San Quentin SkunkWorks
San Quentin SkunkWorks is an incarcerated-led innovation lab uniting the ingenuity of incarcerated people and professionals to transform the justice system from the inside out. We use the arts—murals, storytelling, and game-based learning—as catalysts for cultural change, leadership, and scalable models of reform.
San Quentin SkunkWorks is an incarcerated-led innovation lab inside San Quentin State Prison. We unite the ingenuity and leadership of incarcerated people with top-tier professionals to design, test, and scale solutions that transform prison culture and the justice system from the inside out.
We operate like a moonshot factory in a place that was never built for innovation: defining systemic problems, running real-world pilots, and turning what works into models that can be replicated across facilities. Our work spans culture change, leadership development, research and policy, and practical tools that improve daily life and long-term outcomes.
One flagship effort is Chiaroscuro: Light Within the Shadows, a neuroarts-driven initiative using murals and environmental enrichment to change the sensory experience of incarceration at scale, in partnership with world-class artists and outside experts. We treat this as both cultural transformation and applied learning: changing spaces, tracking impact, and building a blueprint others can use.
SkunkWorks was built from the inside by incarcerated leaders. If you’re a researcher, artist, designer, funder, policymaker, or practitioner interested in partnering on inside-led innovation and scalable reform, we’d love to connect.
Programs & Activities
San Quentin SkunkWorks runs year-round, inside-led programming at the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center designed to shift institutional culture by putting incarcerated leadership in real decision-making and facilitation roles. Our work is organized through three integrated program areas:
Leadership Foundry is our year-long leadership cohort (about 25–35 residents annually), building practical facilitation, communication, conflict resolution, and project delivery skills through weekly sessions and hands-on leadership roles.
Transformative Recreation creates consistent, structured spaces for healthier cross-group engagement through monthly First Friday events (about 125 participants on average) and weekly programming including a chess club taught by a certified instructor.
Space for Change is our culture-building program area, including weekly workshops, storytelling circles, and co-created projects that strengthen shared ownership and collaboration. When mural production is underway, this includes the Chiaroscuro Mural Project, pairing guided storytelling and design sessions with collaborative mural creation installed in shared, high-traffic spaces.
Across all three program areas, we document what works and convert local learning into practical, replication-ready tools (facilitation guides, templates, safety checklists, and approval workflows), supported by applied research and evaluation practices appropriate to a carceral setting.
