More than one thousand individuals are serving life sentences in Massachusetts prisons. A bill filed by state Rep. Jay Livingstone of the Back Bay would allow them to get a hearing before the Parole Board after serving 25 years. It would not guarantee that they’d be released, just that they would appear before the board.
The idea was debated at a hearing last Tuesday (Oct. 8) during which scores of people impacted by both violent crime and life sentences spoke up.
