About Us

The Second Life Project is a radical, non-hierarchical, all-volunteer community project that builds towards collective freedom centered on the wisdom, goals, and vision of citizens who have been directly impacted by prisons. We support prison abolition world-wide by developing, implementing, and sharing ways to create community beyond the divisions created by prisons and traditional criminal justice systems, transform the harms inflicted by carceral systems, and leverage the unique experiences of those harmed by prisons to break free of oppressive societies.

We launched The Second Life Project in 2018, in collaboration with the Prisoner Reentry Network and the Embassy Network. We began by gathering to play Dungeons & Dragons twice a month, but as relationships formed, our communities merged, and we all found unexpected connections. We built upon these connections harnessing the skills and insights our communities needed. The community behind the Second Life Project is strongly bonded and committed to alternative forms of justice, housing opportunities for everyone, and the power of self-governance.

Our community includes formerly incarcerated folks, survivors of trauma and violence, academics, folks with mental illness, folks with disabilities, entrepreneurs, folks with incarcerated loved ones, and folks without direct experience in the criminal justice system who have a passion for connection and transformation.

We are also a District Commons Patron Project, working with them to create collective possibilities through experimental commoning in autonomous communities, spaces, and projects.