What We Do
We believe in the power of innovation to drive change and rehabilitation.
The lab
San Quentin SkunkWorks runs incarcerated-led programs that build leadership, reshape institutional culture, and turn lived experience into lasting reform. Our program areas reinforce one another, creating a model of rehabilitation that is designed from the inside out and built to travel beyond San Quentin.
Our programs
Program Spotlight
Space for Change
Murals and the built environment. With international artist eL Seed, we realized a 325-foot mural inside San Quentin, one of five completed large-scale works with world-renowned artists; four more are in development.
Program Spotlight
Transformative Recreation
Chess, game nights, First Fridays, culture. Recreation we design and run ourselves, built to desegregate how people gather inside San Quentin.
Program Spotlight
Research & Policy
We co-authored a peer-reviewed paper with UC Irvine, published by Springer, and co-drafted SB 498, California’s tablet messaging and call reform bill, from inside.
Program Spotlight
Leadership Foundry
How the lab staffs itself. A year-long cohort trains the facilitators, planners, and team leads who run everything else SkunkWorks does. Each year, about 100 residents apply for 15 to 20 new seats.
The model travels
We designed the lab so it doesn’t depend on San Quentin. The structure, an inside team that decides what gets built and designs it on their own terms, can run in any prison. San Quentin is the proof; the model is the product.
Partners
We’re deeply grateful to the partners and donors who make this work possible. Their generosity provides what we can’t access from inside: supplies, clearances, coaching, materials. If you’re interested in supporting incarcerated-led work, we’d be honored to connect.
