Abolitionist organizations in Massachusetts gathered outside of Boston’s HDR Inc. on Sept. 14 to protest the state’s plan to build a new $50 million women’s prison.
HDR is the multi-billion dollar architecture and design firm hired to design and build the new prison. When their involvement was first announced, the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls and Families for Justice as Healing (FJAH), along with other allied groups, called for the company’s immediate withdrawal from all corrections contracts in an open letter to the firm.
Currently, HDR has already designed more than 275 prisons and jails across the United States. Amid growing community opposition, the firm has yet to respond to the letter.
“They do not communicate with us at all,” said Sashi James, co-director of FJAH and director of Reimagining Communities at the National Council. James is the daughter of formerly incarcerated parents. Her mother, a former criminal defense attorney, founded both FJAH and the National Council.
“If you’re building all of these prisons and people are calling you out, you should come to the table and have a conversation,” James said.
James first helped organize a march in Massachusetts four years ago, when plans for the new prison were announced.
“By the time we got to Cambridge, we had over 400 people walking with us,” James recalled. “It was the most beautiful walk. It was peaceful. We fed people, we listened to music, we supported one another, and we built a powerhouse in Massachusetts.”
The organization’s focus has since shifted to legislative solutions under the “FreeHer” campaign, which focuses on decarceration in the six New England states. In a continued attempt to urge legislators to back and pass a prison moratorium in Massachusetts, Saturday’s march ended at the state house.
The prison moratorium act, Bill H.1795, which was previously passed in the state house before being vetoed by former Gov. Charlie Baker in 2022, would create a five-year pause on the construction and expansion of Massachusetts prisons and jails.
While Massachusetts has the lowest female incarceration rate in the United States, it is also home to the oldest prison for women in the nation. MCI-Framingham, built in 1877, houses about 200 female inmates.
With James’s help, more than 20 women currently incarcerated in MCI-Framingham were able to testify virtually at a state house hearing last June in support of the moratorium. All of the women who testified are currently serving a life sentence.
The state published its plan to replace older prisons, such as MCI-Framingham, using a “trauma-informed design” in their construction of the new prison. Abolitionists believe the idea of a prison with trauma-informed design is inherently contradictory.
“The prison is the trauma,” said 29-year-old Olivia Poulin, a proud supporter of FJAH, who collaborates with the organization in a consultant capacity. “Whenever we remove someone from the community, we’re severing families. It’s really insulting to say that they could ever build a trauma-informed prison.”
FJAH believes in community driven solutions over incarceration. The $50 million could be invested in the local community instead, Poulin said.
“We have so many folks who are struggling with addiction that could go into treatment, that could go into education … We could develop all of these programs and create all of these infrastructures for our community to support itself,” Poulin said. “Communities know what they need and there is no way that incarceration could ever be part of that equation.”
Without an extra $50 million, the organization’s current work focuses on local efforts to support women and families directly impacted by incarceration. Their food justice work, for example, includes a community fridge outside of their office and a hydroponic farm in Roxbury.
Their programs focus on uplifting the most heavily incarcerated corridors in the Commonwealth and range from women’s brunches, to sound healing sessions, and license preparation classes.
Though it’s been an uphill battle for Poulin, her involvement with the campaign has been joyful work. “When folks come together there’s such palpable joy in seeing our power demonstrated,” she said.
Visibility is a key factor in the campaign’s mission.
“The function of incarceration is rendering folks voiceless and faceless,” Poulin continued, “but as long as we’re out there making noise, we won’t let that happen.”
Forty other states have recently introduced plans to construct a new women’s prison. James believes Massachusetts could be a model.
“The state does not have to be the response to everything,” she said. “I think the power is always in the people.”
“Imagine what it looked like if Massachusetts took the lead to say, you know what? We’re not going to do that. We’re going to invest in the people,” she continued. “We could be a model. We say we’re progressive. That’s progress.”
