Boris Franklin

Visiting Research Fellow

About Boris

Boris Franklin served 11 years in prison from (April 2004 – 2015). In 2012 of December, while serving his time in East Jersey State Prison, Boris enrolled in the New Jersey Step Program (an associate of higher education institution in New Jersey that works in partnership with the Department of Corrections and State Parole Board) Upon his release in April 2015 Boris attended Middlesex County College before being admitted into the Mountain View Community (the final step in the NJ Step Program) at Rutgers University in New Brunswick New Jersey where he earned his bachelors degree in psychology with a minor in sociology in 2019. Boris did an internship at Princeton University in 2018 to further his knowledge on diversity and inclusion. He is a Visiting fellow for the Global Center for Advance Studies. Boris currently holds the title of community organizer for New Jersey Together, an affiliate of the industrial areas foundation.

Publications

Boris is the author of The Poetic Side of a Man’s Mind, published in 2007 and a co-author of Caged published in 2020. He was the lead writers of the play “Caged” written inside East Jersey State Prison by 28 inmates and the Pulitzer Prize winning journals and New York Times Best selling author Chris Hedges. Boris also performed in the play “Caged” which was mounted at the Passage theater in Trenton, New Jersey in the spring of 2018. His journey has lead to a documentary set to be released in the upcoming year.

Since his release in the spring of 2015 Boris has emerged as a public speaker advocating for prison reform and social justice. He has spoken at a verity of academic institutions such as; Queensboro Community College, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, College of New York, Rutgers Newark, Rutgers New Brunswick, Kutztown University, Princeton University. His recent speaking engagements include the 3rd Annual Convening For the Second Chance Pell Grant, and the New Jersey State Senate where he advocated for TAG grants for incarcerated individuals.