Madden, the Republican chairman of the Texas House of Representatives' Corrections Committee, was the featured speaker Wednesday at the annual breakfast of Roca, a non-profit Chelsea group that works to prevent youth crime.
BOSTON - Rep. Jerry Madden, the Republican chairman of the Texas House of Representatives’ Corrections Committee, advised Massachusetts officials Wednesday to have a clearer goal in mind if they hope to reform the state’s corrections system.
In an address to civic leaders at the annual Roca breakfast Wednesday, Madden, who has led his state’s own prison reform efforts, recommended that lawmakers rely more on data and less on emotions when considering criminal justice and correction issues.
Texas Rep. Jerry Madden speech
“You have to have a pretty good idea of well ‘what’s the real goal here?’ And ours was ‘don’t build new prisons’ because they cost too much. I suspect that’s part of the similar goal for Massachusetts that they cost a lot of money and that there would be better utilization of their money,” Madden said.
Patrick administration Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan spoke with Madden after his address and later told the News Service the Texas lawmaker laid out some interesting ideas to think about.
“We have the wrong people sometimes in the wrong beds. We need to do something around mandatory minimum drug sentencing reform so that we are able to provide treatment for people that need it and also incarcerate the worst of the worst which is incorporated in our habitual offender reform legislation,” Heffernan said.
Heffernan said she is “following the goings-on of the [habitual offender bill] conference committee” and believes Patrick’s proposal provides both public safety and reforms.
“So we can do both. We can have good public safety but also use our resource dollars in a smarter way that doesn’t compromise public safety and make sure we do the right thing around corrections,” Heffernan said.
Reaction from Mass. legislators
Roca was founded in Chelsea in 1988 to help the most disenfranchised and disconnected youth in and around Boston. The target group consists of inner-city people aged 17 through 24 who are unemployed and are considered unemployable. Once accepted, they receive education and training and, eventually, jobs. They also do community service.
Roca, which means rock in Spanish, seeks to give young people a foundation of skills that they can use to build upon.
In 2008, the agency teamed with the Hampden County Sheriff's Department to open a Springfield-area branch.