On Sept. 14, a dozen Wellesley students attended the #FreeHer March in downtown Framingham. The march was organized by Families for Justice as Healing, a local Greater Boston community organization dedicated to ending the incarceration of women and girls. Through coordinating vans from civic engagement for students, members of Wellesley’s Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) club were able to make the trip to stand in solidarity with incarcerated women and girls.
Community members marched from downtown Framingham to MCI (Massachusetts Correctional Institute) Framingham, the site of one of this country’s oldest women’s prisons, to protest Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey’s plan to spend $360 million on the prison construction that does not end the cycle of trauma perpetuated in women’s prisons.
“Walking past the prison was humbling and made the inhumanity of incarceration feel immediate. It also showed how powerful it is when formerly incarcerated women lead and allies come together,” shared Sanna Walker ’26, co-president of YDSA.
Framingham has its own history of disinvestment, and the positionality of a women’s prison in the town of Framingham, compared to an elite historically women’s private college in the neighboring town of Wellesley, is interesting and poignant.
As shared by Abigail Kubena ’26, co-president of YDSA, “This prison plan is a women’s issue and part of a broader moral crisis of mass incarceration. Showing up was our way of standing against injustice and living our values as engaged community members. Framingham is so close to Wellesley, both the town and the college, yet we live in a completely different world than the residents of MCI Framingham.”
YDSA knows that Wellesley students care about how policies affect people’s lives and believe real solidarity means showing up alongside those directly impacted.
“Understanding and recognizing where we fit in the geographic region and the space we take up while we are attending Wellesley is incredibly important. Our presence here doesn’t exist without context, and as such, showing up to address the injustice that MCI Framingham, and its potential new iteration, represents is incredibly important,” explained Sinead O’Sullivan ’28, treasurer of YDSA.
Attending Wellesley can leave some students feeling disconnected from local social justice movements and the surrounding communities. The town of Wellesley and the College are not very intertwined, so having an outlet to show that students are rooted here, and care about things that are happening on a local scale, can help students feel more connected and make a difference.
Contact the editors responsible for this story: Hira Khan, Chelsea Tarringer.
