our story
The VIP is made up of dedicated professionals who work tirelessly, both inside and outside of prison, to realize radical change in the U.S. prison system and the lives of those held captive within it. Our organization is made up of educators, scholars, journalists, and community organizers, all of whom are committed to providing restorative empowerment and community reintegration opportunities to the incarcerated. We believe that relationships matter, that care, compassion, and accountability matter, and that through purposeful, professional, and productive community relationships, transformational possibilities open up in people’s lives. Prison and criminal punishment systems are built on harmful and abusive authoritarian relationships that work to shame and control the incarcerated, alienate them from their community, and trap them within nearly inescapable measures of structural oppression. We reject the idea that treating people in this way either makes society safer or represents justice; therefore, we identify unapologetically as prison abolitionists. We believe that incarcerated journalism will play a central role in this abolitionist movement. Our organization is dedicated to bridging the gap between the inside and outside, allowing the humanity of our voices to carry that space and return us to the promise of redemption written into our national ethos.
our origin
Founded by David Greenwald in 2022, the Vanguard Incarcerated Press began as a bimonthly newsletter written by and for incarcerated journalists, especially those who found themselves fatigued by the censorship and propagandizing expectations of prison-sponsored incarcerated publications. For aspiring journalists on the inside, breaking into print can be challenging, and writing for prison publications is a common first step; however, institutional publications are often fraught with inside politics and administrative pressure to produce “pro-prison” content, presenting a flowery and disingenuous representation of life on the inside. This reality left countless gifted writers without a voice. The VIP was formed to give these writers a platform to be heard, one dedicated to strict non-censorship.
Dr. Joan Parkin was hired as the VIP Director in January of 2023, bringing with her an expansive network of critically engaged incarcerated writers across the country. Dr. Parkin was the director of Feather River Community College’s Incarcerated Student program for eleven years, which she also co-founded in 2007. During her time there, Dr. Parkin also taught English and humanities courses. Through this experience, Dr. Parkin formed lasting professional relationships with gifted writers on the inside, and in 2020 she published an edited anthology of their work, titled Perspectives from The Cellblock: An Anthology of Prisoner Writings. Many of these writers came with Joan to join the ranks of the VIP, a motley crew of critically engaged contributors.
Over the second year, the VIP went through a phase of self-discovery, as submissions from our contributors began pushing the limits of what we thought we were, testing the organizational concept we had forged up until that point. We found a community of diverse voices searching for a sense of unity amidst vocal descent, contesting and debating the ideas and work put forward by their peers.
In 2023 we formed an inside advisory board, staffed by six of our most invested and capable incarcerated supporters. Holly Davison and Steve Brooks were among this group, proving integral voices in our larger discussion about direction and growth. Working closely with this inside team we began to work out a new organizational identity, who we were, and what we believed in. Through this shared dialog, a unified vision began to take shape.
At the beginning of 2024, we started incorporating inside members as part of our operation, creating three incarcerated editors’ positions on our editorial board. Now our content is reviewed and considered by people on the inside, who lead the decision-making about what goes in the publication and what gets sent back for revisions. We also elevated one of our inside members to a leadership position, making Angie D. Gordon our Special Projects Manager.
Angie is a former student of Joan’s, taking six classes with her over three years (2016-2019), as part of the Feather River College’s Incarcerated Student Program. During this time, they formed a meaningful connection through their shared passion for scholarship and writing. In 2023, Joan invited Angie to join the VIP team. Together, Joan and Angie ushered the VIP into its present form as a hybrid organization, blending professional training and vocational education with the production and publication of incarcerated journalism media content, with Joan and Angie’s partnership at the center of our organization.
Jamel Walker, an incarcerated journalist, was asked to join the advisory board by Dr. Parkin, impressed with the sophistication and journalistic precision of an article Walker submitted on the death penalty in March 2023.
Over the next 12 months, Walker became a leader in refocusing the mission of the VIP into a media group that would distinguish itself from other incarcerated publications. With a strong background in social justice advocacy, Jamel advised that VIP should join the current abolitionist movement, envisioning the recruitment and development of writers working towards radical reform, adopting a prison abolitionist perspective. Walker helped to form our organizational philosophy that the experience and firsthand knowledge of social justice issues affecting the incarcerated place them in an opportune position to write stories that raise the consciousness of our fellow citizens, both free and captive. Walker’s work with the VIP has evolved, and he has proven to be an invaluable contributor, not only regularly contributing to VIP, but also functioning as an inside editor and facilitator to train other writers to produce content for the VIP.
Another early voice and advisory board member was David “Razor” Babb. Founder and former Editor-in-Chief of both the Corcoran Sun and the Mule Creek Post, Razor brought years of experience working with and for the carceral state. Touted by Dr. Parkin as a visionary, Razor has contributed immensely to the VIP, not merely in just his dedication to look always onto the horizon for new ideas and ventures, but also for bringing Dr. Parkin and David Greenwald together, in many ways laying the foundation for the VIP to form.
our mission
At the Vanguard Incarcerated Press, we seek to empower incarcerated voices through critical consciousness-raising, professional training and education, and the provision of meaningful community reintegration. Our mission is to expose corruption, poor conditions, and maltreatment of the nation’s most unrecognized and marginalized citizens in the most forgotten corners of America’s criminal justice system. The Vanguard Incarcerated Press provides a platform allowing the voices of the incarcerated to be heard, without censorship. Incarcerated individuals across the nation write and read the VIP that addresses their concerns and needs while confined.
Critical Consciousness Raising
We strive to promote critical consciousness within the incarcerated community, raising awareness about how harm functions within prisons and society at large. We seek to inspire care and compassion as a response to harm and to arm individuals with the perspectives necessary to identify and challenge violent ideologies whenever and wherever they arise. We believe that with critical consciousness ,individuals gain agency and self-efficacy, thus being better positioned to act on behalf of their community.
Professional Training and Education
We believe that through critical thinking and writing, specialized education, and professional training, individuals gain important skills that, beyond simply better preparing them to return to the community, afford them the ability to work productively within our organization. We teach our program participants how to be journalists, editors, and nonprofit organizers, and throughout this process, we afford them structured opportunities to put this training to work as integral members of our team. We believe that this experience increases participants’ sense of self-worth and personal accountability, and ultimately is transformational.
Community Reintegration
Relationships matter, and we believe that by providing incarcerated individuals with opportunities to build accountable and professional relationships with members of our organization we are building a foundation upon which to further their capacity for community reintegration. We believe that care and compassion balanced by accountability and respect can transform lives, especially those tragically marked by harm. Care-based relationships are at the core of our work and central to our organizational philosophy. We believe that relationships matter.
Our Philosophy of Change
We believe that incarcerated journalism will play a crucial role in the prison abolition movement. The U.S. prison system operates with shocking anonymity, and the media is largely kept from reporting on the world within the walls. Access to prison is typically subject to extreme scrutiny, often only afforded through carefully guided tours. This means little journalistic oversight for a national system that costs $183 billion annually and gives us recidivism rates ranging between 44% and 83%. Beyond merely being a costly failure, prison is also notoriously brutal and marked by unyielding humanitarian abuses, many of which are perpetrated by, or under the direct observation of correctional workers. As journalists, we are genuinely alarmed by this reality, but we recognize the barriers that prison walls pose to disciplined reporters in their effort to expose the waste, corruption, and abuse within. We need a new kind of journalism to turn the tide of harm and injustice surging in the foreground of our “civil” society.
At the VIP , we reach beyond the prison walls by training and empowering journalists on the inside to report on a world only they have access to. We provide writers with professional resources and mentorship to cultivate their capacity as journalists. We publish their work and provide a platform for them to incrementally hone their craft, and we facilitate their connection to the larger journalist community, supporting them in their effort to reach a wider audience. For us, change begins on the inside and incarcerated journalism is an essential part of shining a light on the darkest corners of a world which, though we’d rather not think of, we should be made to see.
By building a grassroots network of trained journalists, working inside the walls, important stories about how prisons are being managed and their budgets are being spent will be brought to a new light. The community is only afforded the story given by the prison, the propaganda telling us that everything going on behind the wall is efficient and above board. Incarcerated journalism will expose the truth about the carceral state and take it down from the inside. Incarcerated journalism is a radical and revolutionary endeavor, and it is poised to be the bellows that stoke the flames of real systemic change. We are dedicated members of a larger movement who view journalism as an essential part of abolition, but we also view ourselves as the vanguard of that movement, the tip of the spear, a mobilized front ready to engage with the harshest and most brutal injustices.
The Community We Serve
Our publication goes out free of charge to incarcerated readers all across the country. Through this outreach, we promote a sense of community to our inside readers and provide community leaders with a platform to speak on real and pressing issues. We ensure that underrepresented sections of the incarcerated community (people of color, LGBTQI+ folx, women, individuals who are physically challenged or with mental health struggles, individuals with stigmatizing criminal histories, etc.) are given a voice as contributors, that their stories and important issues are represented in our content, and that their members are part of our readership. We know that community efficacy is realized through the empowerment and support of leaders who emerge organically from within and that giving leaders a voice is an essential part of that empowerment. We also recognize that through professional training and education community leaders are better able to represent and serve their community. By providing a pathway for individuals to become professional journalists, editors, and community organizers we are not only empowering these leaders, but we are empowering their production of knowledge and discourse which serves as a de-subjugating force within their communities and society at large. We are dedicated to the concept of intersectionality, and it serves as a core feature of who we are as an organization. In this sense, we recognize diversity as a strength, and we understand that diverse experiences and identities are the basis for shared understanding and community, as opposed to division and conflict.
For this reason, we seek to empower and represent all members of the incarcerated community, and we strive to always be reflexive and practice cultural humility in our work, ready and willing to question ourselves and confront our missteps and potential oversights. We believe that all voices matter, and our work reflects an effort to ensure that all voices are heard and respected.
abolitionists against racism
The Black Lives Matter movement has rightly called attention to the gross inequities involved in policing and incarceration. The vicious police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, that took place on national television as Officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for nine minutes crushing his windpipe, has once again brought to light how Black lives don’t matter as much as white lives in the United States. If you are Black, you are 50% more likely to be pulled over by police than if you are white. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, homicides with Black victims and white perpetrators are much more likely to be deemed “justifiable” than those with Black perpetrators and white victims.
These gross racial disparities make it apparent that America’s prison system is a racist institution that needs to be abolished. According to a 2021 report done by the Sentencing Project, Black people are incarcerated at 5x the rate of white people, and in twelve states more than half the prison population is Black. Such numbers are telling, and surprising when we consider that, even though Black Americans make up only 13% of the nation’s population, they represent 37% of the people held in prisons and jails. The statistics for women reveal even larger disparities. While Black women make up only 13% of the population, they account for 83 per 100,000 incarcerated, compared to their white counterparts who make up only 48 per 100,000 (Prison Policy Initiative). Today the US prison system is over 50% people of color while white people who represent 71% of the U.S. population make up less than half of its prison population.
In her groundbreaking 2010 book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Era of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander argues that with the end of the old Jim Crow and the success of the Civil Rights movement being undermined by mass incarceration, a new Jim Crow has developed as a war on drugs which disproportionately targets Black people. Racism is a systemic part of America’s prison explosion, so the struggle to abolish prisons is an anti-racist one and part of Black Lives Matter.
In addition to its racial inequities, the prisons are filled with working-class people. Rich people can afford lawyers to keep them out of prison, and most white-collar crime goes unpunished. Bruce Weinstein in his article “Punishment and Inequality in America” (2006) showed that the late 20th-century rise in incarceration in the United States stemmed from widening class inequality and relatively stable racial inequality in prison admissions. The growth of America’s prison industrial complex has grown parallel to the widening gap between rich and poor. Racism has often been used as a scapegoating mechanism to divert people’s attention away from these gross disparities.
Meanwhile, recidivism rates continue unabetted. Instead of warehousing people, the untold billions spent on prisons need to be reallocated to the communities most impacted by mass incarceration. We see our fight against racism at the center of our abolitionist critique of the carceral system.
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