"I know we can have safer neighborhoods. But it will take more community-based patrols, after-school and enrichment programs, summer job and volunteer opportunities for young people, training and pre-release preparation for inmates, and sensible reform of both CORI and sentencing. Let's reach for that." -Governor Deval Patrick, Inaugural Address (Jan 4, 2007)

DOC Mission Statement: The Massachusetts Department of Correction's mission is to promote public safety by incarcerating offenders while providing opportunities for participation in effective programming designed to reduce recidivism.

You'd think with statements like these, we'd have no work to do. We're still waiting for any of Patrick's ideas and the major aspects of the DOC's mission to be implemented so that we can actually have those safe neighborhoods we deserve and they promise. Unfortunately, many of Patrick's budget cuts have targeted the very measures that would create safer neighborhoods such as reentry programs and treatment for the mentally ill. But the DOC still has money to bring on a hundred or so new recruits every few months, and with an annual budget of $549 million, a mere $1.2 million for FY 2009 designated for reentry programs for 11,000 prisoners ($109.09 per prisoner), that bloated budget sure isn't going toward public safety. The budget for "re-entry programs at the department of corrections intended to reduce recidivism rates" is being reduced to $794,745 for FY2010, which is an investment of a whopping $69.10 per prisoner per year to reduce recidivism required to ensure the public is safe.

Our Mission Statement

End the Odds Coalition is a collaboration of community activists, prisoners, ex-prisoners, and parolees working to change the culture of the Massachusetts prison system. Our mission is to "promote a humane culture in Massachusetts prisons and jails whereby all involved—prisoners and staff—can realize their full human potential and responsibility so that persons confined to prison and those returning to the community will be provided the necessary tools for leading productive, meaningful lives."

Our goal is to “end the odds” that a person released from prison will recidivate because he or she is ill prepared to reenter society based on what did and did not take place in prison. For this reason, we focus on addressing the corrections system and not the schools that fail our kids or the police who arrest them, two very serious issues but not within our purview.

Coalition Team:
Nancy Ahmadifar
Mel King
Nesto Monell
Karen Spence
And others...