extending their incarceration. As the brief explains, this system makes zero sense. Instead, their parole eligibility periods for all of their sentences should be aggregated, and they should have true parole hearings that might result in their release. Read the full brief below.
To view/download full text of the brief click the image below
