Founded in 2019, the Prison Agriculture Lab is a collaborative space for inquiry and action that links innovative research, science translation and storytelling, and public engagement committed to challenging inequities in the criminal punishment system in the United States. Prison agriculture is not only important as a practice that is central to the development and reproduction of the prison system. Attention to prison agriculture illuminates key prison conditions, including labor regimes, disciplinary management strategies, connections between ethnoracial, class, and gender hierarchies, and how incarcerated people resist inhumane conditions and carve out spaces of freedom in otherwise hostile environments.

Our first-of-its-kind nationwide study and science translations showcase contemporary prison agriculture trends.There are at least 662 adult state-run prisons with agriculture, which impacts prisoners in all fifty states. Over 835,000 people are housed in these prisons. Roughly two percent of prisoners work in agriculture at a given time, although the number of prisoners cycling through is likely far higher. We have created digital projects through that span a range of qualitative, quantitative, geospatial, historical, and creative/artistic methods. Our website hosts a GIS map, story map, satellite image gallery, data visualizations, zine, podcasts, publications, and related resources for research, teaching, and public engagement.