CourtWatchMA

Fascism is here and yet we insist on continuing to make things. Keep creating. It's so important. Do not let the fascists colonize your imagination or curtail your creativity.

That's why these are important cases to watch
bsky.app/profile/cour...

If the person misses a court date because they are in federal custody, not only do judges issue a default warrant, they can also forfeit the bail already paid due to non-appearance.

Then the court system keeps the money.

There is supposed to be a willfulness standard. Judges don't always honor it.

Months ago, a 13 year old was brought to a Massachusetts police department after an incident at school. He was whisked away by ICE even though his mother was sitting in the building. Taken across state lines and pressured to “self deport”. A child.
open.substack.com/pub/ruthzaka...

And it becomes a sensitive question whether to try to get the money back. Because once the person is in immigration detention, then the unpaid bail would return to being a state court hold, and could delay the person's release if they end up getting a bond or being released from immigration court.

Definitely feels like that to families! When bails are paid on nights or weekends at jails, families can't immediately get the money back. The bail commissioner or clerk magistrate leaves, and then they'll have to take time off work to go to court during business hours to try to get the money back.

Just when you think you have a handle on how cruel and capricious this regime is, you find out that families are paying bail on family members only to see them delivered directly into ICE custody.

this is how i witnessed an ICE kidnapping in western mass, i paid a $250 bail for a woman accused of trespassing (right...) and ICE snatched her as soon as we got out the door

It’s almost like they think their decision are neutral.

Read more about the cases at the SJC:

www.ma-appellatecourts.org/docket/SJC-1...

www.ma-appellatecourts.org/docket/SJC-1...

How ridiculous to issue a warrant, setting up a future arrest or longer jail hold, because someone is already in jail. These warrants clog the system and bar releases.

That issue is at the Supreme Judicial Court this term in a pair of cases.

Failure to appear is supposed to be a willful standard. Judges should only issue a warrant when someone is intentionally evading prosecution. Not when a rogue federal government abducts the person and detains them elsewhere!

Katy Naples-Mitchell, program director of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, has reviewed Dankoff’s data and called it “unsurprising.” Naples-Mitchell spends time as a pro bono attorney at South Bay Jail, aka Suffolk House of Correction. She was conducting an unrelated legal visit on a recent Friday when a family walked in to pay bail for a family member, and were given a receipt by the clerk magistrate.

“Their loved one never came out. Because instead, ICE had been alerted by the jail that this person was releasable, and so immediately upon the bail having been paid— making the person released from state custody— ICE enacted their federal detainer, and took the person into federal custody,” she said. The family, she said, told her the woman who was detained had a green card with no active order of removal. “ICE enacted their federal detainer. Instead — they were disappeared behind the jail,” she said.

People are being disappeared from Massachusetts jails

People have been disappeared from MA jails for years. This isn't new.

It's just happening more often to more categories of people.

When presumed-innocent people are kidnapped by ICE after loved ones post bail, state court judges issue warrants for "failure to apoear" -- that is also violence.

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

"Stephen Majeski, a deportation officer with ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, requested a 'list of all sentenced inmates in the facility.' ... 12 minutes later, Elizabeth Conley, chief administrative assistant at Suffolk County sheriff’s office, provided the list in an attachment."

On April 14, a deportation officer with ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, requested a “list of all sentenced inmates” from Suffolk County sheriff’s office. He got the list 12 minutes later. 
www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

Funny how something ONLY becomes a “national embarrassment” when the spotlight hits it. Folks in Boston/Mass act shocked like this hasn’t been happening HERE for years.

I’ve been warning about Dems’ cozy, decades-long relationship with ICE.

This isn’t new. It’s just FINALLY convenient to report.🤷🏾‍♂️

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

“Are we okay having our local justice agencies, being complicit with the federal immigration crackdown?” #mapoli

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

Records show that state and local law enforcement in #Massachusetts, including the Suffolk County and Hampden County district attorney's offices, are sharing information with ICE to assist with deportations.

#mapoli #Boston

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

“Are we okay having our local justice agencies, being complicit with the federal immigration crackdown?” #mapoli

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

"So when people say our police department doesn’t work with ICE, that’s just not true. There’s no city in the country where they would never work with ICE"

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

Neighborhood groups call for shift in tactics at Mass. and Cass amid ongoing public health crisis - The Boston Globe The proposal calls for ramped-up enforcement at the troubled intersection and drew swift criticism from public health experts.

“Criminalization of drug use and harassment of outreach workers does nothing to move people toward recovery, and creates additional barriers to housing that just increases the chances of a fatal overdose.” @maapmass.bsky.social #bospoli
www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/18/m...

Wu on the end of Mass. and Cass jail court: ‘We need to keep doing better’ The special court, referred to as a 'Community Response Session,' ran for three weeks, in parallel with former acting Mayor Kim Janey’s executive order to clear all tents near Melnea Cass Boulevard an...

What will be different this time?

We are not brand new, and neither is this proposed policy intervention. #bospoli #mapoli

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

‘Specialty court’ aimed at diversion proposed for Mass. and Cass Plan to reduce open drug use at the areas at the intersection of South End, Roxbury, and South Boston would involve a tougher approach, but there are no cost estimates yet.

Ah, yes. Jail court 2.0: now with less jail?

That was the pitch the first time around, too. Diversion. Forced or coerced treatment not proven to work.

And we know many many people processed through the jail court at South Bay in 2021 still ended up in jail. #bospoli

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2...

The inhumane treatment of immigration detainees requires more coverage | Press Watch The glimpses we’ve gotten justify a lot more reporting

Why does someone who overstayed their visa need to be held in shackles? Does any child belong in a prison camp? Does anybody deserve to be underfed, or brutalized, or denied medical care? presswatchers.org/2026/02/the-...

In addition to everything Dan suggests, I would like to see coverage that not just uses the term "concentration camps" but also puts what we are seeing in the historical context of past camps. There are parallels to prior regimes that should be covered so people understand the threat of this moment.

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show In one instance, a sheriff's office sent an entire list of sentenced individuals just 12 minutes after ICE requested the information.

“I do not know if a detainer has already been lodged. I want to provide the latest information about his new plea hearing date in hopes that ICE can make an arrest,” a Hampden county assistant DA wrote to a deportation officer.

www.wgbh.org/news/local/2... @gbhnews.bsky.social

YouTube video by BINJ Check our new feature on the media's inaccurate coverage of #parole in #massachusetts at BINJ.news

Check out @binjreports.bsky.social with Chris Faraone-- more about parole and how poorly reported it is in the media!

Seriously, do civilized societies put people who have not committed a crime in jail cells, simply for a lack of beds and desire not see them in public spaces?

Are we leaving "best practices" up to a highly vocal right-leaning mob and right-leaning electeds?

I do get that there are legit concerns.

What do Boston's most vocal voices re. Mass & Cass have in common?

Seemingly no professional experience in public health, homelessness or recovery.

Just supreme confidence in detox and incarceration (at any cost). The "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" club. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/18/m...