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Berkshire DA Responds To Citizen Collected Court Data

Two white women sit at a wooden table in a book-lined room.
Josh Landes
/
WAMC
Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington (L), meet with Massachusetts State Auditor Suzanne Bump (R) at the Berkshire DA's office in Pittsfield in January.

Last week, a citizen driven data collection group called Berkshire County CourtWatch issued a preliminary report on criminal justice trends as observed by volunteers over around 300 hearings at the Southern Berkshires District Court in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Now, District Attorney Andrea Harrington is sharing her perspective on the findings, including a sharp uptick in pretrial dangerousness hearings. Harrington, who made transparency a key part of her 2018 campaign, spoke with WAMC about what discrepancies she says she found in the CourtWatch report, and the system she inherited back in January.

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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