The National Prisoners Reform Association (NPRA)

The Walpole branch of the National Prisoners Reform Association (NPRA) was a labor union formally established by those incarcerated in Walpole on September 1, 1972. At Walpole, and in Massachusetts at large, the NPRA consisted entirely of prisoners and negotiated power using a workers’ rights framework combined with bargaining-unit recognition granted by the Department of Corrections. Fundamentally, it united the prisoners of Walpole as laborers who were entitled to certain rights “allow[ing] for mutual accountability and self-development” (78).

In an interview with Jamie Bissonette, Robert Dellelo describes how, soon before the formation of the NPRA-Walpole chapter, he invoked this sense of cross-racial labor solidarity in an address to his fellow prisoners: 

I said, ‘There is only one color and that is blue.’ The guards wore khaki, which was brown; the prisoners were wearing blue. It was blue versus brown. ‘You are either blue or brown. There is no in-between ground. We are all in this together.’ ... I explained to everyone, ‘We can’t have no more beefs for six months. We have to agree no beefs … The guards could not work us like before. If we refused to fight each other, they lost a lot of their power. There was a peace across the prison that never was there before. We ended the body count. (78)

This sentiment echoed throughout Walpole during the pivotal NPRA takeover of 1973, during which the union, in the absence of guards, brought improved living conditions and increased safety to Walpole.