I became involved working with inmates quite by accident. One day, a colleague asked me to meet with a woman incarcerated at MCI Framingham. I was really scared to go inside a prison but, in the end, it was not at all like I expected. The inmates were all dressed in sweat suits and bright white Keds style sneakers. The visiting room was open and bright and there was a play section with toys off to one side. Some of the inmates walked puppies on leashes. I felt more like I was in a college dorm than in a prison.
When I met with the client, she was pleasant and polite. She didn’t proclaim innocence or make excuses. She fully accepted her situation and understood she had made poor choices. She was about my age. She was a mom, She had been involved with bad guys. Her life had been a lot like mine. Meeting this client changed my life and made me realize how, if not for a few different choices, she and I could be on opposite sides of the visitation table.
Since that day, I began doing more work with inmates and working to change the outcome of those incarcerated. Eventually, my work with inmates led me to pursue a Master’s degree in criminal justice. I studied recidivism, prison programs, and the epidemic of suicides in prisons; of both inmates and correctional officers. I finished my MA from UMass Lowell in 2014.
Since finishing my degree in criminal justice, I have been working toward prison reform. My goal is to overhaul the entire Massachusetts correctional system; making the system better for inmates, officers, communities as well as all the other stakeholders in the system. In my spare time, I am working toward a Master’s Degree in the Public Policy department from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth – and running for Sheriff of Middlesex County (the first woman ever to even run for this office)
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