News  Pre-trial efforts support criminal justice reform

Text messaging reduces failures to appear and MassHealth coverage closes health-care gap for justice involved individuals

The Criminal Justice Reform Act of 2018 set ambitious goals and principles related to sentencing and the length of probation terms to prevent people from becoming entrenched in the criminal justice system. Two efforts underway by Probation’s Pretrial Services Unit support the Act’s intent to improve access to justice by reducing racial and ethnic disparities and to eliminate barriers to health care services.

The Trial Court’s Interactive Text Response Program is designed to reduce the number of warrants issued for “failure to appear” cases and reduce pretrial detention. This service, which alerts court users of upcoming court dates, shows promising results.

Between January and November, more than 242,000 text messages were delivered to court users. The Department of Research and Planning (DRAP) analyzed certain events in the Boston Municipal Court and District Court Departments. They found that only 11 percent of the group that received the reminders failed to appear for their court event compared to 14 percent of the group who did not receive text reminders. The failure to appear rate for pretrial hearings was consistently lower for the text reminder group regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, or offense severity. The three percent difference represents approximately 465 failures to appear avoided.

MassHealth closes health-care gap

In addition, MPS recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with MassHealth that permits Probation staff to become Certified Application Counselors (CACs). This builds on the reentry partnership, Behavioral Health for the Justice Involved, created by Probation and MassHealth to extend critical services to the pretrial population.

As CACs, MPS Pretrial Services Operations Coordinators, as well as Program Managers at the Community Justice Support Centers, will assist individuals seeking to enroll in MassHealth with the application process. Through this initiative, behavioral health and standard health care will be offered via MassHealth healthcare coverage.

“Text messaging helps court-involved individuals stay on track and avoid being drawn further into the system,” said MPS Deputy Commissioner for Pretrial Services Pamerson Ifill. “The MassHealth initiative expands health coverage for all justice-involved individuals and their families, increasing treatment options. Healthcare access plays a vital role in MPS efforts to address the physical and emotional well-being of probationers and support positive change.”