DA Prosecution Data for Expungement Project

Sana Fadel filed this request with the Middlesex County District Attorney's Office of Middlesex County, MA.
Submitted Feb. 24, 2021
Est. Completion None
Status
Fix Required

From: Sana Fadel

Subject: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: DA Prosecution Data for Expungement Project

Email


To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, I hereby request the following records:

This request is made on behalf of Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ). This is a follow up request to one we made in March 2020, which is attached to this email. Given the Covid-19 pandemic, we did not follow up on our initial request. Recently, we were pleased to find the public access data provided here: https://www.middlesexda.com/public-information/pages/prosecution-data-and-statistics. This is an updated request based on the public data.

CfJJ--along with the Clean Slate team from Code for Boston--is working to estimate the number of individuals who are currently eligible for expungement of their records, how many may be eligible once the meet the waiting period criteria, and how many are potentially eligible if expungement criteria were changed in various ways.

We appreciate the effort taken to prepare public use data, and this data set has been useful in our work. We recognize that, even with perfect and complete data from a particular district and over a defined time period, we cannot fully determine expungement eligibility, since there may be older or more recent offenses not included, or offenses in other districts. However, additional data elements would make the data set more useful for estimating the number of individuals eligible in Middlesex.

Because this is sensitive information, we have provided a few options for how this could be shared. We will respect these data and would allow access to the most identified data--for example, date of birth--only to a data analyst who will process and anonymize the data to the extent possible.

Age at offense. Options include:
*Date of birth. We can then calculate age using the date of offense.
*Age in years.
*Binary: over/under 21.
Anonymized individual ID. This is necessary in order to count how many offenses and cases an individual has. Options:
*Anonymized individual ID generated by Middlesex.
*Individual identifiers such as name or date of birth.
Sentencing information:
*Sentence Recommended
*Sentence Type
*Sentence Description
*Indicator of felony / misdemeanor. Variable name “Code Ucc Ctgry” in some other DAs.

The public use data set covers approximately 2014-2020. Updated data for this same time period may reveal updates to dispositions or sentencing, as well as capture any additional charges.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Sana Fadel

From: Middlesex County District Attorney's Office

Subject: RE: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: DA Prosecution Data for Expungement Project

Email

Good afternoon,

This office has been in contact with CfJJ directly and have scheduled a meeting to discuss this request next Wednesday.

Meghan Kelly
Chief of Administration
Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan
Meghan.Kelly@state.ma.us<mailto:Meghan.Kelly@state.ma.us>
Office: 781-897-8340
Cell: 857-270-0559

Follow District Attorney Marian Ryan:
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From: Middlesex County District Attorney's Office

Subject: RE: Massachusetts Public Records Law Request: DA Prosecution Data for Expungement Project

Email

Good Afternoon:

Please be advised that this Office’s response to the below referenced request was provided on 3/29/2022 directly to the requester. Attached are the response email as well as the response letter provided on that date.

Sincerely,

Daniel M. DeBlander
Assistant District Attorney
Middlesex District Attorney’s Office
15 Commonwealth Avenue
Woburn, MA 01801