These organizations focus on different aspects of the criminal justice system in Massachusetts and/or its impact on people.
ABCD Health Service
Provides the people of the Commonwealth with affordable medical health services especially
women, children, and the disabled. Provides educational resources about illnesses through community outreach programs.
ACLU of Massachusetts
Works daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Advocates, Inc.
Help people with psychiatric illness, chemical dependency, developmental disabilities, or other problems in living. Provide community-centered services that empower people to deal effectively with their difficulties.
Aid to Inmate Mothers- Boston Chapter
Provides services to incarcerated women to enhance personal growth and strengthen the bonds between inmate mothers and their children through social rehabilitation classes, Project Reconnect, and the Story Book program.
City Mission Society of Boston
City Mission Society speaks prophetically regarding the issues impacting Boston and beyond by
means of education, advocacy, and direct service. It provides service and service opportunities in partnership with individuals, churches, and other organizations to foster social justice.
Community Change
Promotes racial justice and equity by challenging systemic racism. Acts as a catalyst for anti-racist action and learning. Educates public policymakers about institutional racism and its public policy implications.
Community Resources for Justice
A direct service agency, it works with individuals in, or at risk of being in, the adult or juvenile justice systems; individuals transitioning out of these systems back to their communities; and individuals with developmental disabilities requiring intensive support to be part of the community.
Crime and Justice Institute
A subdivision of the Community Resources for Justice, it is nonprofit agency that provides nonpartisan consulting, policy analysis, and research services to improve public safety throughout the country. It works with a diverse group of practitioners and policymakers, including corrections officials, police, courts, and political and community leaders. The primary goal is to make criminal and juvenile justice systems more efficient and cost-effective to promote accountability for achieving better outcomes.
Join Together
Join Together, founded in 1991, supports nationwide community-based efforts to take action to reduce, prevent, and treat substance misuse and addiction issues. Join Together Online is a comprehensive network of website services providing news articles, resources and online tools, including
www.alcoholscreening.org.
League of Women Voters of Massachusetts
The LWV encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. The Administration of Justice Committee of the Massachusetts League leads statewide justice advocacy efforts for over 50 local leagues.
The Lionheart Foundation
Provides men and women in prison with rehabilitation and change through reading in the organization’s National Emotional Literacy Project for Prisoners. Provides rehabilitation and effective prevention for at-risk youth through its National Emotional Literacy Project for Youth At-Risk.
Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services
Provides civil legal assistance to poor people incarcerated in Massachusetts prisons and
jails. Focuses on health and mental health care, guard-on-prisoner violence, physical conditions of confinement, and segregation/isolation through administrative advocacy, legislative advocacy, and litigation.
Massachusetts Human Service Coalition
Promotes having a caring and compassionate Commonwealth that meets all the basic human needs of all of its residents. Informs and unifies the many diverse elements of the human services and progressive advocacy communities to present a clear message on social needs to our legislators, policy makers, the media, and the general public.
Massachusetts Public Health Association
Seeks through advocacy, education, coalition building, and organized action to improve the
public's health. Promotes the establishment of health care as a human right, and secure optimal community, personal, and environmental health.
Mental Health & Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts, Inc.
MHSACM promotes community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment services for individuals in need, and advocates for appropriate public policy, programming, and adequate funding by working closely with the state and federal government.
Mental Health Legal Advisors
Secures and protects the legal rights of persons involved in mental health and retardation
programs in Massachusetts. Ensures that the rights granted are implemented and
that services that they are entitled to are actually delivered.
Middlesex County Prison Coordinating Committee
Faith based organization founded in 1982 which works with the administration and staff of
the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office to support rehabilitative programs at the Billerica House of Corrections and the Cambridge Jail.
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Massachusetts
Provides support, education, and advocacy for the mentally ill and their families. Also
provides research and services and education for all professionals, providers, and the general public about the mentally ill.
National Association of Social Workers, Massachusetts Chapter
Promotes the advancement of professional social work practice. Advocates for all who are
denied equal people under the law. Advocates human rights, social and economic justice, and unimpeded access to services all.
Partakers, Inc.
Dedicated to reconciliation between prisoners and society. Advocates for sensible humane
environment within prisons. Helps prisoners obtain college degrees through encouraging citizens to provide support to individual prisoners.
Self Esteem Boston Educational Institute
Provides essential skill-based self-esteem education to high-risk, underserved populations and the professionals who serve them. Teaches essential skills to the staffs of employment, healthcare, and government services.
Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry
Works in low-income neighborhoods of Boston to provide education and skills that would
enable people to overcome poverty. Educates the affluent about the nature of new urban poverty to involve other communities in reforming society.