Project Directors: Erika Kates, Ph.D.
Funder: The Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation

The Massachusetts Women’s Justice Network (MWJN) will continue and extend the work of two previous Shaw-funded initiatives: the Women in Prison Coalition (2009-2010), identifying promising gender-responsive, community-based programs for women offenders in Massachusetts, and the Reentry and Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) project (2010-2011), exploring alternatives to incarceration for women in Massachusetts. The current project will create a Massachusetts Women’s Justice Network to implement the recommendations of the 2011 report, and develop a model program for women at risk of involvement in the criminal justice system. The MWJN will continue the Wellesley Centers for Women tradition of undertaking action-oriented research designed to improve women's lives, by highlighting the continuing inequities affecting women offenders, building a broad constituency of support for justice concerns, and exploring alternative, more cost-effective approaches to incarceration. The MWJN will draw on the knowledge and expert support gained through previous projects and work towards establishing a MWJN Center that will move its current resources and activities to the next level.