MCI-Concord, a medium security men’s prison, is closing in June. This is great news. There will be substantial savings, including nearly $16 million in operating costs. Repairs to this prison would have cost $190 million.

MCI-Cedar Junction closed seven months ago. The closures are linked to a decline in prison population, down 45% since 2012. The savings should be used for justice reinvestment: education and re-entry programs for those who are incarcerated, restorative justice and investments in those communities especially hard hit by the war on drugs.

It is also looking less likely that a new women’s prison will be built. There is some political opposition to the jail and prison building moratorium that the Joint Judicial Committee will be deciding on shortly. Anti-prison activists will continue advocating strenuously for alternatives to incarceration. The Healey-Driscoll fiscal year 2025 budget proposal includes “making the necessary investments in housing, education, climate, transit and workforce development.”

Although not linked directly to preventing incarceration, there is potential for what prison abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “life-affirming institutions” instead of prisons, to promote productive lives, free of violence. Massachusetts has been a national leader in decarceration, beginning with legislation passed under former Gov. Deval Patrick followed by improvements under the 2018 Criminal Justice Reform Act.

Complex challenges and barriers persist. For example, the rate of incarceration has dropped half as much for people of color as for whites. Grassroots groups have stepped up, largely run by formerly incarcerated people. They are influencing public policy and improving lives.

Ellen Miller-Mack

Hadley