Prison advocates, attorneys and state officials are gearing up to help the estimated 200 prisoners now eligible for parole since a landmark decision last week by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court raised the minimum age to 21 before people could be sentenced to life without parole.
The Committee for Public Counsel Services, the state’s public defender agency, says it is working with the Parole Board to identify prisoners who are newly eligible to be considered for release as the agency prepares at least 40 attorneys to represent them.
Those jailhouse lawyers are going to spread the word on this like wildfire, and inmates will be filing handwritten habeas corpus petitions by the ream if have to. Don’t have to worry about that. Of course thinking about it, I imagine this is not going to affect very many inmates. Hopefully their computer system can tell who they are.