I-Team: Jail time for firearms arrests

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Massachusetts boasts about its tough gun laws.  A mandatory 18 month sentence for carrying an illegal firearm.  

The 22News I-Team discovers why some people arrested for illegal guns are not serving that time.

It's an investigation we've been working on for weeks. We found out that getting arrested for an illegal firearm doesn't necessarily land you or keep you in jail.  

Our 22News I-Team investigation reveals something else.  

The Springfield police department arrested 97 people for an illegal firearm in 2011.  38 of them are currently out on the street.   

The 22News I-Team went to the Springfield police department and went through their 2011 arrest log. One man was arrested on gun charges twice in less than 2 months.  He's currently in state prison.  

The I-Team went through hundreds of court documents and crossed checked names with the state prison and local jail and the Hamden County District Attorney's office.

Of the 38 not in jail.  15 of them are out on bail, waiting for a trial and could end going to prison.  Some have served time on other charges and are out.  Some cases were dismissed or not prosecuted on the firearms charge.   Others pleaded guilty and served time on different charges or there wasn't enough evidence to.  Mark Mastroianni is the Hampden County  District Attorney.  

"There are portions of the firearms law, which includes having a firearm in your home.  Which do not carry any minimum mandatory jail time sentence", says Hampden County District Attorney Mark Mastroianni.
 
The 18 month mandatory sentence isn't for all illegal firearms charges.  It only applies to people who get caught with an illegal gun outside of their home; on them or in their car.

"Anyone we have convicted of carrying a firearm is serving the minimum mandatory, there is no way around that", says Mastroianni.

Many of the people who are convicted on firearms charges end up here at the Hampden County Correctional Facility in Ludlow.  That's when there's limited time to convince these inmates to give up the lifestyle they were used to.  
 
"We're dealing with guys when they come in, probably 25% of our guys or more they're not looking to change their life", says Ed Caisse.

Ed Caisse is a program manager at the Hampden County Correctional Center

"Gang-banging, drug dealing, carrying guns, it's what they've always done.  They have gotten involved in this lifestyle as early as 9,10,11 years old. Some of them are not interested in turning away from that criminal lifestyle", says Caisse.  

Caisse works with every inmate who is sentenced on a firearms charge.  They are considered high-risk to re-offend when they get out.  

"60% of my guys are between the ages of 17-24, about 60% of the guys are actually gang members, The sheriff was looking at what he could do more to try to reduce a lot of the gun incidents that are happening on the street", says Caisse.  

Caisse told the 22News I-Team the program is working. But it is a challenge to change that criminal thinking.  

"Some inmates are already thinking about going out to reoffend, but every one of my guys we have those conversations and I try to get to know and I can tell which one's are likely to reoffend and those are the one's I work a little harder with", says Caisse.  


Caisse says a lot of the inmates do not take gun charges seriously.  The ones that do and want to change their lives the biggest problem they run into when they get out is a lack of jobs.