The Massachusetts Experience: A Historical Review of Reform in The Department of Youth Services

Governor Weld ran his 1990 and 1994 gubernatorial campaigns on a "no new taxes" pledge and a tough-on-crime stance. His campaign slogan on crime was "to reintroduce inmates to the joys of busting rocks," believing that prison should be "a tour through the circles of hell." His tailoring of this message for juvenile offenders was reflected in legislation he filed each year that would automatically transfer juveniles charged with murder and other violent offenses to adult court. He was routinely rebuffed by the legislature, which from the Miller years on, expressed its confidence in juvenile judges and DYS by rejecting the scores of bills that would give original jurisdiction to the adult court over any juvenile. Even during the rebuilding years when the reputation of DYS had been tarnished, the legislature steadfastly held the line against all automatic waiver bills. Judges who had the authority to transfer exercised it liberally to protest the inadequacies of DYS. In 1975, when judicial frustration with DYS peaked, 126 youth were transferred to adult court. In 1984, after DYS had opened most of the secure beds the Harshbarger Report called for, only 14 youths were sent to the adult venue. Transfers remained relatively constant into the 1990s, averaging between 13 and 15 annually. The governor and a handful of district attorneys, who usually placed inexperienced or "over the hill" assistants in what was pejoratively referred to as "kiddie court," used the low number of transfer hearings as evidence that Massachusetts transfer laws were archaic and ignored the judges' track record for transfers in the 1970s. Governor Weld, a politically savvy officeholder, knew how to run with an exceptional offense to campaign for his anticrime legislation. An ardent proponent of the death penalty, he used the rare death of a police officer to resurrect his perennially filed death penalty bill. So, too, with the automatic waiver to adult court for juveniles between ages 14 and 17. In the summer of 1995, he was given a poster boy for his automatic waiver cause. Edward O'Brien, a cherubic looking 15-year-old altar boy from Somerville, a blue-collar suburb of Boston, was charged in the brutal slaying (97 stab wounds) of his best friend's mother and family neighbor. Middlesex County District Attorney Thomas Reilly, also a champion for automatic waiver for juveniles charged with serious crimes, decided to prosecute O'Brien himself during the transfer hearing. District Court Judg