The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) is a movement built on the direct knowledge and collective action of incarcerated workers. Our perspective is not abstract data, it is the living analysis of the struggle against prison slavery.
We engage with researchers who understand that solidarity requires their work to provide practical benefit to our mission. We partner on projects that serve our strategic goals, such as informing litigation, evaluating organizing strategies with hard data, and exposing hidden mechanisms of prison exploitation to public scrutiny.
If your research is grounded in principles of social equality, and you are prepared to prioritize the safety and strategic needs of incarcerated people, we invite you to propose a collaboration.
Examples of research projects done with help from IWOC
The following are examples of research areas where collaboration has produced tools for the movement. We share these to illustrate the model of solidarity-based research we seek to support.
- Prison strike impact analysis: A 2016 study calculating the cost of the national prison strike to the California prison system at an estimated $636,068 in daily revenue and $156,736 in daily profit, providing a powerful argument for the potency of collective action.
- System-wide prison labor exploitation: A report documenting the scale, revenue, and profit models of prison industries and their ties to legislation and private corporations, highlighting the systemic nature of forced prison labor.
- Incarcerated firefighter exploitation: Research project exposing the conditions of incarcerated wildfire fighters in California, including inadequate training, equipment, and pay (as low as $2 a day), used to advocate for fair wages and safety.
- Prison dietary health conditions: An investigation into the systemic failure to provide food of reasonable, edible quality, how this impacts health, and evidence for demands around the basic human right to food.
- Cruel and Usual: A National Prisoner Survey of Prison Food and Health Care Quality done by IWOC and the Research Action Cooperative in 2018.
Other Original Research Projects & Relevant Reporting
Vera Institute for Justice Research
Detention Watch Network Reports
Prison Policy Institute Research Library
Prism Reports: Crime, Reform, and Abolition
Urban Institute Prison and Jail Research Hub
PEN America Reading Between the Bars Report
Propose a Research Collaboration
If your research aims to produce similar actionable knowledge, please complete the form below. We prioritize projects with clearly stated and ethical plans for how the findings will be used to advance the struggle against prison slavery.
