When Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced a $360 million proposal last year for prison construction at MCI-Framingham, the state’s sole women’s correctional facility, the BC Civil Rights Clinic took notice. Working with partner organization Families for Justice as Healing (FJAH), they sensed the proposal was top-down in nature, and sought to gather perspectives from people currently incarcerated there to better understand what they felt about the potential major changes.
The result of the effort was a first-of-its-kind report, authored in conjunction with FJAH, that highlighted the incarcerated women’s voices. The report, titled “Hear Our Voices: Women Inside MCI-Framingham Speak on Prison Construction” and based on the Civil Rights Clinic’s listening tour with women incarcerated at MCI-Framingham, revealed that the vast majority of women interviewed outright opposed the governor’s plan, with many calling it a waste of taxpayer money.
The report calls upon the governor and the Massachusetts Legislature to pursue policy changes suggested by incarcerated women, rather than spending on prison construction. The interviews were conducted, and the report drafted, by Civil Rights Clinic student attorneys Leah Cohen (3L), Mitchord Cope-Hobbs (2L), Devin MacGoy (2L), and Claire Wilson (2L) under the supervision of professor and clinic director Reena Parikh.
In announcing the proposed construction plan in summer 2025, Healey stated, “Massachusetts continues to lead the nation in recidivism reduction. That’s why we are seizing this opportunity to transform the country’s oldest operating women’s prison into a national model of rehabilitation and correctional innovation. This is more than an investment in a 150-year-old building. It represents an investment in people, a commitment to second chances, and a responsibility to build a safer future for communities statewide.”
The Civil Rights Clinic and FJAH noted, however, that incarcerated women at the MCI-Framingham were not previously notified, nor have they been meaningfully engaged by the administration regarding the construction-related processes since. As a result, student attorneys from BC Law’s clinic interviewed 32 women during the tour to understand their views on the prison construction plan and their own priorities in terms of how the administration can best support them.
“Incarcerated women have already testified in two consecutive legislative sessions that they support a moratorium on prison construction,” said Mallory Hanora, co-director of FJAH. “Now, 84 percent of women interviewed for this report expressed grave concerns about proceeding with the governor’s $360 million construction plan. Women know we deserve a smarter investment in our well-being. What more evidence do elected leaders need to shift course?”
On March 2, FJAH held a virtual town hall to present the report to the community, where student MacGoy shared the report’s key takeaways. “It was a challenging and deeply moving experience to get to know so many incarcerated women, their stories of loss, and their hopes for a better future for themselves and their families,” he said. “It was inspiring to see how engaged incarcerated women are in advocacy for policy reforms that will address the root causes of incarceration and promote healing, and it was an honor to be a part of uplifting their voices.”
The report describes four main takeaways from the clinic’s conversations with incarcerated women.
First, the $360 million would be better spent on measures that address the root causes of incarceration and to help women reenter the community after release. Second, a reported culture of negligence, humiliation, and collective punishment at MCI-Framingham will not be remedied by new construction. Third, there is a desire for more job training, education, and healing programming while incarcerated. Fourth, to the extent that physical repairs are necessary, there must be transparency and public accountability in the process to avoid hazardous conditions.
Incarcerated women highlighted the need for more pathways to release for the most vulnerable among them, like elder parole and resentencing for survivors of abuse. One incarcerated woman said, “It feels like we are being set up to fail.” Another woman quoted in the report reflected, “This is no way to live; it would be more humane to offer people a way out. Everything goes on without you. You die a little every day.”
Commenting on the initiative, Parikh said that the clinic’s listening tour with women at MCI-Framingham highlighted the importance of centering the lived experiences and opinions of incarcerated women themselves before undertaking any project aimed at improving prison conditions. “It was so illuminating for me and my students to learn what priorities the women had in terms of how resources should be spent for them, and we hope their voices are heard by the administration and lawmakers,” she noted.
The report has resonated deeply with formerly incarcerated women who survived incarceration at MCI-Framingham and also oppose the governor’s construction plan. “We are the experts. We are the ones who lived through it, and we continue to struggle with that pain,” said Angelia Jefferson, a staff person at FJAH who served 31 years in prison at MCI-Framingham. “I want my sisters to inherit opportunity, not obstacles. I want them to be able to walk into a world that sees their brilliance, not just their past mistakes.”