Medford Human Rights Commission

May 13, 2015

Present: Chief Leo Sacco, Marie Cassidy, Dale Bryan, Judy Kaplan, David Harris, Muhammad
Chowdhury, Charlotte Swartz and Diane McLeod ex officio
Not present: Lois Bronnenkant
Introductions
Public Participation
None
Minutes
Marie motioned to accept the April minutes, Judy seconded, all in favor.
New Business
Strategic Plan
Dale noted the 2013 strategic plan can be refocused, but everyone should review it for the June
meeting. Its something we can work on over the next year. Diane will resend it to everyone
along with the draft Annual Report for comment.
Diane noted the Open Meeting Law information from last months discussion. All members can
meet together socially, but cannot discuss business if there is a quorum of members present.
This holds true for email discussion. It is a violation to comment on items on line.
Old Business
Mass Incarceration in Massachusetts
The Chief said a clearinghouse on local data does not exist. Each facility has to be contacted
individually to get local data. The Middlesex House of Correction has 31 Medford residents and
there are 13 at jail awaiting trial. There are 183 on probation and 93 are pretrial, and 90 are risk
need (if you slip up you go to jail).
David thought that North Eastern University may have justice mapping by town.
Some of the issues discussed were; what is the racial breakdown on arrests, women being sent
to pretrial holding at Framingham, what the impact of a local forum would actually be if there
are jail and sentencing discrepancies, bringing communities together to better communicate
with police, and how families are affected, especially if the mother is being detained.

David mentioned the CORI issue, and that there are justice forums going on everywhere on a
weekly basis. Muhammad asked what Medford police are doing to be proactive and what are
the issues they are facing? The Chief felt direct officer input would be valuable to answer that.
David mentioned the possibility of taking the schools out of the plan including police and public
safety. He also mentioned that we could serve as the incubator for these issues. Diane noted
that Medford Health Matters has recently taken that approach and found it to be a useful
model.
Dale mentioned the MLK Day discussion on transition to adults as the youth were interested in
getting parents involved. He also mentioned having community conversations. Dale asked that
we all think about strategic plan objectives for June. He also noted that there can be allies for
possible funding of some projects.
Correspondence & Announcements
None
Motion to adjourn by Charlotte, seconded by the Muhammad, all in favor. Meeting adjourned at
6:50PM.
Next meeting date - June 10, 2015