Let Us Contribute Initiative is bringing worker cooperatives to life in California prisons.
Our Mission
The Let Us Contribute Initiative (LUCI) is a movement building coalition led by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. We work hand-in-hand with organizations like Acterra and the Sustainable Law Economies Center to fight poverty through policy change.
LUCI is working to foster ecologically regenerative, cooperative (co-op) businesses that are run by and for incarcerated people, returning citizens, and system-impacted youth. This community reinvestment strategy will improve public safety by breaking down barriers to employment, building up human capital, and combating the root causes of criminalized behavior.
Our Goal
Our goal is to incubate green co-ops all across California, and pass policies like the Community Reinvestment Bill that will enable incarcerated people to operate green co-ops inside prisons. At a moment when our economy and our ecology are under such devastating attack, it is critical to support local, community driven strategies like LUCI. Our current policy campaign will head to the creation of worker co-ops in California prisons, and channel 40% of earnings from these co-ops into business grants for low-income people in high crime areas.
”The policies we advocate for will allow for us to become productive taxpayers while incarcerated, and do our part in a world that needs all the help it can get.”
— Kelton O’Connor, Director, Let Us Contribute Initiative
