How two incarcerated authors are using It Just Works to carry the voices of an entire community beyond prison walls.
Our names are printed on the cover of It Just Works. But the reason this book exists can be found in the names, experiences, and voices within its pages.
On September 14, 2026, we had the privilege of participating in the first Cuts for Vets event at MCF-Stillwater. Incarcerated barbers were given an opportunity to serve veterans, offering haircuts and a meaningful connection between the men inside and members of the outside community.
During the event, we also had the opportunity to share It Just Works with Minnesota Department of Corrections leadership, including Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Staff Safia Khan, Stillwater Corrections Captain Mercedes L. Salas, and Commissioner Paul Schnell.
We autographed copies of our book and had meaningful conversations about leadership, rehabilitation, accountability, and the positive changes taking place within the Earned Living Unit.
It was a moment we will remember.
But when we look at the photographs from that day, we see more than two authors standing beside DOC leadership.
We see the men who helped make that moment possible—even though they aren't standing in the pictures.
A Book With Two Authors and Many Voices
When people see a book, they naturally look at the title and the names on the cover.
Those names matter. They identify the people responsible for bringing the work together.
But It Just Works: Real Stories & Behavioral Science From the Earned Living Unit was never intended to be only our story.
It was written to document what we have witnessed, experienced, and learned alongside other men inside the Earned Living Unit at Stillwater.
Men with different backgrounds. Different convictions. Different struggles. Different reasons for wanting to change.
Men who have had to confront difficult truths about themselves. Men learning to communicate differently, resolve conflict, take responsibility, and contribute to a community that expects more from them.
Their experiences are the heart of this book.
Our responsibility as authors was to help bring those experiences together, connect them with behavioral science, and create something that could travel beyond the walls.
We may have written the book, but we did not build the community it documents by ourselves.
What You Cannot See in the Photograph
A photograph captures a moment. It cannot capture everything that made the moment possible.
It cannot show the countless conversations between men trying to help one another make better decisions.
It cannot show the restraint someone practices when an old reaction would have led to conflict.
It cannot show the trust being rebuilt, the leadership being developed, or the responsibility men take for the environment they share.
It cannot show every person whose story helped shape a chapter.
Yet all of those things were present when we handed copies of It Just Works to DOC leadership.
Not physically, perhaps. But through the pages.
That is what made September 14 meaningful to us.
The book gave us an opportunity to speak about work that extends far beyond our individual accomplishments.
It gave us a way to represent a community.
Recognition Is Meaningful. Representation Is the Responsibility.
We are grateful for the opportunity to meet with Safia Khan, Mercedes Salas, and Commissioner Schnell and to discuss the work happening within the ELU.
We do not take those conversations lightly.
But recognition comes with a responsibility: to remember who and what we are representing.
When someone asks us about It Just Works, we want the conversation to reach beyond our names.
We want people to learn about the men who are developing leadership skills, practicing accountability, and discovering that they can contribute something positive to the lives of others.
We want people to understand that rehabilitation is not only a concept discussed in classrooms or written into institutional plans.
It is also found in daily choices, relationships, service, and the willingness to keep doing difficult personal work.
And we want the men whose experiences helped shape this book to know that their stories matter—even when they are not the ones holding the microphone or standing in front of the camera.
Being the face of a project is not the same as being its purpose.
Our purpose is to make sure the voices behind this work are heard.
Some of Us Cannot Enter the Room. Our Stories Can.
There are conversations taking place every day about corrections, rehabilitation, public safety, and what meaningful change should look like.
The people living inside correctional facilities are not always able to participate directly in those conversations.
That reality helped shape our vision for It Just Works.
We wanted to create something that could carry firsthand experiences into places we cannot physically go.
A book can sit on a legislator's desk. It can be shared with a corrections professional, discussed in a classroom, or passed to a community leader.
It can invite someone to consider a perspective they might not otherwise encounter.
And it can do all of that without requiring the person whose story is being told to be physically present.
That is why sharing our book with DOC leadership meant so much.
It was not simply an opportunity to put our work into someone's hands.
It was an opportunity to put the experiences of the men inside the ELU into a conversation beyond the unit.
We Are Vessels, Not the Destination
There is a difference between wanting to be heard and wanting to make sure others are heard.
We believe both matter.
Writing has given us an opportunity to share our own experiences, take responsibility for our lives, and contribute to something larger than ourselves.
But the more this project grows, the clearer our responsibility becomes.
We are not trying to make ourselves the entire story of rehabilitation at Stillwater.
We are trying to help document the work, preserve the experiences, and open doors for conversations that might otherwise never happen.
If someone reads It Just Works and comes away remembering only our names, we hope they will read it again.
Because the most important part of the book is what happens after the cover is opened.
It is the men willing to examine themselves.
The men choosing cooperation over conflict.
The men learning that leadership can mean helping someone else succeed.
The men whose stories may help a reader understand rehabilitation in a new way.
The greatest reward of writing this book isn't seeing our names on its cover. It's watching the men behind its pages finally have their voices heard.
The Work Continues Beyond the Walls
At Crookd Crown Publishing, we believe stories should do more than inspire a moment. They should create opportunities.
That belief is reflected in our commitment to community investment. Net proceeds from It Just Works are divided equally, with 50% supporting Boys & Girls Clubs and 50% supporting initiatives within the Earned Living Unit.
We also continue working to place the book in the hands of people who can learn from the experiences documented within it.
The photographs from September 14 are meaningful to us, and we are grateful to everyone who helped make the Cuts for Vets event possible—especially the veterans, incarcerated barbers, organizers, and DOC leadership who took part.
But our hope is that readers will look beyond the two authors in those photographs.
We hope they will see the men whose stories we carry.
Because this book was never about proving that two people could become authors while incarcerated.
It was about making sure an entire community's work did not go unseen simply because it was happening behind prison walls.
Our names are on the cover.
Their stories are why the book matters.
About It Just Works
It Just Works: Real Stories & Behavioral Science From the Earned Living Unit, by Brandon D. Cox and Jermaine F. Ferguson, documents lived experiences from MCF-Stillwater's Earned Living Unit and explores accountability, behavioral science, peer leadership, community, and rehabilitation.
Published by Crookd Crown Publishing, the book is part of a larger mission to turn lived experience into education, opportunity, and community investment.
Learn more: crookdcrownpublishing.com
Media, book sponsorship, and partnership inquiries: Kelly Brace — crookdcrowndirect@gmail.com