- Charlestown State Prison is replaced by MCI-Walpole, a new modern prison. - Russell Oswald is appointed as Commissioner to lead the new correctional system. - The State Penal Code is amended to introduce reforms such as increased good time, nominal pay for inmate work, reducing restrictions on parole eligibility, elimination of solitary confinement in dark cells with a diet of bread and water, additional minimum security forestry camps, modernization of the Prison Industries system, and a new classification system.

- Commissioner Oswald leaves his post due to constant opposition and becomes the Commissioner of Corrections for New York. “Associates of Oswald said that constant opposition in some quarters to his attempts to revamp the states correctional system discouraged the commissioner, so that when the New York proposition came up he did not hesitate to accept it.”

Various American institutions, such as civil rights, women's rights, student rights, and the military-industrial complex, face challenges to their legitimacy. - The Civil Rights and the Black Power Movements challenged a range of injustices from unequal schooling to denial of the right to vote to economic and housing discrimination; with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. advocating for nonviolent direct action and Malcolm X advocating for more forceful means. - The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense is founded in Oakland, California by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. - The Civil Rights Movement had a profound effect on John Boone and the Black Power Movement had a profound effect on correctional systems. - The women’s rights movement challenged marital, economic and legal inequality, and championed birth control which was still illegal for married women in many states including Massachusetts. - Students who had championed civil rights found causes closer to home on issues such as free speech, legalization of marijuana, and opposition to the power of the Military-Industrial Complex and the Vietnam War. - 1960s - 1978: State Hospitals – move toward de-institutionalization

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a graduate of the Boston University School of Theology, is remembered for ‘non-violence’ but he did not hold with gradualism. In his Letter from Birmingham Jail, he writes “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

Malcolm X, who was once incarcerated at MCI Norfolk, urged that, if the Federal government did not assist in the civil rights work of Reverend King and James Forman, the Organization of African American Unity “will take the responsibility of slipping some brothers into that area who know what to do by any means necessary.”

- Oakland, California: “The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, who met at Merritt College in Oakland. It was a revolutionary organization with an ideology of Black nationalism, socialism, and armed self-defense, particularly against police brutality.” - Racial violence rocked cities across the country, including Boston.

In the Grove Hall section of Roxbury, four days of disturbances further highlighted the need for addressing issues of poverty and institutional racism in our own back yard. In the Grove Hall section of Roxbury, four days of disturbances further highlighted the need for addressing issues of poverty and institutional racism in our own back yard.

- The Kerner Commission laid the blame for urban unrest on poverty and institutional racism. - Frederick Wiseman’s 1968 film Titicut Follies exposed the conditions in Bridgewater State Hospital to a public which was previously ignorant of the conditions there. - The Division of Youth Services under Jerome Miller closed Training Schools which had become notorious for the abuse of youths held there. - Liberal groups, such as the Ad Hoc Committee for Prison Reform advocated for prisoners’ rights in Massachusetts prisons.

Governor Francis Sargent proposes Chapter 777 reforms that include: - Creating a statewide system of halfway houses. - Establishing of a nonprofit prison industries corporation. - Repeal the state’s 2/3 law for parole eligibility. - Improving training of correctional officers: Establish a training academy. - Increasing recruitment of Blacks and Hispanics into the DOC. - Establishing staff inmate councils. (Harvard Kennedy School Case Study, Vol I pp. 31-32.)

The Attica uprising occurs, which raises awareness of issues in the American correctional system.

The U.S House Select Committee on Crime holds five days of hearings in Washington D.C. - November 30, 1971: Corrections 71: A Citizens Report is published by Judge Harry Elam, heading up the Citizens Committee on Corrections, of the Boston Municipal Court in Massachusetts. (Boston MA: State House Library.)

John O. Boone is selected as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Correction. He was the first Black commissioner of Correction in the United states. He worked his way up in the Federal Prison system and was Superintendent of the Lorton Federal Corrections Complex in Fairfax Virginia before his appointment as Commissioner.