Jody Newman and Kathy Weinman of Dwyer and Collora, LLP  accepted JALSA’s Community Leadership Award for their outstanding leadership on the issues of diversity, equal opportunity, and inclusion. Bob Turner and Georgianna Melendez accepted the special recognition of the Commonwealth Compact for its work retooling Boston into a warm and receptive place for persons of color.  The Compact is currently working with 180 companies setting out benchmarks for the measurement of improvements.

Barbara Dougan
Massachusetts Project Director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM).

Provided information on the difference between the CORI and sentencing reform bills passed in the House and the Senate.

FAMM is a non-partisan Washington, D.C. based sentencing reform organization that works to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences on the state and federal level.  On the federal level, FAMM has been one of the leading voices in the campaign to address the egregious racial disparities resulting from differing treatment of crack cocaine and powder cocaine under federal law and sentencing guidelines.  On the state level, FAMM has helped repeal draconian drug sentencing laws in many states, including Michigan, which had some of the harshest drug laws in the nation.  FAMM opened its Massachusetts office in 2008. Read more…