A UMass Chan Medical School research initiative has received $600,000 in funding from National Institute of Justice to investigate the prison classification system through an equity lens.
Spencer Lawson, a senior researcher in UMass Chan’s law and psychiatry program, is the principal investigator on the project and the recipient of the grant, which will be given over a four-year period, according to a Thursday announcement from UMass Chan.
The project through the NIJ will aim to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the prison classification system and is in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Correction and Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. The classification system determines custody level for incarcerated individuals, as well as facility assignments.
“What we hope to get out of this project is a very tangible product that can not only benefit the Massachusetts Department of Correction, but other correctional administrators across the country,” Lawson said in the announcement. “One of our big goals is the development of the toolkit that instructs correctional administrators on how to look at their own classification system with an equity lens, including what are the best practices for forming a diversity, equity and inclusion advisory board that’s comprised of justice scholars and individuals with lived experience in the criminal legal system.”
Lawson and the research team will visit prisons throughout Massachusttes to pinpoint areas for improvement in the classification system. The findings will be shared with systems nationally.
