We believe that cooperatives run by and for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals is a key component to move toward a future without prisons.

There are worker cooperatives in prisons all over the world, including in Ethiopia, South Africa, Iran, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Italy, and more. Folks incarcerated in California want them, too. At the Law Center, our vision is a future without prisons. To move toward that future, we want to help our partners in prison to create an ecosystem of “prison cooperatives,” i.e. worker cooperatives owned by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. That's why we're working with Earth Equity and others to make prison cooperatives possible.

The Law Center has begun co-creating worker cooperative development curriculum with Earth Equity, Repaired Nations, Collective Remake, and others that will be provided inside San Quentin prison and to returning citizens in Humboldt County to foster a cooperative spirit instead of alienation. We have also been examining case studies and examples from around the world of cooperatives operating inside prisons that illustrate their societal benefits and their effectiveness in reducing recidivism, thanks in large part to the research of folks like Jessica Gordon-Nembhard and Esther West. And we have become a key partner in the Let Us Contribute Initiative (LUCI) drafting legislation to enable the creation of worker cooperatives inside of California prisons as well as create a “Green Reentry Coop Fund” that will distribute grants to persons who were formerly incarcerated and system-impacted entrepreneurs developing ecologically regenerative worker cooperatives in, by, or for low income and system-impacted communities. Our vision is to create an ecosystem of cooperatives run for and by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals that will help us move towards a future without prisons. If you’d like to donate to directly support LUCI’s formerly incarcerated staff, please give here.

Learn more!

To learn more about why we believe in this work, read this message co-written with our friends on the inside.

To help our communities understand this work, we held an event called, "From Cells to Liberation: Could Cooperatives Controlled by Incarcerated Persons Be Part of an Abolitionist Strategy?" which you can watch below: