Tasseli McKay

Tasseli McKay is a social scientist in RTI’s Transformative Research Unit for Equity. Dr. McKay serves as principal investigator on the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-funded project, “Institutional Contact and Family Violence in an Era of Mass Incarceration.” 

Previously, Dr. McKay worked on RTI’s Multi-site Family Study of Incarceration, Parenting, and Partnering, a mixed-method longitudinal study of two thousand families affected by incarceration. This culminated in her first book: Holding On: Family and Fatherhood During Incarceration and Reentry (University of California Press, 2019) with Megan Comfort, Christine Lindquist, and Anupa Bir.

McKay’s most recent book, Stolen Wealth, Hidden Power: The Case for Reparations for Mass Incarceration(University of California Press, 2022), reports that the economic damage of racial criminalization and punishment in Black communities totals at least $7.16 trillion and applies a transitional justice framework to argue for reparations for mass incarceration.