Justice Shannon Frison

I became a judge in 2009. I was 39 years old. Justice Charles Johnson was the Chief of the Boston Municipal Court when I was appointed in 2009 – He said "you can’t do the Justice Charles Johnson or the Justice Pamela Dashiell on the bench. He said I must do the Shannon Frison". I didn’t know exactly what he meant at the time, but I knew I should remember it. I didn’t know then that he was telling me not to conform. And here’s why:

In 2020, the judges in Massachusetts learned that, as a whole, we impose higher cash bail and longer prison sentences on Black and Brown people in Massachusetts.

In a Report by The Criminal Justice Policy Program at Harvard Law School, Black and Latinx people are more likely to have their cases resolved in the Massachusetts Superior Court – where I sit – and where the available sentences are longer, both because they are more likely to be charged with offenses for which the Superior Court has exclusive jurisdiction and because prosecutors are more likely to exercise their discretion to bring their cases in Superior Court instead of District Court when there is concurrent jurisdiction. Black and Latinx people charged with drug offenses and weapons offenses are more likely to be incarcerated and receive longer incarceration sentences than white people charged with the same offenses. Black and Latinx people charged with offenses carrying mandatory minimum sentences are substantially more likely to be incarcerated and receive longer sentences than white people facing the same charges.

Oh, we had anecdotal evidence before 2020. But we now have confirmation that we are creating a disparate impact in the two areas in which judges have the most discretion. Would you believe that in the present day, the Black and Brown people in Massachusetts still do not have consistent access to justice?

But I’m not a statistician or a social scientist or any other type of scorekeeper. I’m a judge. And this is happening in Massachusetts on my court. Today. Not in 1820, not some unenlightened corner of the world – but Massachusetts.

We are uniform in our bias. The judges. Our collective bias against dark skin. Conformity of thought and the subconscious.