Open House Forum - Crime and Punishment

Rep. Jay Kaufman examines “Crime and Punishment, Criminal Prosecution & Crime Prevention”

June policy forum will mark 13 years of “OPEN HOUSE”

Representative Jay Kaufman’s award winning public policy forum, OPEN HOUSE, concludes its thirteenth year, discussing “Crime and Punishment, Criminal Prosecution & Crime Prevention” on Thursday, June 19, 2008, from 7:30PM-8:30PM, at the historic Depot in Lexington Center. The focus of this month will be the current status of crime in the Commonwealth. To many people, public safety is their number one concern. Are we doing enough as a society to keep people from resorting to crime?

Joining Representative Kaufman will be Tom O’Reilly, 1st Assistant District Attorney (ADA) for Middlesex County District Attorney Gerald Leone. Mr. O’Reilly has successfully litigated numerous high-profile cases for the Commonwealth, including the infamous Michael “Mucko” McDermott murder trial. Joining him is Peter Bellotti, an attorney in private practice, who was also a Middlesex County ADA and is the son of former Massachusetts Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti. Come share your ideas and get a chance to listen to both sides of the law enforcement equation.

Just who commits crime, and why?
Is the system weighted, and is there such thing as a fair trial?
How important in the process are negotiations between the prosecution and defense?
How fair for both sides is the current judicial system in our state?
Are mandatory minimum sentences effective?

Rep. Kaufman launched OPEN HOUSE shortly after taking office in 1995 to provide a forum for discussing the challenges and opportunities facing the community and Commonwealth. OPEN HOUSE has been named the best television series by the Massachusetts Cable Television Commission, and was awarded the cable industry’s Beacon Award as the nation’s best government relations series. OPEN HOUSE is produced in partnership with the Lexington Historical Society and LexMedia, and is broadcast throughout eastern Massachusetts. For more information, please call Rep. Kaufman’s State House office at 617-722-2240.