INITIATIVES AND POLICIES

Intervention and Prevention
The Suffolk DA’s office is building partnerships with community, mental health and civic organizations to focus on intervention with at-risk individuals and prevention of crime. Some of our partners include North Suffolk Mental Health, Project R.I.G.H.T., Communities for Restorative Justice, Roca, La Colaborativa, the South End Forum, the Ella J. Baker House and numerous faith-based organizations. We seek to work with all of our community groups and members in a transparent way toward making streets and neighborhoods safer for all.  
Diversion
The Suffolk DA’s office emphasizes non-prosecution and diversion whenever possible.  We seek to avoid getting anyone involved in the court system unless their actions demand it.  We consider prosecutions on a case-by-case basis focused on the people involved and their needs, without a formulaic approach to certain charges. This provides the ability to holistically evaluate individual actions and individual needs. 
Specialty Courts
The Suffolk DA’s office uses an array of specialty courts for targeted support in its diversion, pre- or post-arraignment, and post-disposition programming. Recognizing the success of unique problem-solving strategies for different circumstances and categories of cases, the Suffolk DA’s office has assigned specially-trained staff to several specialty courts throughout the county. These specialized sessions help vulnerable populations comply with treatment plans, maintain sobriety, and resolve their low-level cases with intervention rather than incarceration.
  • Mental Health Court
  • Drug Court
  • Homeless Court
  • Boston Veterans Treatment Court
Firearm Rapid Indictment Program
DA Hayden has made reducing gun crimes a top priority of his administration.  In February 2022 he launched the Firearm Rapid Indictment Program to expedite cases involving serious firearm offenses.  The Rapid Indictment Program uses two dedicated prosecutors and two grand juries to expedite the entry of serious gun cases into Superior Court.  This helps achieve speedier dispositions.  
The Boston FIRST Task Force 
Announced in May 2022 by DA Hayden and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Firearm Intelligence Review Shooter Targeting (FIRST) task force is a first-in-New England partnership between ATF, a state prosecutor’s office and the local police focusing on gun traffickers.  The program uses a national ballistics database to determine if guns and ammunition used in crimes in Suffolk County are connected to other crimes across the country.  The objective of the program is to identify and successfully investigate shooters and firearm traffickers impacting Boston to reduce the levels of gun violence in the city. 
Programming for Returning Citizens 
Citizens returning to our communities need and deserve an opportunity to succeed without re-engaging in the activity that resulted in their incarceration. This requires a dedication of assistance, resources, and opportunities along a continuum from the very start of the incarceration period through and beyond re-entry into the community. DA Hayden in May created a Community Engagement/Strategic Partnerships Unit and hired both a Director and Deputy Director with extensive backgrounds and experience in the re-entry and restorative justice fields. While their duties and responsibilities will be much broader in scope than re-entry, their expertise will be immeasurable and demonstrates SCDAO’s commitment to this important endeavor going forward.
Police and Prosecutor Accountability and Transparency 
Every citizen of Suffolk County deserves to be safe in their home, their school, their neighborhood and their workplace.  Public safety agencies are essential in assuring this safety.  Those agencies, including police and prosecutors, must act in a transparent and unbiased manner, providing equal application of the law to every citizen regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preference, religion or beliefs.  The Suffolk DA’s Integrity Review Bureau ensures accountability through four program areas: Case Integrity, Conviction Integrity, Sentencing Integrity and the Law Enforcement Automatic Discovery (LEAD) database. 
The Services Over Sentences (SOS) program and Mass and Cass 
DA Hayden recently announced $400,000 in funding for an expansion of the Services Over Sentences (SOS) program targeted at helping vulnerable individuals who reside in and around the Mass and Cass section of Boston.  The appropriation comes from the office’s Asset Forfeiture Fund, which is made up of assets seized from drug dealers.  DA Hayden called the expenditure “a fitting use of assets seized from drug dealers to directly address the most visible and problematic drug-related geographic area in Massachusetts today.” The SOS program, run in conjunction with North Suffolk Mental Health Association, is available in all courts, and will work with program participants at Mass and Cass and elsewhere on establishing a source of income, ensuring safe and stable housing, developing skills and educational training, ensuring access to healthy food and access to healthcare, detox and sobriety services.  The program will help identify and treat the factors involved in bringing individuals into the Mass and Cass area with the goal of providing them the support to leave it.
Suffolk Restorative Justice Program 
The Suffolk Restorative Justice (SRJ) program is a pilot initiative in Chelsea District Court and the Roxbury and Charlestown divisions of the Boston Municipal Court. Restorative justice is a voluntary, inclusive, confidential and collaborative process by which offenders, victims and members of the community identify and address harms, as well as any needs and obligations resulting from an offense, to help all parties understand the impact of that offense. During the restorative justice process the offender accepts responsibility for their actions and is supported in making reparations to the victim or community harmed. Restorative justice is an essential component to allow for community healing and restoration.