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Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington talks about the systems her office is putting in place to address sexual assault and domestic violence and efforts at harm reduction.

DA Harrington Details Office's Work at Pittsfield Town Hall Event

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
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The town hall event in Pittsfield was on of three that the district attorney has held over the past month.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — District Attorney Andrea Harrington welcomed the community to hear about the progressive work her office has done during a town hall event at the Berkshire Athenaeum on Tuesday.

She spoke largely on violent crime and domestic violence prosecution, victims advocate services, and her approach to harm reduction in response to the opioid epidemic.

The DA visited Adams in late October and Great Barrington last week for town hall events.

Harrington's office prioritizes straying away from the "war on drugs," a phrase for the strict policing and sentencing of drug-related crimes, and instead allocates resources to address the issues that lead to substance use and solutions for users.

"We set out to transform the criminal legal system here in Berkshire County," Harrington said. "What I found as a practicing attorney here in the county is that there was a huge huge emphasis and resources devoted to what I will pejoratively call the war on drugs, and we have worked to really put resources into violent crime."

She outlined some of the recent initiatives that have supported the Berkshire District Attorney Office's mission.

In September, she expanded the Berkshire Law Enforcement Task Force to include a violent crime section. This section will zero in on sexual assaults, high-risk domestic violence, and human trafficking cases by uniting county police departments to collaborate on investigating these crimes.

There are about eight officers from across the county working on the new section of the task force and she is "very happy" with the participation she has seen.

"I've had really wonderful support from local law enforcement around our efforts to improve our investigations of violent crime," Harrington reported. "And every police chief in Berkshire County has signed [Memorandums of Understanding] with my office."

In December of last year, the DA introduced a Domestic Violence High-Risk Team that brings multiple disciplines together to strengthen social service and law enforcement responses to domestic violence.

The goal of this team is to intervene with high-risk domestic violence cases before they become deadly.  It is currently monitoring over 35 cases in the county.

There is now a Special Victim's unit in the Berkshire DA's office that has a chief and supporting prosecutor who have contact with local law enforcement officers as soon as they make contact with a victim in a sexual assault case.

"Another change that we implemented was very clear, evidence-based prosecution policy for domestic violence, so this evidence-based prosecution treats (domestic violence) cases the same way that we treat a homicide," Harrington explained.

"So with a homicide, we prosecute those cases, even though the victim is obviously not participating in the prosecution, so we treat our DV cases the same way, if we can get the evidence that we need in order to go forward on the prosecution without having testimony from the victim, that's what we do."

She spoke to the need for a new non-lethal strangulation assessment for the local law enforcement.  Reportedly, this act of violence makes a victim 750 times more likely to be murdered by their abuser.

"Strangulation is a very, very dangerous event, if somebody is strangled by their partner, they are 750 times more likely to be murdered by that partner," she explained.



"I'm going to be honest, not all of the judges here in Berkshire County recognize strangulation as the kind of meaningful and dangerous crime that it is."

When Harrington took over the office, there was not a chief of the Child Abuse Unit and there was only one prosecutor. With three prosecutors in the unit now, they have been able to achieve a lot, she said.

There is also a Spanish-speaking forensic interviewer who is trained to speak with children who are victims of crime.

Harrington also detailed her venture to Portugal to learn about its strong health care system that responded to an opioid problem with harm reduction, or reducing negative consequences associated with drug use.

By treating substance abuse as a public health issue, the country was able to lessen its impact along with drug-related crimes. Methadone clinics and mobile medical care units were amongst the strategies used.

"I asked them what they did about all the crime that comes from people who are struggling with addiction and might be seeking drugs and their response was that they don't have those types of crimes, it's been so successful, I really think there's a lot for us to learn about the Portuguese model," She said.

"The community there really reminded me of our community here, there were so many people that were social workers, going out into the streets, meeting people where they were at, helping people be safe helping people get healthy, I can really see that kind of approach being embraced here in Berkshire County."

An attendee asked Harrington how she addresses clergy abuse from Catholic church and she responded that she was "very much an advocate" for that work.  All of the district attorney offices in Western Massachusetts have a memorandum of understanding with the Springfield and Fall River dioceses that requires instances of abuse to be referred to law enforcement.

"That shouldn't have to be outlined in an MOU, but it is," she added. "That's all I can say on that topic for the time being, but there needs to be some light on the church cover-up of clergy abuse."

Another attendee was not pleased with the DA. The Hancock woman and her husband have been struggling to get a one-mile road that leads to their house snowplowed by the town.

The couple was referred to Harrington from the Hancock Selectmen and her office ultimately decided that the case was a civil matter.

Because the woman is an immigrant, she felt that the situation was handled with prejudice and was noticeably upset at Tuesday's event.

Harrington apologized that her office was not able to aid the situation.


Tags: district attorney,   town hall forum,   

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Crosby/Conte Statement of Interest Gets OK From Council

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

Architect Carl Franceschi and Superintendent Joseph Curtis address the City Council on Tuesday.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With the approval of all necessary bodies, the school district will submit a statement of interest for a combined build on the site of Crosby Elementary School.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously gave Superintendent Joseph Curtis the green light for the SOI to the Massachusetts School Building Authority by April 12.

"The statement I would make is we should have learned by our mistakes in the past," Mayor Peter Marchetti said.

"Twenty years ago, we could have built a wastewater treatment plant a lot cheaper than we could a couple of years ago and we can wait 10 years and get in line to build a new school or we can start now and, hopefully, when we get into that process and be able to do it cheaper then we can do a decade from now."

The proposal rebuilds Conte Community School and Crosby on the West Street site with shared facilities, as both have outdated campuses, insufficient layouts, and need significant repair. A rough timeline shows a feasibility study in 2026 with design and construction ranging from 2027 to 2028.

Following the SOI, the next step would be a feasibility study to determine the specific needs and parameters of the project, costing about $1.5 million and partially covered by the state. There is a potential for 80 percent reimbursement through the MSBA, who will decide on the project by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, city officials took a tour of both schools — some were shocked at the conditions students are learning in.

Silvio O. Conte Community School, built in 1974, is a 69,500 square foot open-concept facility that was popular in the 1960s and 1970s but the quad classroom layout poses educational and security risks.  John C. Crosby Elementary School, built in 1962, is about 69,800 square feet and was built as a junior high school so several aspects had to be adapted for elementary use.

Ward 6 Councilor Dina Lampiasi said the walkthrough was "striking" at points, particularly at Conte, and had her thinking there was no way she would want her child educated there. She recognized that not everyone has the ability to choose where their child goes to school and "we need to do better."

"The two facilities that we are looking at I think are a great place to start," she said.

"As the Ward 6 councilor, this is where my residents and my students are going to school so selfishly yes, I want to see this project happen but looking at how we are educating Pittsfield students, this is going to give us a big bang for our buck and it's going to help improve the educational experience of a vast group of students in our city."

During the tour, Ward 5 Councilor Patrick Kavey, saw where it could be difficult to pay attention in an open classroom with so much going on and imagined the struggle for students.

Councilor at Large Alisa Costa said, "we cannot afford not to do this" because the city needs schools that people want their children to attend.

"I know that every financial decision we make is tough but we have to figure this out. If the roof on your house were crumbling in, you'd have to figure it out and that's where we're at and we can't afford to wait any longer," she said.

"We can't afford for the sake of the children going to our schools, for the sake of our city that we want to see grow so we have to build a city where people want to go."

Councilor at Large Kathy Amuso, who served on the School Building Needs Commission for about 18 years, pointed out that the panel identified a need to address Conte in 2008.

Curtis addressed questions about the fate of Conte if the build were to happen, explaining that it could be kept as an active space for community use, house the Eagle Academy or the Adult Learning Center, or house the central offices.

School attendance zones are a point of discussion for the entire school district and for this project.

"At one time I think we had 36 school buildings and now we have essentially 12 and then it would go down again but in a thoughtful way," Curtis said.

Currently, eight attendance zones designate where a student will go to elementary school. Part of the vision is to collapse those zones into three with hopes of building a plan that incorporates partner schools in each attendance zone.

"I think that going from eight schools to three would be easier to maintain and I think it would make more sense but in order to get there we will have to build these buildings and we will have to spend money," Kavey said, hoping that the city would receive the 80 percent reimbursement it is vying for.

This plan for West Street, which is subject to change, has the potential to house grades pre-kindergarten to first grade in one school and Grades 2 to 4 in another with both having their own identities and administrations. 

The districtwide vision for middle school students is to divide all students into a grade five and six school and a grade seven and eight school to ensure equity.

"The vagueness of what that looks like is worrisome to some folks that I have talked to," Lampiasi said.

Curtis emphasized that these changes would have to be voted on by the School Committee and include public input.

"We've talked about it conceptually just to illustrate a possible grade span allocation," he said. "No decisions have been made at all by the School Committee, even the grade-span proposals."

School Committee Chair William Cameron said it is civic duty of the committee and council to move forward with the SOI.
 
He explained that when seven of the city's schools were renovated in the late 1990s, the community schools were only 25 years old and Crosby was 35 years old.  The commonwealth did not deem them to be sorely in need of renovation or replacement.
 
"Now 25 years later, Crosby is physically decrepit and an eyesore. It houses students ages three to 11 in a facility meant for use by teenagers,"
 
"Conte and Morningside opened in the mid-1970s. They were built as then state-of-the-art schools featuring large elongated rectangles of open instructional space. Over almost half a century, these physical arrangements have proven to be inadequate for teaching core academic skills effectively to students, many of whom need extra services and a distraction-free environment if they are to realize their full academic potential."
 
He said  the proposal addresses a serious problem in the "economically poorest, most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse area" of the city.
 
Cameron added that these facilities have been deemed unsatisfactory and need to be replaced as part of the project to reimagine how the city can best meet the educational needs of its students.  He said it is the local government's job to move this project forward to ensure that children learn in an environment that is conducive to their thriving academically.
 
"The process of meeting this responsibility needs to begin here tonight," he said.
 
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