Abolition
A – Z
Matthew Bakko, Wayne State University
Assistant Professor, WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
Pronouns: He/They
Email: mbakko@wayne.edu
Website: https://socialwork.wayne.edu/profile/hq0072
About: I examine human service organizations operating at the intersection of multiple and often conflicting systems. My research investigates how organizations’ embeddedness at these intersections shapes their policy and program implementation, as well as the realization of service and social change goals. I pay particular attention to how institutional and resource environments, inter-organizational relationships, and street-level service practices influence organizational implementation and goals. Empirically, my work primarily focuses on human service organizations that intersect with the criminal-legal system. I am particularly interested in anti-carceral, transformative alternatives that nonetheless interact with criminal-legal systems, especially in the field of behavioral health crisis response. I employ qualitative and mixed methods, bridging organizational and criminal-legal scholarship to contribute to both fields.
Janae Bonsu, UIC
DOCTORAL CANDIDATE
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
Email: jbonsu2@uic.edu
Bio: I am a doctoral candidate at Jane Addams College of Social Work, activist, and restorative justice practitioner. My work is based in an intersectional and structural analysis. My current work interrogates the intersection of gender-based violence, policing, and survivor empowerment; building and sustaining models of transformative justice; and policies that directly impact incarcerated people and their families.
Kristen Brock-Petroshius, Stony Brook University
Assistant Professor, STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY
Pronouns: She/Her
Email: kristen.brock-petroshius@stonybrook.edu
Website: https://kristenbrockpetroshius.com
About: Kristen Brock-Petroshius studies attitude change to build support for racial, economic, and social justice policies. She is particularly interested in how community organizing tactics and message frames—including methods that explicitly discuss systemic racism or focus on sharing personal stories—can shift dominant political attitudes. Several recent studies examine the use of a community organizing tactic, deep canvassing, and race and class-based advocacy messages (including race-class narratives) on building support for anti-carceral policies. She has also examined how voters form attitudes about anti-carceral policies, developed a measure of “carceral justification” – which predicts support for the carceral status quo, and written theoretically about abolition and social work.
Phillipe Copeland, Boston University
Clinical Assistant Professor, BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Email: copelanp@bu.edu
Website: https://www.bu.edu/ssw/profile/phillipe-copeland/
About: My interest is in the policing and punishment systems as mechanisms of racial capitalism and educating people to not only effectively abolish them, but help survivors to recover from their consequences.
Sam Harrell, Seattle State University
Assistant Professor, SEATTLE STATE UNIVERSITY
Email: sharrell@seattleu.edu
Website: https://www.seattleu.edu/directory/profiles/sam-harrell-msw-phd.php
About: Sam’s research focuses on carceral social work, abolitionist social work, social welfare history, transformative justice, mandatory reporting, child sexual abuse. Sam co-convenes the Abolitionist Social Work SIG for SSWR, which holds monthly virtual meetings. To get added to the listserv this, email Sam at saha2@pdx.edu.
Russ Immarigeon, CRI Publications
Editor
Email: russimmarigeon@fairpoint.net
About: Editor of national publications on community corrections, alternatives to prison, and offender programming. Editor of four books on crime desistance, prisoner reentry, and women, gender and girls in the criminal justice system. Independent researcher on the overuse of incarceration for women and others, and of cash bail in pretrial settings
Nev Jones, University of Pittsburgh
Associate Professor, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
Email: nevjones@pitt.edu
Website: https://www.socialwork.pitt.edu/people/nev-jones
About: Interests include policing and the role of police in mental health crisis response, mental health courts, peer-led diversion and re-entry programs and critical perspectives on abolition and decarceration. Research centers those with direct experience of psychiatric disabilities and/or intersectional experiences of systems involvement.
Jennifer Kenney, California State University, Sacramento
Assistant Professor, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO
Email: jennifer.l.kenney@csus.edu
About: Clinical and policy-oriented social work in the criminal legal system and outside the system working towards decarceration and abolition, with a special focus on clinical work and research related to women and trauma-responsive care.
Charles H. Lea III, Columbia University
Assistant Professor, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON
Email: chl2159@columbia.edu
Website: https://socialwork.columbia.edu/directory/charles-h-lea-iii
About: Dr. Lea’s research and scholarship investigate the intersectionality of race/ethnicity, class, and gender in educational, correctional, and neighborhood contexts, and the impact these issues have on the health and well-being of young Black men and boys at risk and involved in the juvenile and criminal punishment systems. The overarching aims of this work is to develop knowledge and build theory that informs policies, practices, and interventions that can promote resilience and healthy development among young Black men and boys’, as well as lessen their risk for health-compromising behaviors, arrest, incarceration, and recidivism.
Jacoba Rock, Boise State University
Clinical Associate Professor, BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY
Pronouns: She/They
Email: jacobarock@boisestate.edu
Website: https://www.boisestate.edu/socialwork/jacoba-rock-ph-d/
About:Jacoba Rock is an Clinical Associate Professor of Social Work at Boise State School of Social Work. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies, with a doctoral minor in Criminology, from Pennsylvania State University. She received a Master of Social Work degree, with a clinical concentration in work with High-Risk Youth, and a graduate certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution, both from the University of Denver. Dr. Rock’s applied research focuses on incarcerated youth (juveniles and young adults), opportunities for improved system response and reform, as well as deimplementation and abolition. Dr. Rock has conducted many program evaluations within carceral and other criminal/juvenile legal settings, offered professional development trainings to both courtroom and correctional staff, and also offered consultation, assessment, and testimony on hundreds of cases of juvenile and young adult life, virtual life, and capital sentences. Dr. Rock has taught Social Work since 2012 in BSW, MSW, and DSW programs, and focuses on courses on Intersectionality and other critical approaches, Human Behavior and Social Environment, Program Evaluation, and Pedagogy.
Sophia Sarantakos, University of Denver
Assistant Professor, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER
Email: sophia.sarantakos@du.edu
Website: https://socialwork.du.edu/about/gssw-directory/sophia-sarantakos
About: Dr. Sarantakos’ current research focuses on contributing to the advancement of community-based approaches to harm and need, as well as exploring the future of radical social change work. They are questioning how the “profession” of social work can directly and effectively connect to the work of large-scale social movements and advance their aims. Along with teaching the foundation course “Integrated Social Work Practice for Social Justice,” Dr. Sarantakos is in their third year of teaching an “Introduction to Prison-Industrial Complex Abolition” course for MSW students.
Hiroki Toi, Toyo University
Associate Professor, TOYO UNIVERSITY
Email: hirokitoi.sw@gmail.com
Website: http://ris.toyo.ac.jp/profile/en.49ce7e9f9582deae7ed49a595b30efe8.html
About: Hiroki Toi, PhD, MSW is an Associate Professor at Toyo University in Japan, where he teaches criminal justice, human rights and social work for undergraduate students. Hiroki’s research primarily focuses on better understanding the professional values and conflict among forensic social workers. Hiroki worked as a research assistant for the Connecticut State Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and has practiced in forensic psychiatric hospital, prison hospital, and also served as a social work advisor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office. Hiroki’s scholarship and teaching aim to build the capacity of the social work profession to address challenges and opportunities in the field of criminal justice and community-based social work practice.
Durrell Malik Washington Sr., University of Chicago
MSW, Doctoral Candidate, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Email: dwashington5@uchicago.edu
About: Durrell Malik Washington Sr. is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice. He takes an interdisciplinary approach towards scholarship drawing from social work, sociological, criminological, life course, and family system theories and perspectives. Durrell’s research interest lies at the intersections in P.I.C. Abolition, Juvenile legal practice and policy, Social Networks, Families and Other Social Context. Specifically, Durrell is a Mixed Method Researcher whose research agenda is geared at understanding the impact of juvenile incarceration on family life and youths transition to adulthood. Durrell has methodological training across several different qualitative and quantitative methods. have served as both a Research Assistant and Project Manager during his time at the Crown Family School and prior to his doctoral training, at Columbia University. To date, he has published a combination of several co- and solo-authored peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and currently has a number of other peer-reviewed articles under review. Because our work as social workers do not just reach academics but also community and policy audiences as well, he has also published several other public-facing products, including research reports, op-eds, editorials, and news articles.