Page 10 - BusinessWest July 21, 2021
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  CONGRATULATIONS, ANTHONY GULLUNI
Hampden District Attorney and 2021 40 Under Forty Alumni Achievement Award finalist
“Do everything in earnest. If it is worth doing, then do it with all your might.”
—Robert Murray M’Cheyne
It’s all about results.
marketmentors.com
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Anthony Gulluni
Hampden County District Attorney
It’s called the Emerging Adult Court of Hope, or EACH for short. The court, blueprinted by Hampden County District Attorney
Anthony Gulluni in partnership with Springfield District Court and the Massachusetts-based youth-justice nonprofit Roca, is one of very few in the country to focus specifically on high-risk young adults typi- cally aged 18 to 25.
same as it is for adults — break the cycle of crime and incarceration that has ruined so many lives by intervening and putting them on the path to not just a job, but a career.
“These are young people who are start- ing off 100 steps behind, really at birth,” Gulluni told BusinessWest. “They are born into really poor situations, disadvantaged situations with poor role models around them ... they never get off on the right foot in school, they’re not supported, they’re not enriched, they’re not resourced, and they end up committing crimes.”
EACH is just one of the number of new programs, initiatives, and events launched by Gulluni and his office since he pre- vailed in the race for Hampden County DA in 2015, a lengthy list that easily explains why the judges made him a finalist for the 2021 Alumni Achievement Award. Others include:
• A Cold Case Unit that has experienced
a number of successes, including an arrest
and later a guilty plea to first-degree murder
in the 1992 slaying of Lisa Ziegert and, more
recently, what amounted to a deathbed
near-confession on the part of defrocked Catholic priest Richard Lavigne in the death of Chicopee altar boy Daniel Croteau (Lavigne died before he was set to be charged with the crime);
• The Hampden County Addiction Task Force, a collaboration of com-
15 PM
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“These are young people who are starting off 100 steps behind, really at birth. They are born into really poor situations, disadvantaged situations with poor role models around them ...
they never get off on the right foot in school, they’re not supported, they’re
not enriched, they’re not resourced, and they end up
           ”
 committing crimes.
  10
JULY 21, 2021
FEATURE
Staff Photo
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