Democratic Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has recommended pardons for seven residents with longstanding convictions hanging over their heads. Her office claims it makes her the first governor in 30 years to do so during their first year in office. The move requires the advice and consent of the Governor’s Council, comprised of Healey and eight representatives from across Massachusetts. In 2022, Tara Jacobs of North Adams won an upset in the Democratic primary to represent the Eighth District – Western Massachusetts – before securing the seat with a victory in the general. She’s the first woman from Berkshire County to serve on the council. Jacobs spoke with WAMC about the council’s role in the pardon process and why she supports granting clemencies.
JACOBS: We are a constitutionally created check on the Governor's office for nominees for things like judges up through to the Supreme Judicial Court, clerk magistrates, parole board, and the parole board sends forward pardons and commutations, we weigh in on those. And the list kind of goes on and on. There’re many roles in and around the judiciary that we give advice and consent to Governor's nominees on.
WAMC: Remind us- Where do you stand on the concept of pardons? This was much discussed during the campaign. but give us the breakdown of the Tara Jacobs stance on generally your approach to the question of pardons and commutations.
First off, I am so excited to see out of the gate our new governor's administration hopping right into sending pardons forward. It kind of bucks the trend of the last few administrations that have either not avail themselves of this tool or had waited until the end of their administration to do it. So, I think it speaks to, A, the courage of this of this administration, but also the values being demonstrated in real time. And I personally, my stance on pardons and commutations is that they are very important tools of our judicial system that are an inspiration, and can be an incentive for those who are incarcerated to do the work to kind of align themselves to a successful outcome on reentry. But also, it's just, it’s at its core, it's about fairness. I've talked to almost all of these pardon applicants over the last couple of days, and universally, these are people who – It may be all of them, but definitely the majority of them – these were incidences that happened in their teen years, when, as we all know, the brain is still developing impulse control and understanding consequences isn't fully developed yet. And for many of these, this is 20, 30, in one case, 50 years ago, and it's had an impact on their life ever since. It's prevented them from opportunities. In one instance, a woman I talked to, since this time when she was 17 and 19 years old and had been convicted of those felonies, she's gotten her bachelor's, her master's, she has social work practice, and this is preventing her from having as full of a practice as she can, because insurers don't want to insure her social work practice with that felony record there. And meanwhile, for 30 plus years, she's been living a life of dedication to her community and the letters of support it, demonstrate just the amazing life she's been living and all that she contributes. And to have that around your neck preventing you from living to the fullest that you can when you've demonstrated that you've really turned it around- I'm all in favor of helping support these pardons to allow for these lives to be even richer than they already are.
Looking over some of these candidates for pardon, you have examples like John Latter, who was convicted of arson in 1966 at the age of 19, and has lived with this hanging over him for a pretty incredible amount of time. What does this process taught you about the criminal legal system in Massachusetts?
I think it tells a story of how important the pardon process is and the impact it can have, because some of these people have been waiting – that instance 50 years – for clemency. In other instances, their first application request that was approved by the parole board was in the [Deval] Patrick administration, and has been lingering, waiting for attention for a decade plus, and the stories go on and on. I think with each of these cases, there's something similar where it's just the length of time and the patience. And so again, talking to these applicants has been immensely rewarding and enlightening. The patience displayed by each of these applicants and the attitude around kind of releasing control over things, recognizing this is not what they can, they can make the request but after that it's not in their hands and the way that they have sort of a philosophy of life just demonstrates the work they've done since that experience with incarceration and being sentenced, the work they've done, the inner work they've done, the therapeutic work they've done, the tools they've brought on board, the community they've surrounded themselves with so intentionally to prevent themselves from being surrounded by the kinds of influences that in their youth led to these indiscretions, but now they're living a life surrounded by, in some instances, a thriving church community, or a community of volunteers and the work that they've done. It speaks to the human side of these cases that can be just very flat when you look at just, here's what happened, here's what they were convicted of, here's the work they've done. But when you really give it that fullness of the human experience and voice to hear the impact it has had on individuals lives- The one that you mentioned from 1966 has been a nurse but moved to another state, and to get certified to continue nursing in retirement and serving community in that way, there's a barrier, because this conviction is still on the record from something that happened in 1966 in their teen years. And they've lived a life of service and success ever since, but been hampered to fully take advantage of opportunities because of it.
When you go to the governor to report back on these pardons, can you sort of break down for folks, what is that process like? What are you going to actually communicate to the governor? And when would the outcome of the decision from the board actually lead to the pardons and clemencies requested?
We've received the governor's request to grant these pardons and packets of information supporting their application. As a body, the Governor's Council will meet. A couple of our members have – one, in fact – has asked for some hearings this week for a couple of the cases that initiated in his district. I haven't seen anybody else ask for hearings yet, so they may not. And then we'll find out, probably this Wednesday, when the vote will be set. And that's just a matter of scheduling and adding to the agenda for an assembly. So, I anticipate we're going to vote on these and discuss them in the coming week or two following this week's meeting. I'm sure there will be another announcement coming from the governor to officially grant the pardons with our advice and consent on the matter.
You've centered public education about the Governor's Council as part of your efforts to represent the Berkshires on the body. What are you hoping folks takeaway from this? Again, you noted that it's somewhat rare for a governor to come out the gate in the first year and to offer a raft of pardons. What are you hoping that this experience in parts on your constituents in Western Massachusetts?
I hope more and more through the work I'm doing just to lend accountability and transparency and as the governor makes move like this one that garner public attention, that it really helps to engage Western Mass in the process. I hope to do work around that, too. And when we have nominees that are local to Western Mass, I hope to hold hearings locally that community members can attend, and if they know the person up for a judicial posting or what have you, that they will lend their voice and their experience of that person, hopefully positively. But if it's negative, the full engagement of community into the process I think will benefit all of us in the outcomes that we receive. And my goal is to be able to look back on nominees that I've voted ‘yes’ on that are going to bring a human, compassionate, fair, balanced, and an understanding of the struggle of the communities they serve, and that diversity to the bench. So, I hope to be able to look back and see that with my participation, I've helped to shift our bench to a more diverse and representative set of judges and in these other positions. And that ideally, I'm doing it in a way that people actually know, how do we get our judges, and how do we get these different roles appointed. And ideally, you've been a part in the process too.
Tara, is there anything about this I've not thought to ask you do you want to make sure folks understand?
Not necessarily about pardons, but the other thing I'm excited about is we're starting to have nominees come forward for the parole board, which has been really important focus for me and I'm excited by this week. We have a reappointment to the parole board, and then there's two openings. And I'm very much hoping to secure for Western Mass a seat at that table. The other area where I'm hoping to do that, there's going to be a retirement on the Supreme Judicial Court, and we have not had a Western Mass representative for a good long while. So, I very much hope to be able to promote Western Mass getting some representation at the SJC and have some good candidates come forward from Western Mass for that post.
