In our conversations with incarcerated comrades, we have found that, when they work, they do so for a variety of reasons that extend beyond being forced to. These motivations and decisions vary greatly due to a variety of factors such as location, race, gender, sexuality, age, and length of sentence. These are a few dimensions we aim to study and better understand through The Work and Us.

Over the past two years, we aimed to build a better picture of what work looks like in prison, asking imprisoned people about why they work, their experiences with work behind bars, and what they would like outside allies to fight for. In this flyer, we present some initial findings from our questionnaire.