About Our Project
We develop the capacity of imprisoned people to engage in research, data collection and analysis around issues of importance to them.
Our Mission
The Work and Us is an inside-outside capacity building project that centers the diverse experiences of incarcerated people and challenges prevailing state and advocate-driven perspectives on prison reform. We do so by developing the capacity of imprisoned people to engage in research, data collection and analysis around issues of importance to them. We engage in political education, research skills training, and deep relationship building to empower imprisoned people to not only analyze conditions and the prison system itself, but also to organize against them.
Our Vision
We envision a movement where currently imprisoned people have the material resources, tools, skills, and connections to lead the fight against the prison industrial complex and to build a world that doesn't use control, surveillance, and punishment to address harm or to solve social problems.
Nothing About Us without Us.
These values guide our work.
Collectivity
Too often, traditional advocacy organizations describe their work as "inside-outside," but decision-making, power and resources are held exclusively by those outside. The “Us” in The Work and Us refers to imprisoned people, and the project is and should be guided by them.
Bottom-up Solutions
We say those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. We manifest this belief by investing in the capacity of imprisoned people to identify and take action on issues of importance to them rather than relying on non-incarcerated people to set research, policy, or organizing agendas.
Care
We reject notions of disposability, recognizing that people are in different places in their political development and that undoing oppressive systems such as heteropatriarchy is a collective endeavor. We cannot struggle for collective liberation if we aren’t engaging in radical forms of care and connection that are based on honest feedback, support, dignity, and respect.
Embracing Difference Intentionally
Too often, “prisoner” means cis-het Black or Brown, neurotypical, able-bodied male. Marginalized imprisoned people are ignored and disappeared. We endeavor to ensure that our work is reflective of the nuanced ways that people experience and navigate incarceration.
Accountability
We assess and address conditions that make interpersonal harms and unchecked bias possible within our project and develop collective practices for ensuring that we are building meaningful community between all members of the project. We are committed to actively centering the perspectives, ideas, and visions of imprisoned people who are at the core of this project.
Our History
How it all started
Beginning in the fall of 2021, Stevie Wilson and three outside organizers and researchers designed and launched a survey to better understand prison labor from the perspective of incarcerated people across the U.S. The aim of the survey was to better understand why currently incarcerated people work, their current labor conditions, and how they view their work – work that often helps keep the prison running. Additionally, we sought to understand how incarcerated workers view themselves as part of a larger movement and what type of support they want from outside allies and advocates. Upon completion, we created political education tools and resources with the survey results, and produced a series of writings that introduce new perspectives to the discourse around labor and mass incarceration.
Since then, our work has expanded based on the goals of our inside membership and the issues they highlighted in our initial survey.
Incarcerated Research Fellowship
Our year-long fellowship develops the capacities of imprisoned people to propose and conduct their own participatory research projects. We believe doing so strengthens our movement to abolish prisons.
Our research
We prioritize participatory methods over traditional research methods because they prioritize the participation of those most impacted by an issue and involve impacted people in shaping the research process.