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
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.
Rachael V. Cobb, PhD
Suffolk University
Associate Professor and Chair, 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.
Rebecca Stone, PhD
Suffolk University
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Suffolk University and is engaged in community-based participatory action research with justice-involved women at the intersection of public health and criminal justice.
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.
Steven Murnane Jr
Suffolk University
A Political Science student at Suffolk University who is passionate about criminal justice and fighting systemic inequities, and is involved in the public policy process at the State House and the City of Boston.
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.
- 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.
- 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.