In 1987, Ferreira told the Globe that through Christianity, I could love for the first time.

In a way, I am as free as I will ever be, he added.

More than 35 years later, however, hes preparing to petition the state to set him free from prison.

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Governor Maura Healey said in October that her office will use new guidelines to grant pardons and commutations that favorably consider petitioners ages if they are over 50, health issues, and exceptional strides in self-development. Advocates have responded by championing lifers with similar backgrounds to Ferreira as ideal candidates for a reduced sentence.

Supporters say this small group of older lifers should be at the top of Healeys list, citing their model behavior as mentors and students and a track record of contributing positively to the community during the old furlough program.

Theres no way some of these men, who are 60, 70, 80 years old, should be in prison, said Wayne Sorel, who spends hours in conversation with inmates each week as part of his work with the prison ministry at the Christian Fellowship Center in New Bedford. Some of these crimes are very heinous, but that doesnt mean character is not built up along the way if they have the proper facilities to [rehabilitate themselves].

While there were only 24 pending applications for commutation as of last month, Massachusetts could see those numbers rise as Healey joins a national tide of governors who are beginning to embrace pardons and commutations for the first time in decades. Nearly 60 percent of the pending applications were submitted by people serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. And close to half of petitions were from people 60 and older, according to the states parole board.

About a third of all 805 people serving life without parole in Massachusetts are Black, according to Department of Correction data from late 2022. Nearly 20 percent are Hispanic, while close to 3 percent are Asian and about 1 percent are Indigenous.

Healey told the Globe her goal in revamping the eligibility requirements for commutations and pardons was to directly address issues of disparities and of systemic race bias in the system.

Weve got a lot of people who are in the system who are incarcerated, who are there because of serious issues with substance use disorder, with mental health, with trauma, she said, pointing specifically to people incarcerated for offenses they committed as young adults. We know through science now, their brain wasnt fully developed.

Youve got people whove been serving their time, who in some instances have gotten themselves further education, who are ready to contribute and want to contribute, whose families want them to contribute, she added. Lets give them that opportunity.

Ferreiras attorney, Tim Foley, said hes hopeful that Ferreiras time spent preaching and mentoring youth while on furlough will give him a better position with the board of pardons, particularly given the new guidelines focus on self-development.

Its just such a long history of being outside in the community, actually helping the community . . . and doing very well, Foley said. Hes done nothing but try to improve himself from where he was when he was first incarcerated.

Foley said he believes that commutation petitions will really pick up steam with Healeys new guidelines and become the norm rather than extraordinary. Foley said he anticipates that the Governors Council, which must approve all requests for commutation, will serve as a check and balance to the new guidelines.

The new guidelines cast a wide net in order to address long-existing inequalities, he said. However, accountability, self-development, and post-offense behavior are still balanced against the facts and circumstances of the crime.

Among the nearly two dozen people whose commutation petitions are currently pending, several acknowledged the role substance use played in their criminal behavior, while others described growing up in homes where violence and incarceration were the norm a pattern that traces the lives of many men and women who themselves are in prison for violent crimes.

Lewis Dickerson, 75, also intends to make another petition to have his life sentence for first-degree murder commuted. When Dickerson went before the Governors Advisory Board of Pardons in 2005, he told Boston Magazine that his father beat him with belts, cords, and fists before dying in a fight, and that he grew up into a young man who was periodically arrested for property crime and experimented with heroin.

His 2005 request for pardon was denied. Nearly two decades later, Dickerson, who killed a young woman during a liquor store robbery in 1975, said in an email that his years spent working outside the prison at several hospitals around the state taught him patience and discipline and matured him.

This exposure and experience, it kept me from becoming involved in the negativity of prison life and has resulted in the healthier, kinder, more generous person that I am today, he told the Globe.

At the State House, Representative Russell Holmes of Boston is the lead lawmaker pushing for the return of furloughs. In addition to filing a bill to restore the program, Holmes said he also continues to lobby Healey directly to bring the initiative back.

Ive met with the governor multiple times, and my number one ask is to begin furloughs again, Holmes previously told the Globe. Im trying my best to get folks [who are incarcerated] connected to their families again, and if I can remove any barrier to that, Im going to do it.

As someone who struggled with substance abuse for years before becoming a Christian, Sorel, the New Bedford prison ministry worker, said he knows what its like to have a bad record, and can relate to the ones . . . who care to be changed. He said any inmate who has worked consistently to grow and mature while in prison has the potential to contribute meaningfully to society upon release, as long as he has a safe place where he can go to continue rehabilitation and where people can watch out for him.

Sorel, who recently started working with Dickerson as part of his prison ministry, described Dickerson as an honorable man whose whole demeanor [is] to do everything good that he could for his community. He said Dickerson reflects often on his time spent outside the prison walls, and sees the new commutation guidelines as a potential pathway home.

The end of the furlough program shot him down and put him in a sad place, Sorel said, but now he has renewed hope.

Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this report.

Ivy Scott can be reached at ivy.scott@globe.com. Follow her @itsivyscott.

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Aging lifers in Mass. look to self-improvement as a pathway to release from prison - The Boston Globe