Oakland Army Base Is a Model for Equitable Development

Nearly three years ago developers, unions, community leaders, and government officials in Oakland, California, came together to make sure the city’s biggest construction project in decades would create jobs and apprenticeships for residents who need them most. By every measure, the agreement for redeveloping the old Oakland Army Base is a resounding success.

It is meeting ambitious targets for local hiring and far exceeding targets for connecting people facing employment barriers to career-path training. It has inspired a similar agreement on a $178 million construction project for Bus Rapid Transit from downtown Oakland to San Leandro. Perhaps most importantly, the Army base deal demonstrates what it takes to translate large-scale urban investments into equitable economic growth — and why it matters.

“This has changed my life,” said Sadakao Whittington, who landed an $18.29-an-hour apprenticeship with Laborers Local 304 a few months after he was paroled from state prison at age 40. After working on demolition at the base, he moved on to similar jobs around the Bay Area while earning certification in welding, heavy machine maintenance, and more than a dozen other skills. Now a member of Sprinkler Fitters Local 483, he earns $24.42 an hour plus full benefits. His wage will rise to $60 within five years.

“I have a nice apartment that’s fully furnished,” Whittington said. “I have a good credit score and a bank account. I pay taxes and spend my paycheck inside my community. I have a sense of achievement. I feel valued.  All these things happened because all these people came together in a collaborative and cohesive way to provide opportunity to someone trying to get somewhere.”

The labor and community benefits agreement covers the first phase of an $800 million public-private venture to transform the shuttered Army base into an international trade and logistics center at the Port of Oakland. The deal pertains to the city-owned portion of the project; a similar agreement is in the works for the port’s piece. The project broke ground in late 2013. It is expected to create more than 1,500 construction jobs over seven years and 1,500 permanent jobs in operations. About 500 new hires currently work there.

Read the full story in Next City.

From Food Desert to Food Oasis, One Casserole at a Time

Cross-posted from Healthy Food Access Portal

When a leader of a local Baptist church made a plea to teach young people the value of casseroles, I knew we were on to something.

It turns out the casserole, long a staple of church suppers, may be the ultimate example of a do-it-yourself family food experience. The casserole is about efficiency, relying on the know-how to organize multiple, seasonal ingredients into a dish that will stretch the family food dollar. Every casserole is a teaching moment, pulling the kids into the kitchen to learn alternatives to drive-through fast food. The casserole is about friends and family, as parents traditionally kept a couple in the freezer to give to a neighbor suffering a hardship. All roads to a new food system run through the casserole.
 
In our food initiative, led by the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, we had initially used vocabulary from public health — lots of talk about food deserts and food insecurity, all supported by maps. Not a mention of casseroles.
 
The residents we aimed to serve, however, talked about food in different ways. And what we learned from residents helped us re-imagine our strategy. What emerged — the Georgia Food Oasis campaign — is now helping families across the state pursue their own ideas of how to eat, cook, and grow more fruits and vegetables.
 

Why Obama’s 2017 Budget Is a Roadmap for Opportunity

It is often said that every budget is a statement of values — a reflection of the hard choices necessary when directing limited resources. President Obama’s 2017 budget, released last week, reflects his commitment to building opportunity for all Americans and his understanding of the equity challenges facing this nation.      
 
What do I mean by “equity challenges”?  Demographics in the United States are rapidly changing: By the end of 2019, the majority of all children 18 and under will be of color; by 2030, the majority of the young workforce will be, too.  This means that getting the economic agenda right for people of color is essential for getting it right for the nation. Unless principles of equity — just and fair inclusion into a society where all can participate and prosper — are embedded into policies and investments today, it will be impossible to reap the benefits of prosperity tomorrow.  
 
The President’s budget displays his unwavering belief that everyone in America should have a fair shot at opportunity.  He makes clear that opportunity requires critical investments to improve access to high-quality child care and early education; increase pathways to college and career; ensure access to quality, affordable health care; and incentivize criminal justice reform. He bolsters safety net programs — including those that help very low-income families feed their children and afford decent housing — which are essential for helping struggling households get back on their feet. The 2017 budget also demonstrates the President’s continued commitment to working with and listening to communities through a series of renewed investments in place-based initiatives such as Promise Neighborhoods, Promise Zones, and Choice Neighborhoods.
 
It is not lost on me that the budget was released on the same day as the first primary of the election season leading to his successor.  In the President’s eighth and final budget, there lies a commitment to provide a nation on the cusp of economic, demographic, and political change with a roadmap for promoting inclusion, growth, and opportunity within all communities.  Much work remains to realize this commitment, but to unlock the promise of the nation, we must unlock the promise in us all.
 
In the coming weeks PolicyLink will share detailed analyses of the President’s budget and its impact upon the issues and communities we work to support.  We hope they will be helpful and ask that you join us in our efforts to promote an agenda based in equity.  You can read our Equity Manifesto here.   
 

Read Experts of Color Letter on Flint Water Crisis

Originally published by the Center for Global Policy Solutions

Wednesday, February 3, 2016
 
The Honorable Rick Snyder
Governor
State of Michigan
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, MI 48909
 
As a coalition of more than 200 experts who are focused on building wealth for communities of color, we believe that it is vital for all public leaders in the U.S. to commit to advancing an inclusive democracy that fairly treats and affirms the value of all of its diverse residents. We have a number of concerns about the governance and water crisis in Flint, as well as some recommendations for remediation and change.

Our perspective is embedded in Article I of the Constitution of Michigan, which you have sworn to uphold, which states:
 
All power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal benefit, security and protection. No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws; nor shall any person be denied the enjoyment of his civil or political rights or be discriminated against in the exercise thereof because of religion, race, color or national origin… The people have the right peaceably to assemble, to consult for the common good, to instruct their representatives and to petition the government for redress of grievances.[i]
 
Based on the criteria established by Michigan’s constitution and embedded in other state laws, it is reasonable to conclude that rights of the residents of Flint, MI have been abrogated. The people of Flint have not received equal benefit, security or protection from their government. They have been denied equal protection of the laws and seemingly discriminated against because of class and race. Their right to petition government for redress of grievances has also been obstructed.
 

Angela Glover Blackwell Keynote for GBPI's 2016 Policy Conference

 

GBPI’s 2016 policy conference, “Charting a Path: Ensuring Economic Opportunity for Georgia’s Families,” spotlighted ways to bring everyone along as the state emerges from its economic doldrums. PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell was the headline speaker for the annual January conference, delivering a compelling keynote, "Toward Racial Equity—A Discussion of the Structural Barriers to Opportunity."

Tracking the Ripple Effects of LA’s Good Food Purchasing Program

In 2012, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) — the largest school district in the nation — shifted its food purchasing processes to promote equitable food systems, healthy eating, and the local economy. This shift was made possible by The Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP), an effort developed by the Los Angeles Food Policy Council to provide city institutions with purchasing guidelines and strategic support centered on the procurement of local, sustainably, and humanely produced foods.  The program has improved the labor and environmental practices of LA’s local food producers, while gaining the attention of school districts and government agencies in LA and beyond.

With LAUSD’s expenditures of nearly $125 million, the Good Food Purchasing Program ensures that 650,000 K-12 students have access to healthy food on a consistent basis. It has also had a domino effect on regional producers, processors, and distributors. In the first two years, the percentage of locally purchased fruit and vegetables shot up from 9 percent to 75 percent. When the district instituted a “Meatless Mondays” policy to comply with the new nutritional and environmental standards, they decreased their annual meat spending by 15 percent, saving more than 19 million gallons of water.

Similar to LEED certification, institutions that participate in the GFPP are scored according to values-driven standards in five impact areas: local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition. As detailed in a new PolicyLink case study, the program incentivizes vendors to change the way they do business in order to earn or retain contracts with the city.

Since the adoption of the policy, LAUSD’s bread and produce distributor, Gold Star Foods, has risen to the occasion, strengthening its values-based practices to meet the GFPP’s goals and purchasing guidelines. So far, Gold Star Foods has added 65 full-time, living-wage jobs as a result of their new way of sourcing products. Additionally, after searching for local mid-sized wheat farms willing or able to meet GFPP standards, it reached out to Shepherd’s Grain in Portland, Oregon, resulting in the expansion of the Shepherd’s Grain network of over 40 independent local wheat farms from the Northwest into California. Gold Star now purchases 160,000 annual bushels of wheat from the sustainable agriculture company.

To achieve widespread change throughout the food system beyond Los Angeles, the Good Food Purchasing Program gave rise to a stand-alone organization: the Center for Good Food Purchasing. Alexa Delwiche, the Center’s executive director, said that over the past couple of years a lot of effort has been put into building communications systems between institutions and vendors and facilitating tracking and data collection, so that the full force of the program is measured and sustained. “When you develop a policy that’s multifaceted and includes additional values like labor practices and environmental sustainability, you have to get a certain level of detail, so that you are able to actually build transparency into the system,” she said. “That transparency doesn’t really exist in the food supply chain for a number of reasons, so it has been a huge learning [process] for us.”

The program — and its core premise that public institutions can impact the local economy and healthy food systems through their purchasing power — is gaining the attention of other schools and universities in the state. This year, the Oakland Unified School District is considering adoption of a Good Food Purchasing Program informed by LA’s. The California State University System, comprising 23 campuses, has pledged to shift at least 20 percent of their food budgets toward local/community-based, fair, ecologically sound, and humane food sources.

The principles of good food purchasing are spreading. The Equitable Food Initiative, launched in 2013, is a cohort of food retailers, growers, and farm worker organizations that has developed a compliance standard for farms based on working conditions, pesticide management, and safety. The New York Times has reported that 12 growers are a part of the group, with six of those certified so far, covering 2,000 workers. The Initiative’s expansion would help to protect some of California’s most vulnerable workers: one-third of America’s farm workers are in California and 67 percent of those (over 500,000 people) are unauthorized immigrants.

Doug Bloch, political director with Teamsters Joint Council 7, represents workers in Northern California, the Central Valley, and Nevada who pick, process, package, and distribute food and beverages in California. The Teamsters represent 25,000, mostly immigrant workers in the state who process food, including the workers of Taylor Farms in Salinas, a vegetable supplier to Oakland Unified School District. “The workers make a living wage and get benefits, and they get treated with respect,” said Bloch. Taylor Farms is the largest supplier of fresh-cut vegetables in North America, though not all of its farms are unionized.

Commenting on the good food purchasing model and its impact on labor, Bloch said that one of the regional challenges for both workers and purchasing institutions is the constant consolidation along the food chain, such as a proposed acquisition of U.S. Foods by Sysco that was defeated by the Federal Trade Commission this past summer. “Where I think it helps is that the Good Food Purchasing Program can really encourage the district to buy local, healthy, and organic,” says Bloch. “Depending on how the district applies the GFPP, it could encourage purchasing from a small, Oakland-based company that’s producing some sort of specialty item, as opposed to frozen or canned food that comes from 500 miles away.”

With any of these models and initiatives, it is important to appreciate the level of community organizing that goes along with developing and getting policies adopted, Delwiche said. Partners participate in monitoring and evaluation of the program in order to ensure successful implementation. Over 100 stakeholders and procurement experts were involved in the planning and execution of the GFPP. “I think the really powerful piece to this is that once a public institution has adopted a policy, that policy really becomes one [that belongs to] both the institution and the community,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for the community to continue engaging public officials and the public institution and hold them accountable to the values they’ve adopted.”

Now that Los Angeles has additional systems in place to track the progress of vendors and to set actionable goals and benchmarks, she added, the LA Food Policy Council and its partners are beginning to influence more cities like Oakland, so that, “as the cities adopt their own policies, the learning curve will be more diminished, and we can support institutions in a more streamlined way.”

Stewart Kwoh on Expanding Equity in Public Universities

America’s Tomorrow presents Equity Speaks, an interview series with leaders from activism, academia, and policy aiming to inspire advocates for all-in cities and an equitable, thriving U.S. economy.

Public colleges and universities across the country have been struggling for years to open up access for low-income youth and youth of color, even as ever-higher levels of education and skills are needed in the job market. The challenges have grown as states have cut funding for higher education. Now, the Supreme Court is considering a challenge to race-conscious admissions at the University of Texas, a ruling that could further restrict educational opportunities across the nation.

California, the first state to ban affirmative action in 1996 (specifically in public education, employment, and contracting), offers a glimpse of what such restrictions might mean for America’s future. Latino, Black, and Native American students made up 54 percent of the state’s high school graduates in 2012, but only 27 percent of freshman in the University of California system. Although Asian Americans as a whole attend college and graduate at high rates, these statistics mask the enrollment disparities facing distinct groups such as Vietnamese, Native Hawaiian, Cambodian, and Hmong. Meanwhile, by 2030, 38 percent of jobs in California will require a bachelor’s degree or higher, and there will be 1.1 million fewer college graduates statewide than the economy demands.

Working to close these gaps, a multiracial, multigenerational coalition in California led by Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Los Angeles is demanding greater investment in state universities, increased access to admissions and financial aid, and a bigger, better, more equitable K-12 pipeline that helps all youth achieve their full potential. Stewart Kwoh, the organization’s founding president and executive director, building upon the legacy of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, spoke with America’s Tomorrow.

You’ve reframed the conversation about college admissions. For years, people have been trying to figure out how to fairly apportion slots. You’re saying, let’s create more openings for everyone. Why this approach?

We do support affirmative action but in California, we haven't had it for 20 years, and most likely, it won’t change in the near future. We could wait for the timing to be right but we'll lose another generation of students so let's fight for policies that help every group in need. If the game is just to apportion the seats that exist, then most likely we'll all lose. There will just be an increasing number of young people who want the seats, and there will be fewer seats for everyone so then we're just fighting over the shrinking pie. Shouldn't we be fighting for expanding the pie for everyone, especially the underserved students?

How are you doing that?

Equity requires investment. When there's disinvestment, there’s probably less equity, and that’s absolutely true in the context of higher education in California. Over the past couple or so decades the state has built 22 prisons and only one University of California campus. The money flow has gone down, so there are fewer students in some of the universities, they're paying much higher tuition, and schools are bringing in foreign students and out-of-state students who pay triple the in-state tuition. It edges out California youth. Our view is that there has to be a whole new investment in higher education and new investment in the pre-K-12 pipeline to create equitable opportunity so young people are prepared to go to college and to graduate. We have to be working at both levels.

If you succeed in increasing investment in public universities, how do you ensure that access is equitable?

We're trying to expand the number of Cal State and UC enrollment openings for students from California. We're also trying to ensure that among those who get these open seats, we have a good share of racially and ethnically diverse students from low-income schools. A 2012 ballot initiative, Proposition 30, provided a big infusion of money into California schools, including greater funding to serve high-need students who are low income, English learners, or foster care youth. We're advocating using that same formula to bring in high-need students who are disproportionately students of color, as well as underserved White students, into the UC and Cal State systems. We’re also pushing for regional college preparation programs, better retention programs, and financial aid. It's a universal approach to increase higher educational opportunities for all, which we are calling our “Education for All Campaign.” It’s a specific approach to make sure that more racially and ethnically diverse students get into UC and Cal State as we open up more seats. And it's a practical approach because we want students to actually finish college.

How are you making the case for more investment?

We’re not just saying, “Oh, let’s be fair.” Over a million jobs in the California workforce will not be filled by California youth because they don't have a college education. Think about that — over a million California youth won't get a college education in the next 15 years who should have or could have. If we don’t build a strong movement of higher education for all and if we don’t make big policy changes, it will have dire consequences that will hurt us all.

The common wisdom says that Asian American students have benefitted from the ban on affirmative action — their representation on University of California campuses has increased markedly in the past 20 years. How do you address the idea of the model minority?

First of all, we stand in solidarity with underserved students of color who aren't able to get into the colleges or can't go from the community colleges to the four-year colleges. We absolutely think that we all benefit by having a greater pipeline and completion rate for students of color. The second point is that this model minority monolith, or stereotype, really hurts our community because it covers up and makes invisible the true needs of Asian and Pacific Islander groups.

What does your research show about those needs?

We recently released a study that was led by the Campaign for College Opportunity on the state of higher education for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and basically the main conclusion is that there's tremendous diversity in needs and success. For example, Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians have far lower college completion rates than certain Asian American groups — comparable to the rates for Blacks and Latinos. Yes, some groups of Asian Americans have done well and have not done well — the differences are very stark. But we also found almost every group in the Asian American community has very high financial needs. Even the more successful groups have challenges — they have college access but they're graduating with a whole lot of debt. It’s not a good picture in terms of true access for anybody.

Describe your K-12 agenda and why it’s important to your advocacy on higher education.

There have to be major changes in the K-12 system so more students are prepared to go into community college or four-year college. A very significant percentage of high school students going to community college now need remedial math and English classes. That's very discouraging for students, and it’s problematic for the future of California. We need more concerted attention by all community groups to make sure all students, especially underrepresented students of color, enter school ready to learn, receive support to succeed and discover their passions, and graduate high school ready to go to college — and finish. At the end of the day we must have a much bigger pipeline of students getting college degrees with needed skills that will strengthen the state. They will be paying greater taxes; they will be more productive residents. It’s a win for everyone.

Learn more and get involved by contacting: Geralyn Yparraguirre, Education Policy Advocate at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles (gyparraguirre@advancingjustice-la.org) or 213-977-7500 x267.

Summit Snapshot: The Moment

A reflection on the PolicyLink Equity Summit, which took place in Los Angeles, Oct. 2015.

As I sit here among 3,000 people, I cannot help but think this is the moment. I look out and see the faces, young and old, new and familiar. I cannot help but think this is the moment.

The affirmative advancement of fair housing, the empowerment of low-wage workers, fighting urban displacement, ending mass incarceration, Black Lives Matter, addressing immigration, improving the lives of boys and men of color, addressing income inequality. These issues are front and center, with thoughtful leaders ready to take action.

I think this must be the moment. But what moment is it?

Is it the moment that we fear? The moment that we realize the great American dream of opportunity for all is really just the opportunity for a few? That the promise of this young nation is just another in a long line of promises unkept? Is it that moment?

Is it the moment that we throw up our hands and say that our differences are just far too wide, too deep and too complex, and go to our respective corners and try to make it work separately and segregated by race, class, or party affiliation? Is it that moment?

Or is it the moment we’ve been waiting for? The moment when we finally realize that our fates are linked, the moment when we find the highest common denominator. The moment when we find our best selves and live up to the promise of liberty and justice for all.

I hope it’s that moment. No, let’s make it that moment.

See new video: What does it mean to be Bay Area Bold?

Meet the Start-Up Creating a Critical Jobs Pipeline for Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Workers

“I think my most skillful trait is the ability to pivot,” said Angelica Ross. “I believe that pivoting is a huge skill to have.”

Ross utilized her ability to change direction and forge ahead in every step along her path to become founding CEO of the creative design firm and training academy TransTech Social Enterprises. At the outset of her journey, she was fired from a day job after coming out to her boss and co-workers as a transgender woman. She says that her firing fell in line with a general message from society that transgender lives don’t matter. A 2011 report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 90 percent of those surveyed who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming experienced harassment or mistreatment on the job or took actions to avoid it; 47 percent reported that they had experienced an adverse job outcome such as being fired, not hired, or denied a promotion.

 

“There’s also a message that you’re not valuable,” added Ross, “except for a certain category of value that you have as an entertainer — either as a sex worker, adult film star, or drag queen.” Like many other transgender people looking to support themselves, put themselves through school, or pay for hormones and medical expenses, Ross began working as a model for an adult entertainment website.

Soon, she had the opportunity to work behind the scenes editing and cropping photos and posting content to the website. She taught herself HTML, CSS, content management systems, and more, using Lynda.com. Ross began to realize that she didn’t have to do sex work or work in adult entertainment to make a living. “I began to think, ‘Okay, now I can run my own adult website.’ Eventually, I realized that I didn’t want to run an adult website. I actually just enjoyed building websites, managing clients, and working as a freelancer.”

Over the next 10 years, Ross built and ran her own successful creative design business. In 2013, she decided to get directly involved to help other transgender people find their professional calling and employment pathway, just as she had been able to do. She began working as a career coach and job readiness expert for the Trans Life Center project at the Chicago House and Social Service Agency, where she worked with both trans and cisgender workers — people whose gender identity corresponds to the sex they were assigned at birth — “dealing with mental health issues, conviction histories, lack of work histories, trauma, abuse, you name it. Some of the challenges were so big that they got in the way of the work and productivity aspect of the job.”

Pivoting from career coach to broader empowerment

“TransTech emerged as a solution out of the center of that storm,” Ross added. After experiencing frustration with some of the social work aspects of her job, she began brainstorming a different system for capacity building and skills training for trans workers, based more on individual accountability. “It’s not just about getting people a job,” said Ross, “because once you get them a job, they might have a hard time keeping that job depending on what skill sets they have and the types of challenges they have to deal with while on the job.”

Launched in July 2013 in Chicago, TransTech Social Enterprises seeks to empower, educate, and employ trans and gender non-conforming individuals facing barriers in education and in the workplace, as well as to reduce instances of discrimination against them. The organization uses a dual-empowerment model in which trainees learn basic data entry, typing, software, and creative design skills while also working on real, contracted projects with professional clients. Similar to beauty school apprenticeships, clients pay a reduced price in exchange for supporting trainees just developing skills for the first time. Trainees, and anyone from the LGBTQ community, as well as straight and cisgender allies, can become community, professional, or corporate members, gaining access to benefits such as in-person workshops, on-the-job training, and diversity consultations. After an initial pilot program in 2013, TransTech is currently training its second cohort of trainees in Chicago and Washington, DC.

Organizations like TransTech are few and far between considering the vast challenges facing the transgender community. The 2011 survey found that respondents were nearly four times more likely than the general population to have a household income of less than $10,000/year. More than a quarter reported a household income of less than $20,000/year.

Black and Latina trans women face particularly challenging economic circumstances — much of it stemming from the way that institutional discrimination toward people of color, women, LGBTQ, and trans/gender non-conforming individuals overlaps and intersects. “My parents always used to tell us you have to work three or four times harder than White people to get ahead,” said Ross. She often feels like people are standing on the sidelines watching TransTech, waiting for a Black trans woman to fail. “I’m a trans woman of color without a college degree who’s never done these things before, but I’m dedicated, I teach myself, I pick things up quickly, and I’m willing to be the main muscle behind this mission.”

Partnering with the White House

The wins are rolling in. In its first year, TransTech made over $100,000 in creative design sales. In July 2015, Ross was invited to speak at the White House during its first-ever LGBTQ Innovation Tech Summit. U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith introduced Ross, recognizing that “amongst and in our community, the trans community faces some of the greatest challenges for inclusion and economic inclusion.”

Since then, Ross has been working with the White House to develop an employment pipeline for trans people to be hired at entry-level positions there. Nonetheless, TransTech is still in search of more supporters and corporate partners.

“Once people started seeing the White House stuff … we have gotten a lot of people saying, ‘Man, that’s so cool. That’s so wonderful,'’’ said Ross. “But there’s still a gap between that and folks actually supporting our mission, whether that is through volunteering, donating, helping us to raise funds, or helping us to see what [we could be doing differently].”

She said that she’s open for TransTech to continue to pivot and evolve; the organization is not designed to operate with a one-size-fits-all approach. The pilot training session taught the staff valuable lessons that helped inform the design of the second year, with the current cohort helping to tailor the program even further.

Ross explained that equity is central to TransTech’s work. “We need for folks to have a fair stake in the game and that looks different for each person,” said Ross. “What we’re trying to communicate to folks about TransTech is that it is a tool that’s reflective of an individual’s value — and what happens when an individual enters into a collective with that value.”

Worker Ownership Behind Bars: The World’s First Co-op Run Entirely by Prisoners

Roberto Luis Rodriguez Rosario with his book, Corazon Libre, Cuerpo Confinado.

By David Bacon

It was a cooperative in Puerto Rico's Guayama prison that changed his life. Growing up, Roberto Luis Rodriguez Rosario was surrounded by violence, and lived most of his pre-teen years in foster homes. "By the time I was a teenager, I was filled with anger," he remembers. "I became a rebel, and lost my way in drugs and alcohol. I stopped going to school at 14, and began getting arrested at 15. By the time I was 17 I was doing things that could get you locked up for life. Then, when I was 19, I saw what a disaster my life had become."

There were arrest warrants out for him, and Rodriguez made what he calls the most important decision of his life. He turned himself in. His sentences totaled 125 years, and even served concurrently, they still added up to 35 years behind bars. "But I began to work on my life," he reflected. When he was transferred from a maximum-security institution to the medium security prison in Guayama, Puerto Rico, he joined a worker-owned co-operative run entirely by the inmates.

"I was looking for tools to help me work on my problems,” said Rodriquez. “I thought at first [the co-op] was just a way to reduce my sentence, but once I got involved, and started practicing the principles of co-operativism, I realized it was making a big change in my life."

The co-op, started in 2003, has helped dozens of inmates reduce their sentences and return to their communities. Of the 50 co-op members who have been released from prison in the past ten years, including Rodriguez, only two have gone back to prison, and one of them is again out on parole. The recidivism rate elsewhere in Puerto Rican prisons is over 50 percent per year according to Lymarie Nieves Plaza, director of marketing at a local credit union. Today, the co-op has 40 active members, in a prison with a population of roughly 300. And cooperative projects have sprung up in three other prisons throughout Puerto Rico, where they plan to make everything from children’s clothing to renewable energy products.

“These are jobs that are much better than the slave labor the prison itself offers,” said Jessica Gordon Nembhard,  professor of community justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, where she studies how cooperatives can empower communities of color, prisoners, and returning citizens (read our interview with her about her latest book Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice). “There are many benefits from co-ops that extend beyond their market value. They promote leadership development, financial education and literacy, high level social skills, and collective decision-making that extend beyond the operations of the co-op.” 

The culture of cooperatives and democratic decision-making has had a big impact on the lives of many prisoners, Rodriguez explains, and cites his own history. The co-op meetings are run democratically, and every member has a voice. That creates the basis for trust in each other. "I can have an opinion in a meeting, but the members decide everything," said Nieves who has been working as a co-op educator and marketer with the prison co-ops.

“The co-op provides a different point of view,” said Gordon Nembhard. “It's not ‘me against the world’. It’s the co-op and my fellow members working and thinking together. They can now afford to pay for the things they need and help to support their families even though they are in prison. That is transformational.”

Changing laws and changing lives

Creating the co-op took several years and a change in the law. In 2000, a small group of prisoners in the Guayama state prison began to create craft items in an art therapy program. Some combined clay figures of Don Quixote or of saints, on a carved wooden base, holding a brightly painted Puerto Rican flag. Some inmates were leather workers, and made portfolios, belts, hats, and sandals. Others carved boats, or made pencil portraits.

None could be sold outside the prison, however. One of the inmates, Hector Quiñones Andino, began to investigate how prisoners might organize themselves so that their work might find a market. He looked at two possibilities. One was to form a corporation. "But they didn't like that idea much," Rodriguez says, "because it focused too much on individual profit." Quiñones found a book about cooperatives, and that provided another alternative. So he asked for an orientation from the Co-operative League of Puerto Rico, according to Rodriguez.

Discovering that they faced a legal prohibition from participating in cooperatives because of their criminal history, Quiñones and fellow prisoners in the art program wrote a letter to the governor at the time, Sila Maria Calderon, asking her to modify the law. She was moved by their story, met with some of the prisoners, and in 2003 she worked with the legislature to amend the law.

The co-op they established, the Cooperativa de Servicios ARIGOS, was the first co-op ever organized exclusively by prisoners themselves, with a board of directors made up solely of inmates. To become a member, a prisoner has to buy a $20 share, and inmates without the money up-front can work off the cost in about two months. After that, each co-op member has a voice in meetings, and one vote.

Most of the craftwork is sold in assemblies or public events organized by other cooperatives or associations. Inmates themselves can go to present their work, but they must pay for transportation and the prison guards who accompany them. They have recently expanded their work to include a nursery growing cucumbers, bell peppers and tomatoes used in the food eaten by inmates.

Rodriguez is not much of an artist, he says, so he became the co-op's secretary, responsible for keeping the books and seeking new markets. Of the money received in sales, 15 percent goes to the prison for the cost of the space and services, and 10 percent is invested by the co-op in capital expenses. The other 75 percent is divided among the co-op members. "For us, this is so much better than working for the prison itself, where they only pay $25 for 160 hours you work in a month," he explains.

The co-op has to defend its existence to the prison, often in strict economic terms. Rodriguez smiles at the way they have been able to meet objections that the co-op costs the prison money. "We showed that the prison was getting $10,000-$15,000 from its share of our sales," he recalls. "That made them much more interested in supporting us."

After serving just over 14 years of his sentence, Rodriguez was released on parole, which he completed a year ago. Life outside, however, has been challenging. Rodriguez would like to start a co-op for ex-co-op members, but it's difficult to get people together, and parole restrictions bar socializing among ex-inmates, a law they hope to change soon. Rodriguez recently released a book on his experience, entitled Corazon Libre, Cuerpo Confinado (Free Heart, Confined Body).

"We've learned how to run a business, and some former inmates now have their own small businesses outside as a result,” said Rodriguez. “If you can change the way people think in prison, you can do anything. It is a model for social change."

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