Vanguard Incarcerated Press

welcome!

Welcome to the Official Homepage of the Vanguard Incarcerated Press (VIP). We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit media group and educational organization working with incarcerated and system-involved supporters and contributors across the country. As members of the incarcerated journalism movement, we are invested in the professional training and restorative empowerment of those in prison, providing them with opportunities to critically engage with the carceral system, develop professional writing and communication skills, and form lasting relationships with members of the outside community. The VIP is an abolitionist organization, meaning that we view the prison system as an inherently harmful and ineffective means of responding to societal problems. We see the VIP as a vehicle to shed light on some of the darkest corners of America’s system of mass incarceration. 

We also support and provide education about alternatives to incarceration and the development of community-based solutions that prioritize care, compassion, communal reintegration, and humane treatment. We believe in transformative justice, supporting and disseminating content that takes a critical look at the carceral administration’s harm and disempowerment, the flawed notion that such harm is part of justice, and the idea that subjecting the incarcerated to years of trauma and neglect within custody could ever be rehabilitative. All of our work is oriented by an aspiration to see a society where prisons as we know them are abolished and their necessity faded into the past, becoming yet another historical Goliath that we have overcome together.

The Black Lives Matter movement has rightly called attention to the gross inequities involved in policing and incarceration. 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. 

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. 

On this page, you can find all previous issues of our our print and digital publication. You will also find our library of articles, a catalog of submissions from incarcerated contributors across the country.

If you want to learn more about who we are as an organization, click here. To learn more about our team, click here.

As a 501(c)3 nonprofit media group, we rely on the kindness of readers like you to help us accomplish our groundbreaking work. If you want to get involved and show your support for the VIP, you can donate by clicking the link at the bottom of this page.

If you have an incarcerated loved one who would like to receive our newspaper, contact us at outreach@davisvanguard.org.