Employment opportunities at the Prison Policy Initiative


Creator-in-residence

Location: Remote

About the Prison Policy Initiative:

The Prison Policy Initiative (https://www.prisonpolicy.org) is a leading organization in the fight against mass incarceration. We use data to explain the need for criminal legal system reform, and we do so in a way that is designed to both bring in new allies and re-energize existing supporters. For a high-level overview of our work, our history, and our impact, see our recent annual reports.

About the position:

The Prison Policy Initiative is looking for its next creator-in-residence to produce engaging and informative social video content about the problems in the American criminal legal system. The residency will ideally go from the beginning of August, through the end of November.

The fully-remote, four month residency will allow you to grow your skills as a video content creator, expand your audience and reach, and publish co-branded content with the Prison Policy Initiative. Importantly, this position is also an effort to grow the ranks of creators producing content about the harms of mass incarceration in America.

Because people with personal experience with the criminal legal system have an especially important voice in the movement to end mass incarceration, they are highly encouraged to apply.

This unique position will work with our communications team to develop compelling social video content that provides research and data context to news stories and issues related to the criminal legal system.

What you can expect:

At the beginning of the residency, you’ll receive a crash course on key sources of research, data and analysis produced by the Prison Policy Initiative, other criminal justice research organizations and media outlets.

You’ll then meet with members of our communications team on a weekly basis to decide on video topics. We want you to come to these meetings with actionable topic ideas. Topics will likely focus on issues related to the criminal legal system that are in the news and trending online. After a topic is agreed upon, you’ll be given wide latitude on tone and structure of the videos; our hope is that during the residency you’ll hone your storytelling voice and style, which you’ll continue to build after the residency is complete.

Videos will be posted as collaborations on both your social accounts and the Prison Policy Initiative’s. While the Prison Policy Initiative does not plan to have an in-depth editorial hand in your content, it will ask for a final review of your script before you shoot your video.

You will be responsible for scripting, recording and editing the videos during your residency, but you’ll have direct access to Prison Policy Initiative staff members for research, data and messaging support as you produce your content.

We recognize that every creator has a different process and workflow of their content, so we do not have a specific number of videos that must be made by the end of the residency. Instead, during the interview process, the creator and Prison Policy Initiative staff will agree upon a rough estimate on the number of videos that will be produced during the residency.

After your residency is complete, Prison Policy Initiative staff will remain committed to your success as a content creator and be available to provide research support and mentorship as you continue to produce video content. We will also help to connect you with our past and future residents, to support ongoing collaboration.

Success for this residency will be measured by your increased comfort finding and incorporating criminal legal system data and research into your storytelling, tangible examples of how you and the organization were able to put key issues on the public radar in a way they previously weren’t, and growth in the reach of and engagement with your video content (including a greater understanding by both you and the organization of what content drives engagement and what doesn’t).

Goals of the residency:

  • Help the creator-in-residence grow their platform and storytelling voice so they can continue to produce high-quality social video content that exposes the harms of mass incarceration even after their residency has ended.
  • Provide the resident with a stronger knowledge of the research, data, and messaging resources that are available as tools in their video storytelling.
  • Build the bench of social video creators that are part of the movement to end mass incarceration in America.
  • Support and be a part of the Prison Policy Initiative’s social video strategy, and help the organization strengthen its ability to translate its research and visualizations into compelling social video content.

Qualifications and requirements:

  • Knowledge of and interest in changing the criminal legal system. People with first-hand personal or family involvement in the criminal legal system are highly encouraged to apply.
  • A track record of producing engaging, explanatory video content, preferably on Instagram and TikTok. This includes the ability to script, record, and edit content on your own.
  • Comfort pitching video ideas that are interesting, engaging, and actionable.
  • An existing and growing audience on social video platforms, preferably Instagram and TikTok.
  • While we don’t expect the resident to be a data-expert, they must be eager to build their data storytelling skills and comfortable engaging with numbers and research.

Compensation

The creator-in-residence is an independent contract position with an $1,000 monthly stipend ($4,000 over four months).

How to apply:

To apply, send a short video telling us more about you and your social video content creation strategy, and three specific topics you’d most like to cover during the residency. We’re looking to learn more about you, including (but not limited to) why you care about reforming the criminal legal system, any personal experience you have with the system, your thoughts on what makes a compelling video, and how you measure the success of a video you post.

In addition, please include the following:

  • Links to 3-5 videos you have created that you think reflect the type of content you’d like to produce during this residency
  • Links to the social media accounts that you would intend to use in part of this residency.

Submit these materials via email to jobs@prisonpolicy.org. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, starting immediately. Applications will close when we select the Resident. Applicants are highly encouraged to submit their materials as soon as possible.


 



FAQs

If I’m applying for a technical, communications, or design position, how should I be thinking about how to best meet the Prison Policy Initiative’s needs?
You can think of us like a magazine, with the technical, communications, and design needs of an online magazine. We don’t think of ourselves that way, but for your purposes you’d be almost all the way there. (The biggest difference between the Prison Policy Initiative and an online magazine is that we think our “back catalogue” is as valuable, if not more valuable, than our newest material.)
If I’m offered the position, can I negotiate my salary outside the listed range?
No. The Prison Policy Initiative lists the anticipated salary for all listed positions because we believe that doing otherwise wastes everyone’s time and increases inequality. For that reason, we’re not going to go outside of that range without re-listing the position, so the offer stage is too late to make this request. However, if you have some additional experience that would allow you to do the position in a greatly expanded way, feel free to pitch us in your cover letter. If we are persuaded that it would be appropriate to make a significantly more senior variant of the position, we will re-list a more senior variant of the position immediately before proceeding with interviews.
Some positions have a salary range of $20,000 or more, and I’m only interested in the position at the higher end of the range. What should I do?
We try to offer positions that have only a narrow range, but sometimes we list a position that can be filled by a more junior candidate who can grow into a senior role in time, or by a more senior candidate who can take on more responsibility immediately and we’d be happy to fill either variant. In that case, we understand that you might only be interested in the more senior variant, and you might be unsure whether we see your experience the same way you do. If this is important to you, you can feel free to tell us where you think you fit in in your cover letter, and we’ll make it a point to tell you very early in the interview process whether we are considering your application for the more junior, middle, or senior end of our published range.
Why do you pay for in-office interview time?
We consider the practice of making applicants do real work for free as part of the interview process to be exploitative. On the other hand, we’ve found that asking you to apply your creativity and experience to real (or simulated) problems to be a valuable way for us to find out what you can do. For that reason, as a matter of policy, we pay interviewees for their time when doing real or simulated work.
I really want to work with the Prison Policy Initiative and I’m most skilled as a researcher and writer. But there aren’t currently any openings in the Research Department. Should I apply for other openings?
No. While we really appreciate people with a flexible, team-player attitude who are willing to consider other roles because they are enthusiastic about joining our team, the other departments generally require different skill sets. Experience as a researcher does not indicate much about how you might perform in other key areas of work, such as communications, development, or policy and advocacy work. Similarly, experience in communications or community organizing in the criminal legal reform space does not generally qualify applicants for research roles. Moreover, you are likely to be happiest in a role that best fits your skills, and it is uncommon for people, once hired, to transfer from one department to another. So instead of applying for any open positions, we encourage you to join our newsletter, to keep an eye on this Jobs page, or to get in touch with us about your interest.
What makes for a strong interview for a communications position?
Our strongest candidates will recognize what we do well, will know how our work fits into the space, and will have ideas for how to take us to the next level. Strong interviewees will ask good questions about the backstory and lessons learned on projects that, to them, seem less successful. Many communications professionals present ideas to us that work well in traditional campaigns, such as creating videos or focusing on individual people’s stories. Stronger interviewees will have considered why we haven’t already embraced these strategies, and will have concrete ideas about how, when, and why we should innovate.
Are all of your positions remote, work-from-home jobs?
Yes. While we have a mailing address in Western Massachusetts, our staff work from their homes on a day-to-day basis, with most staff clustered in various parts of Massachusetts, Illinois, or New York City. We recognize that remote working provides both great benefits and significant challenges. The flexibility and commuting benefits are obvious, but being successful in a work-from-home environment also requires staff to be more proactive than might be necessary in an office. For example, because communicating with your colleagues in a remote environment is more difficult, staff need to be proactive about effectively sharing information and coordinating with coworkers and supervisors to ensure they understand their workload and priorities. Additionally, staff need to be more comfortable working through more of their own technological challenges than would be required in an office.


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