At Issue & In Focus

National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Wednesday, January 11^th has been proclaimed as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Human trafficking is one of the most egregious human rights violations we see. It is a heinous crime of exploitation that involves forcing people to work for others for profit, whether through traditional types of labor or sexual exploitation.  Victims are men, women, and children from our state, our country, and across the globe.  Experts estimate that world-wide, 27 million people are trafficked annually bringing in $32 billion dollars. It is the fastest growing and second largest black market.

This past year, our office worked with legislators to enact a law that makes human trafficking a felony in our state and creates services for victims. The passage of this law has given us some important tools to combat trafficking, but more work needs to be done. To that end, we are beginning the work of our state wide task force made up of government and non-profit agencies to examine and address all aspects of trafficking.

Everyone has something to offer in the fight against human trafficking. Hospital, hotel, and transportation staff are in a unique position to identify victims.  Educators and parents can encourage prevention and internet safety education. Today, everyone can take a moment to learn about the signs and consequences of human trafficking and all that we can do to prevent this exploitation.

To learn more about human trafficking and what you can do, visit the Attorney General’s website.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This abuse can happen to anyone, regardless of race, sexual orientation, or gender and the effects can impact many aspects of someone’s well-being. The consequences of this violence bring forth concerns for victims with regards to their health, homes, and financial security when they try to leave their abuser.

Help is available. Our office can provide assistance for victims with many of these issues.   For general concerns please contact our Office at (617) 727-2200.

For specific health insurance concerns, the Insurance & Health Care Consumer Helpline is (888) 830-6277

To receive assistance with consumer issues, our Public Inquiry & Assistance Center Hotline number is (617) 727-8400. Operators are available from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Alternatively you may file consumer complaints via email any day at any time by completing our Consumer Complaint form 

For information about our Victim Compensation and Assistance Division please click here or call (617) 727-2200 ext.2160

From September 2010 through August 2011 our Office responded to 206 domestic violence victim compensation claims and provided over $658,410.71 in compensation to victims.

If you or someone you know needs immediate help, please contact SafeLink at 1-877-785-2020. SafeLink is a 24-hour, free and multi-lingual hotline for programs in Massachusetts. An advocate can talk with you about your needs and help you identify appropriate resources.

June is Internet Safety Month: Internet Safety Tips for Kids

The internet is a great resource for communicating with friends and family, finding information and having fun. It is also important to stay safe when online via a computer, cell phone or gaming system.  Keep these safety tips in mind when you are online, and share them with a young person who may benefit from them.

Online Safety
Unfortunately, kids have been tricked online by people who pretend to be something that they're not.  Some kids have found themselves in dangerous situations when they agreed to meet the mysterious online "friend" in person.  To protect yourself online, never give out personal information, remember that people online may not be who they say they are, and do not meet with anyone or have them visit you without talking to your parents first.  Always talk to your parents or another trusted adult if you are contacted by a stranger or you encounter anything online that makes you feel uncomfortable or scared.

Text Messages
It is also important to think before you text. Once you send a text message or a photo, even to a friend, you can’t take it back and you never know who might forward it.  Prevent embarrassing moments by thinking twice before you send or text anything that you might regret.

Cyber Bullying
Cyber Bullying may include sending hurtful, hateful, derogatory, harassing or threatening messages to others, spreading rumors, or sending personal or embarrassing information about or pictures of others – all with the intention of intimidating, frightening, ridiculing, or harming someone else.  If you are being bullied online, the best way to handle it is don’t reply or forward the message and ignore, block, or “unfriend” whoever is bullying you online. Tell a parent or trusted adult if you are being bullied online.

Keep Your Privacy
To protect your privacy, check with your parents before you create any personal profile because that information could be used for reasons you might not like.  Choose a screen name or email account name that isn't your real name and don’t share your passwords with anyone except your parents. Never reply to any email that asks for your personal information. Some emails may look official, as if it was sent by your Internet provider, but it's actually a trick to get your personal info.

For more information, visit the Cyber Crime and Internet Safety portion of our website.
 
For more cyber safety tips for kids of all ages, visit http://www.nsteens.org/.

Tornado and Storm Recovery

As residents and affected communities begin to work to repair the damage from the aftermath of the tornadoes that swept through the region, the Attorney General’s Office offers information and guidance to consumers for dealing with disaster recovery and home repair:

Keeping your Identity Safe:

If you experienced significant home damage due to tornadoes, you may have lost paperwork or material that includes your personal identifiable information.  If you can, it is important to monitor your credit and bank accounts for fraudulent activity at this time.  If you think you may have become a victim of ID theft, you have rights under Massachusetts law and you may request a credit freeze or fraud alert. 

Read our tips for ID theft victims.

More information on requesting a security freeze or fraud alert.

Homeowners Insurance:

Most standard homeowner policies cover damage from windstorms including tornadoes.  For most of these policies, you will also pay an out of pocket deductible.  The amount you pay should be listed in your policy. For more information about the types of policies and more coverage details.

If you experience damage to your home, report the loss to your agent or insurer as soon as possible. If you need assistance in determining whether you have applicable insurance coverage, or if you believe your agent or insurance company misrepresented to you the extent of your coverage or the availability of insurance protections, you can contact Attorney General’s Consumer Hotline at (617) 727-8400.

Auto Insurance: 

Not all auto insurance policies will cover damage to your vehicle from a tornado.  Damage will be covered if you have included comprehensive coverage in your policy.  Comprehensive insurance covers damage to your car if it is damaged by anything outside of an accident, such as fallen trees and debris damage.  The coverage pays to fix your vehicle minus a deductible.  The deductible will be listed in your policy.

For more information about auto insurance.

If you experience damage to your vehicle, report the loss to your agent or insurer as soon as possible. If you need assistance in determining whether you have applicable insurance coverage, or if you believe your agent or insurance company misrepresented to you the extent of your coverage or the availability of insurance protections, you can contact Attorney General’s Consumer Hotline at (617) 727-8400. 

 

Home Improvement Contractors: 

Here are some tips that can help you select a contractor to conduct repairs on your home:

• Make sure that the person you are dealing with is a licensed contractor affiliated with a legitimate business. If you have access to a computer, you can verify a home improvement contractor’s registration online on the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation’s website: http://db.state.ma.us/homeimprovement/licenseelist.asp
• You should not pay more than one third the cost of the project at the inception of the contract, with another third due half way through the project and the balance paid when the work is completed to your satisfaction. 
• Be wary of a contractor who demands full payment up front.  A reputable contractor should allow you to pay upon completion of the job, or at most, require a reasonable portion of the payment upon signing the contract and the remainder when the job is done. 
• For more tips to help select a home contractor.

 

More Resources:

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a website with comprehensive information about disaster recovery and consumer information relative to last week’s tornadoes. Click here to visit the state’s storm recovery site. (http://www.mass.gov/stormrecovery)

Massachusetts residents in need of emergency assistance are urged to contact the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, at 508-820-2000, or 800-982-6846.

To check the history of a business or to file a complaint about a scam, the Attorney General’s Office urges you to contact its consumer hotline at (617) 727-8400 or file a complaint online at www.mass.gov/ago/consumercomplaint.

National Crime Victims Week and Victim Rights Week

The Attorney General’s office is commemorating National Crime Victims Week and Victim Rights Week April 10, 2011 through April 16, 2011. Our office is committed to advancing the rights of victims. We serve and support victims and witnesses in a variety of ways, including advocacy, financial and resource assistance, and achieving policies that positively impact victims lives.

Staff at the Attorney General’s Office assist victims in understanding their rights as a crime victim, determining what expenses may be eligible for compensation, and assessing what other resources are available to assist them. Additionally, we often assign advocates to work with victims throughout investigations and prosecutions.

Using funds obtained from perpetrators, the Attorney General’s Office can often provide financial assistance to eligible victims of violent crime or their families. This assistance may be used for mental health counseling, other medical care, funeral and burial costs, and other expenses. Last year, the Office successfully advocated for reforms and updates to the guidelines around victim compensation which has made financial assistance available for a wider range of needs, including crime scene cleanup and security measures such as changing locks on a door.

The Office also supports policies and legislation which support victims, including our proposed Human Trafficking bill and Melissa’s Bill. Additionally, we support this legislation designed to ensure that murder victims families are not re-victimized by the perpetrator while grieving. 

If you or a loved one has been the victim of violent crime, please contact us for further assistance at (617) 963-2160, or learn more online.

Staff from the Attorney General’s office will attend and participate in the 2011 Massachusetts Victim Rights Event Tuesday, April 12th, entitled: Shaping the Future Honoring the Past: Seeking Healing Through Justice. This annual event is open to the public and is attended by hundreds of crime victims, survivors, criminal justice and victim services professionals, legislators and agency leaders from across the Commonwealth. To register for the 2011 Victim Rights Event, please visit the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance (MOVA) website at www.mass.gov/mova or call MOVA at 617-727-5200.

Love Shouldn’t Hurt

As we honor the 16^th anniversary of Teen Dating Awareness Month, it has become apparent that it is more important than ever to organize and get the word out that love shouldn’t hurt. 

According to the National Resource Center for Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, one in 10 teens have been physically harmed by their boyfriend or girlfriend and twenty-five percent of sixth grade students (average age of 11 or 12) think it is okay to hit their girlfriend. One in five female college students will be sexually assaulted by the person they are in a romantic relationship with. 

Many teens stay in abusive relationships because they are afraid to speak up. To learn more about organizing a local information group, joining a support group or for information on how to enlist your school in this campaign against violence, visit www.teendvmonth.org.

AG Coakley Announces Legislative Agenda

Attorney General Martha Coakley today announced the filing of nine bills as a part of her legislative agenda. The series of bills seek to better protect public safety, combat fraud and corruption, and address the foreclosure crisis in Massachusetts. The bills include legislation that would establish standards and require banks to engage in loan modifications when they are financially beneficial to the bank before foreclosing on a property.  The AG’s Office also filed comprehensive human trafficking legislation that would establish human trafficking for sexual servitude or labor as a crime in Massachusetts, one of only five states in the country without human trafficking laws. Additionally, the AG’s Office filed comprehensive economic crime legislation designed to give law enforcement the necessary tools to investigate and prosecute sophisticated criminal activities and enterprises in the 21^st century.  Other bills filed relate to drug trafficking in methamphetamine, corporate manslaughter, dissemination of harmful materials to minors, manufactured housing, metals dealing, and the failure to have workers’ compensation insurance.  To see the full press release, click here.

Lead Paint Safety in Massachusetts

The Attorney General’s Office Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention grant program, which concluded last month, supported public health programs across the Commonwealth in their efforts to provide lead poisoning education, outreach and testing to underserved populations statewide. Using funding from a national, multi-state settlement agreement with Mattel, Inc., and its subsidiary, Fisher-Price, Inc, the AGO awarded $433,000 to nine public health programs across the Commonwealth to provide education, outreach and testing to underserved populations.

Overall, the grantees distributed more than 15,000 pieces of educational material to families and individuals at risk for lead poisoning. Over 4,000 people learned about the affects of lead poisoning and how to protect children and others. The AGO grantees also participated in 230 different health fairs and education sessions over the course of the year. In addition, the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupation Safety and Health (MassCOSH) co-produced a play exposing the dangers of lead poisoning for day laborers and their families. The program was a onetime funding opportunity, but for the AGO and our community partners, the work goes on.

In addition to education and prevention, the AGO continues to prosecute lead paint violations, largely arising from the discriminatory refusal of landlords to rent an apartment to families with children. 

To learn more about the AGO grantees visit the AGO website. For more information on childhood lead paint testing and activities as part of the Massachusetts Lead Poisoning Prevention week, visit the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.

Innovative Approaches to Law Enforcement: An Outsiders View Inside South Bay

Contributed by an Intern with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office Public Justice Fellowship Program

For the first session of the Attorney General’s Public Justice Fellowship program, I was assigned to the the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. Millions of thoughts were flowing through my head while I waited patiently in the lobby of South Bay Correctional Center.  

I have two brothers behind bars here; will they use that against me? I know so many people here; could I say what’s up to those I grew up with; will I be penalized for doing so?

My nerves made me over think, but despite my thoughts, I was cool. I arrived early, so when 9 0’clock struck I was ready to go in. I placed my bag in a locker and had my hand stamped in order to go back where the inmates were. I was excited to get started.

During my first week, I shadowed people like Anne Nee, True-See Allah, and Joe Crosby. They gave me a basic outlook of the facility and showed me around. I ate cafeteria food made by inmates, which was not as tasty as I would’ve liked. The week became more interesting when I started working in Records. I was assigned to search inmate files and reduce their sentence on document according to their “goodtime”. Goodtime is reduced sentence time given to inmates when they take classes or work for the facility under staff supervision.

My first week wrapped up pretty good and I was anxious to get started on my second week.

Week two was a little more comfortable and exciting. I saw firsthand the selection process amongst the submitted applications for work at the Sheriff’s Department. My supervisor for the day made me, as an intern, feel like an employee. I filed the names of applicants in the file room, and recorded record why specific applicants were denied. The women I was working with took good care of me. They brought me food and I gracefully ate with them. We laughed, joked, and we conversed about things deemed unnecessary elsewhere. My supervisor kept me for the whole week because she requested to “steal” me after my work with her on Monday. My time at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department was one to remember. 

Next week, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office…

Saluting Our Everyday Patriots

Submitted by Attorney General Martha Coakley, the former Middlesex District Attorney and current Attorney General of the Commonwealth

I was juror #6 on panel #20 with eighty other prospective jurors on a Friday in June at the Middlesex Superior Court in Woburn.

Greeting court officers with whom I worked as an Assistant District Attorney and District Attorney for over 20 years, I took my seat for the instructions and introductions given to all members of the jury pool.

By 10 o’clock, we had gone upstairs to Courtroom 570.  After many questions to us, Judge Fahey started to seat jurors in the box.  Seats one, two and three were filled.  My number was called next.  At sidebar, I told all parties and the Judge that I had no knowledge of the pending criminal case, and had not formed an opinion, but that I did know the prosecutor and several of the witnesses.  Although I was ready to serve, the judge found that it would not be appropriate to seat me as a juror in this case.

I was reminded that day of the hundreds of citizens who are called to serve and who do serve every day on our trial juries and grand juries.  Usually anonymously, our citizens give their time, judgment, and opinions to follow the facts and apply the law in countless investigations and trials across the Commonwealth.

With our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the right to a “jury of peers” has had a tremendous impact on both prosecutors, who must prove a case beyond reasonable doubt, and on defendants, whose right to be presumed innocent must be protected.  Often, a case may plea right before empanelment, but only because jurors are there.  We balance free press and fair trial. We sequester juries and we ask them to review often disturbing evidence, particularly in violent cases. 

For all of its imperfections, our jury system works only because of the engagement and participation of those who serve in our juries.

I have represented the Commonwealth and victims of crimes before juries for many years as a prosecutor. It is often a difficult experience to those victims, defendants, and their families who must put their lives in the hands of a group of fellow citizens whom they have never met. But I have always been impressed at the thoughtfulness, intelligence, and sense of responsibility that jurors feel to listen impartially to the evidence and render a fair and just verdict.  It is a living testament to the spirit our Constitution’s framers felt when they guaranteed the right to a jury trial for all of our citizens. 

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, "I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution."

As we commemorate July 4th, as we celebrate Mr. Jefferson’s and our country’s great Declaration of Independence, and as we pray for our troops to be safe at home and overseas, we also should salute those everyday citizens who demonstrate their patriotism by serving as jurors to safeguard our democracy.