The Report.
Can worker-owned cooperatives built by formerly incarcerated people serve as avenues for racial and economic justice?
We spent a year conducting community-based research to find out.
Our founding group—mostly formerly-incarcerated ourselves—started collaborating in July 2021, when we set out to investigate a potential solution to the problems faced by our peers: worker-owned cooperatives. Through interviews, documentary research, and focus groups, our team has found that creating these kinds of worker-owned, democratically run businesses can forge avenues for racial and economic justice.
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THE REPORT
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Executive Summary
People with criminal records are locked out of good jobs. In an era of “colorblind” racism, employers, landlords, and others can legally discriminate on the basis of criminal record.1 The gap between the rich and the poor is growing, and the system of mass incarceration and the long-term collateral consequences of punishment serve as a “central engine of American inequality” (Hinton 2021, p. 1).
Today in the U.S., nearly 100 million adults have a criminal record, as the criminal legal system ensnares an ever-growing spectrum of our friends, family, and neighbors. Born in systemic racism, our system of policing and imprisonment continues to disproportionately impact Black people, Indigenous people, and other people of color (BIPOC). Employers continue to deny jobs to people both because of their criminal record as well as their race. Far from improving, the racial wealth gap has actually been growing. As one analysis shows, “[i]n 2019, Black Americans held just 17 cents on average for every white dollar of wealth” (Derenoncourt et al. 2022).
This report, which is intended for community members, elected officials, and activists, explores one potential solution: worker-owned cooperative businesses. It examines the impacts of worker-owned cooperatives created by and for formerly incarcerated people. It considers the potential and future impacts of these cooperatives as well. This report argues that creating these kinds of worker-owned, democratically run businesses can forge avenues for racial and economic justice.
They can give people hope. They can create pathways to community control and collective benefit, even as they provide necessary income for survival and sustenance. They can inspire new and more equitable ways of building relationships with others. Through interviews, documentary research, and focus groups, our team has found that the impacts of these cooperatives are wide-ranging, and could provide a vital pathway in our home state of Rhode Island for seeking new kinds of community economic vitality.
Have any questions or comments for the authors? We’d love to hear from you!