Rachael Rollins takes position at Roxbury Community College
In her last two public jobs, Rachael Rollins worked on the front end of the criminal justice system as Suffolk County’s district attorney and then as the US attorney for Massachusetts. Now, she has a new job working on the other end of the system, helping to support people as they return from incarceration.
Rollins was announced in late January as a part-time special projects administrator at Roxbury Community College, where she will work on the school’s new Project to Support Returning Citizens.
With the project, RCC plans to “develop a curriculum and services for formerly incarcerated individuals, particularly women of color,” to help people leaving prison “gain critical knowledge and develop valuable relationships, skills, and tools needed to successfully reenter the neighborhoods and larger communities where they live,” Executive Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs Joyce Taylor Gibson said in a memo to RCC faculty and staff.
Gibson said that Rollins “brings over 25 years of legal and leadership experience to this grant-funded role.”
“In particular, Rollins’ implementation of major criminal justice reforms will be essential in ensuring the Project’s success. As Suffolk County District Attorney, Rollins created a Conviction Integrity Unit with one of the nation’s broadest mandates and also developed our Commonwealth’s first Restorative Justice Unit,” Gibson wrote in the Jan. 26 memo. “Over the coming months, Rachael will work with RCC colleagues to develop a curriculum and support services, develop metrics for success, and identify additional funding opportunities for the program.”
Rollins resigned as US attorney last May as federal investigators concluded that she attempted to derail the reelection of her successor by using her influence and resources as US attorney. Watchdog reports described a pattern of alleged wrongdoing that ranged from Rollins lying under oath to soliciting free Celtics tickets for a youth team. Rollins burst onto the political scene in the 2018 race for Suffolk County district attorney. She endeared progressives and others by being unabashed as a candidate and officeholder about pressing forward with a “bold and different” alternative approach to criminal justice.
State payroll data made available by the state comptroller’s office shows that Rollins’ annual pay rate is $96,000 for the RCC role and that she has been paid $7,339 this year as of Feb. 24.