Who We Are
The Women and Incarceration Project (WIP) is a group of academics, attorneys, and social workers based at Suffolk University’s Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights, who came together in 2021 in response to the proposed new Massachusetts women’s prison. The WIP publishes research reports, literature reviews, and policy briefs that address the costs and harms of incarcerating women. We provide research and evidence-based insights to policy makers, community groups, journalists, and the public. Our vision is a world in which women’s human rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled, so that no one is victimized or victimizes others.
We Conduct Research in the Following Areas:
Criminalization of women; Gender issues in sentencing and appeals; Human rights; Impacts on family and community; Intersecting carceral, medical, and social welfare institutions; Prison history; Violence against women; Mental and physical health; Trauma; Racism; Drugs/substance use.
Amy Agigian, PhD
Suffolk University
Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Director of the Center for Women’s Health and Human Rights, Director of Our Bodies Ourselves Today
Kayla Bates
A PhD candidate at Northeastern University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her work focuses on the impact of trauma on those incarcerated and those who work in the correctional system.
Erin Braatz, JD, PhD
Suffolk University
Assistant Professor of Law at Suffolk University, works in the areas of criminal law and penal reform in the U.S. and internationally.
Carole Cafferty
Co-founder and co-director of The Educational Justice Institute at MIT (TEJI) and Superintendent (retired), Middlesex Sheriff’s Office. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at UML.
Rachael V. Cobb, PhD
Suffolk University
Associate Professor, Political Science and Legal Studies Department at Suffolk University. Her work focuses on public policy, election administration and political participation.
Rachel Roth, PhD
An independent researcher whose work focuses on reproductive health, rights, and justice in the United States and Ireland, including investigating prisons and criminal legal systems as sites of reproductive injustice. She is the author of the book Making Women Pay: The Hidden Costs of Fetal Rights.
Susan Sered, PhD
Suffolk University
Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Suffolk University and author of Can’t Catch a Break: Gender, Jail, Drugs, and the Limits of Personal Responsibility.
Norma Wassel, MSW, LICSW
A licensed social worker who works as a mitigation specialist on legal defense teams representing individuals in the federal and state criminal court systems.
Abby Ballou
A PhD candidate at Northeastern University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her work focuses on prison education programs and post-release labor market reentry.
Genesis Castillo
Suffolk University
Computer Science major at Suffolk University and WIP website coordinator. Her interests include leveraging technology to drive positive social change, especially for marginalized groups such as women and women of color.
Alumnae
- Kylah Clay is a Juris Doctor candidate at Suffolk Law and is concurrently studying for her Masters in Criminal Justice at Boston University.
- Ananya Dua is a student at the University of California, Berkeley interested in public policy, sociology and statistics.
- Maya Laur is a student at Brown University majoring in Modern Culture and Media. Maya helped spearhead the WIP research on county jails.
- Steven Murnane is a founding member of the Women and Incarceration Project. He has an MA in Global Public Policy from Suffolk University and works as legal assistant for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
- Kayci Resende-Abbott is a Philosophy student at Suffolk University who is interested and passionate in women’s health and the intersectionality of different identities within different communities of women.
- Cherry Russell is a founding member of the Women and Incarceration Project, she currently works as a social worker at First Church Shelter in Cambridge, MA. She holds a Master of Social Work degree from Salem State University and a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
- Rebecca Stone, PhD, is a Senior Research Associate at Justice System Partners. Formerly an Associate Professor at Suffolk University, she is engaged in community-based participatory action research with justice-involved women at the intersection of public health and criminal justice.
- Erica Taft is a dual-degree Masters of Social Work/Juris Doctorate student at Boston College.
- Elizabeth Whalley, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology and Criminology Department at Framingham State University. Her work focuses on sexual violence, institutional responses to violence, carceral feminism, and transformative justice.
- Amanda Wilhoit is a senior at Tufts University studying Community Health. Her interests include health inequities on the basis of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and incarceration.