On February 27, the Department of Politics & Policy and Department of Race, Gender & Sexuality Studies hosted the 2025 Black History Month lecture. The event featured Hamza Berrios, a 36-year-old anti-prison organizer who was formerly incarcerated for 15 years and five months at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution (MCI) in Norfolk.
The discussion covered civic engagement, ideas around felony disenfranchisement, American democracy and activism efforts.
According to Berrios, Massachusetts currently has 6,247 incarcerated people with a 33% tendency rate of reoffense. Within the country, there remain more than 2 million people who are incarcerated.
He hopes to spread awareness around these numbers, alongside the actual function of mass incarceration pointing to a “systemic issue.” Berrios says that it connects felon disenfranchisement to historical patterns of racism. The resistance of black inclusion all the way from conditions of slavery continue to exist today, in a “neo-slavery” dimension, Berrios states.
Dr. Lena Zuckerwise, the department chair of Politics & Policy at Simmons, opened the lecture and thanked the packed room of students and faculty for attending. She also recognized Dr. Tatiana M.F. Cruz, program director of both Africana Studies and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies for her collaborative efforts in this guest speaker event.
Many students in the room had listened to Hamza Berrios before and were familiar with his work; he had spoken to a few of Professor Zuckerwise’s classes.
While Zuckerwise teaches a variety of curriculum at Simmons, she extends her time teaching courses within the prison system. She described meeting Berrios five years ago when he enrolled in her political theory course at MCI Norfolk. She was “blown away by [Berrios’] depth of thought and brilliant writing.”
She detailed how Berrios furthered his education, earning his GED followed by a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Boston University’s Prison Education Program. Since the 1970s, the university has offered college courses to prisoners while incarcerated to help enrich their education and life path beyond bars.
During his time at MCI Norfolk, Berrios also served as the Latino Cultural Awareness Committee coordinator and was a member of the African-American Coalition Committee. From here, Berrios continued to enhance his passion for community-building with work focused on civic education.
Since his release, he now works as a research assistant at the Hutchins Center at Harvard in shaping incarceration policy-making with his extensive anti-prison organizing. Locally, Berrios hosts community events such as the “Unlock Our Power Hour” sessions where everyday citizens around Boston share ideas to change policy through lobbying and community empowerment.
“In the last 40 years, there was a 500% increase with mass incarceration rates…because of sentencing laws and policies,” Berrios says.
Berrios believes, “The biggest issue we have is that we’re continuously locking people up as the remedy, that is the band aid solution.”
He explains how important it is to identify the factors leading to crime and the flaws of the justice system, such as access to vocalizing political autonomy through voting.
Throughout all the advancements that have shaped the world today, Berrios states how, “in 2025 we haven’t evolved on how we deal with crime, how to deal with people and the carceral setting.”
Berrios shares a quote someone told him in prison, a twist of an old expression; “history doesn’t repeat itself, we repeat history.”
