A lot has changed in the last three decades: hairstyles, technology, popular music. Another change? There’s been a move – especially since the start of the failed war on drugs, also in the early 1980s – for criminal law reform. Over-incarceration, glaring racial disparities in our […]

Before we launched this public education campaign, we polled voters to find out how much they knew about district attorneys. The results were informative: Half of the registered voters believed district attorneys have only a minor […]

Suffering from addiction is not a crime. Yet, the Boston Globe recently reported that “a high percentage of people suffering from addiction end up incarcerated, and about two thirds of [people who are incarcerated] have a substance use disorder.”

First and foremost, addiction is a […]

From slavery to Jim Crow laws and the so-called “war on drugs,” this country has long used forms of social control to oppress people of color, particularly Black, Latinx and Native Americans.

While police make arrests, district attorneys wield

On Thursday, June 7 at the historic Hibernian Hall in the heart of Roxbury, the What a Difference a DA Makes public education campaign will host the first of many district attorney candidate debates.

The race for the Suffolk County District Attorney has generated significant […]

Imagine it’s Friday evening and you’re arrested on your way home. You spend the weekend in the police station. On Monday, the assistant district attorney asks the Court to set your bail at $500. The Judge agrees. You don’t have $500, so you spend the […]