Former Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections Kathleen Dennehy pounced on the Boston Herald at a seminar on prison issues at Suffolk Law School Tuesday night before a packed room.
The seminar was a panel discussion on life sentences without parole sponsored by the Criminal Justice Policy Coalition. During the course of the two-hour event the panelists each made telling points about glaring deficiencies in the criminal justice system, focusing attention on shortcomings of sentencing policy.
Dennehy, now working on a doctorate in social policy at Brandeis University, was a career employee of the Department of Corrections. She started managing records at Walpole in 1976 and rose to head the department..
During the panel discussion, Dennehy fielded two questions from the audience before other members could react. An Episcopalian minister asked if there was political will for prison reform. Unhesitatingly Dennehy snapped back, “Absolutely not.” Dennehy said any prison or sentencing reform would only come from budget pressure and that there was no political will for reform in the Massachusetts legislature.
When moderator Eric Tennen announced the last question, a man in the front row asked what was the media role in the problem. Dennehy shouted out, “I’ll take that question,” and then chastised the news media for sensationalism in reporting.
Dennehy announced she was going to name the worst media offender in the state. As all eyes and ears concentrated on Dennehy she declared the Boston Herald to be “totally irresponsible” as other panelists nodded in agreement or chuckled at her candor.
Not finished, Dennehy then named talk show host Howie Carr as part of the problem as well. Laughing, Dennehy recalled a conversation she once had with Carr.
“I’ll never forget when Howie Carr told me he was not a journalist, he was an entertainer.”
Dennehy was also critical of mandatory sentencing which fills prisons with drug offenders and the lack of treatment programs for prisoners. She said she favored life without parole sentences because she felt the alternative would only be capital punishment given the current sensationalized mood of the legislature.
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