Projects housed within this area of work include those tackling issues at the intersections of policing and social institutions including child welfare systems, criminal legal systems, and social work.
This area of work is not currently open to opportunities. Please check back or contact us for more information.
Past Projects
Family Policing
A primary segment of our work is dedicated to highlighting the violences of the family policing system, and working towards abolition.
Social Work
We provide free exercises for social workers wanting to engage in deep reflection on the carcerality of the profession.
Carceral Ecosystem Defined
Carceral Ecosystem is defined by Empowerment Through Community as “a network of symbiotic carceral systems that has been able to withstand multiple reforms due in part to its resilient nature.” The carceral ecosystem’s conceptualization works in conjunction with the previous knowledge that has emerged from research grounded in the “carceral continuum” and “carceral pipeline.” The framework utilizes the metaphor of ecosystem because it assumes that system interactions are non-linear both spatially and temporally. It allows for complexity that both continuum and pipeline might symbolically limit. Rather than focusing on two-dimensional processes or chronological timelines, the ecosystem focuses on the diversity of organizations, resilience of relationality or connections, and the macro analysis of organizational relationships that impact families who become entrenched within carceral systems. It is less focused on how individuals enter and exit the system and instead focuses on the architecture of organizational ties and relationships that create a larger and persistent infrastructure. This infrastructure and the systems it encompass exert constant policing tactics through multi-system collaborations, data-sharing proliferation, and surveillance.