About Us:
Nicolas Higgins: Nic has been interested in criminal justice reform since middle school. Growing up as a kid, he would skateboard every day after school, and through this activity he’s had interactions with many different types of people on the street. One of the main demographics that stood out to him were formerly incarcerated citizens. The local skateshop in Nic’s hometown was next door to a re-integration facility. This is where he learned directly from the formerly incarcerated at a very young age that being incarcerated at one point in a person’s life can have a negative affect on the rest of it. Nic takes his perspective on the negative implications of being charged with a felony to see how the SPP makes the world welcoming to returning citizens through their programs for incarcerated individuals. There is also a clear unfair treatment people of color receive when dealing with the law, witnessed in the first person by both authors. This is another pressing issue in our country and they will look in-depth for what the SPP is doing to achieve just sustainability along the lines of racial equity.
Will Maxwell: Will continues his studies at UMass Dartmouth, after earning degrees in both environmental and social science from Bristol Community College. Moving to Massachusetts as a child, one of the first things he recalls, was the absence of people of color. Throughout his youth, he couldn’t understand why there was such animosity for the people most absent from the community. As a teenager, interactions with police began to shape his perceptions of authority, but also of himself. However, it was his experience with the court system that taught him the racial disparities in sentencing after watching a 17 year old sentenced to two years for the same crime he had commited.
Will’s affinity for nature and sociological disposition made sustainability a natural fit, but the pursuit of prison reform is a more personal one. During a brief sentence of his own, for a behavior no longer considered criminal, he witnessed the prison industrial complex first hand. While some of the labor he produced was used directly for the upkeep of the facility, some was also used privately for the production of steel beds and tables sold to prisons for profit. His experience led him to advocating for prison reform with groups such as Bristol County for Corrrectional Justice (BCCJ), Coalition for Social Justice (CSJ), and The FANG Collaborative (Fighting Against Natural Gas) which originally formed as an action group against fracking, now focused on ending ICE contracts with MA/RI prisons.
A native of New Orleans, Will is a long time resident of Rochester, MA, where he lives with his two children Jacob and Phoenix, and their dog Stella-Blue. In his leisure time he enjoys hiking, kayaking, bird watching, and horticulture.