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MEDICAL JUSTICE ALLIANCE OF MASSACHUSETTS

The Medical Justice Alliance of Massachusetts (MJA-MA) is a state chapter of the national Medical Justice Alliance.

We are a group of 50+ healthcare providers, social workers, public health researchers, and advocates who care deeply about improving medical care and conditions of confinement for those incarcerated across the Commonwealth.

WHAT WE DO

We partner with legal advocacy groups, grassroots organizations, and incarcerated people and their loved ones to seek change through three main avenues of advocacy:

  • Case Review Panel (see below)
  • Medical affidavit writing for medical parole applications
  • Systemic advocacy on issues including heat, sanitation, and SUD/OUD issues
  • MJA-MA sign on letters and written testimony for reform bills
  • MJA-MA oral testimony at legislative hearings
  • Support hospital policies that promote rights and humane treatment of patients in custody
  • Support community clinicians to advocate on behalf of their incarcerated patients

We also operate an email list, host quarterly meetings with presentations on carceral health advocacy projects and research, and run a biweekly carceral health case review clinic in which we advise advocates on the community standard of care for medical issues that incarcerated people encounter.

If you are interested in joining or learning more about the MJA-MA chapter, please take the following steps:

  1. Submit the clinician sign-up form here and select “MJA:MA” in the Community Partner section.
  2. Reach out to Clinical Advocacy Coordinator Julia Zweifach to be added to the email listserv.

MJA-MA CASE REVIEW CLINIC

Every two weeks, MJA-MA runs a case review clinic to help advise advocates on the community standard of care so that they can best support the medical needs of incarcerated people. The goal of the clinic to create a mechanism for a panel of community-based health care providers (MJA-MA volunteers) to review clinical concerns of justice-involved people and 1) provide an opinion on how such an issue would be handled in the community and 2) whether the current treatment as documented would seem to meet the community standard of care. The purpose is not to provide direct care to anyone or to prescribe specific treatments. You can find the clinic schedule and submission deadlines for each clinic here.

If you are interested in volunteering for the clinic, please email Clinical Advocacy Coordinator Julia Zweifach. This is a flexible volunteer opportunity (most MJA-MA members will serve in the clinic a few times a year) that will likely require 2-3 hours over a two-week period.

Please feel free to submit requests for clinic support by filling in the sign-up sheet here. Depending on when you submit your request, we should be able to get back to you within a week and will follow up with any questions in the meantime.

If you are looking for support or advice regarding an incarcerated patient at your hospital, please feel free to reach out to us and we can provide you with information about the MJA-MA Case Review Clinic or refer you to a legal or grassroots advocacy organization that can assist.

Examples:

  • If you encounter patients who are either terminally ill or permanently cognitively or physically incapacitated, they may be eligible for release on medical parole (compassionate release).
  • If you encounter a patient facing end-of-life who is shackled and would like to learn more about ongoing work to amend hospital shackling policies, we can connect you to the clinicians leading this efforts.

OUR LEADERSHIP TEAM

  • Co-Director: Alice Bukhman, MD, MPH,  Mass General Brigham
  • Co-Director: Da’Marcus Baymon, MD, Mass General Brigham
  • Clinical Advocacy Coordinator: Julia Zweifach

OUR ADVISORY COMMITTEE

  • Cara Buchanan, MD, Mass General Brigham/Harvard Kennedy School
  • Deb Goldfarb, LICSW, Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Social Work
  • Monik C. Jiménez, SM, ScD, Harvard School of Public Health
  • Nicole Mushero, MD, PhD, Boston Medical Center
  • Anne Beckett, MD, Boston Medical Center
  • Caitlin Farrell, DO, MPH, Boston Medical Center
  • Mark Eisenberg, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Rachel Sweeney, MD, MPH, Brigham & Women’s Hospital
  • Benjamin Barsky, JD, MBE, Harvard School of Public Health
  • Ada Lin, JD, Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts