Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.

Search Results

Break the Cycle: Mass Incarceration of Women, Bodies, Families and communities Break the Cycle: Mass Incarceration of Women, Bodies, Families and communities
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 2004Format: TranscriptCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Discusses the incarceration of women and juvanile sin control unit style correctional facilities. Includes accounts of abuse and neglect.
US Abuse of International Human Rights Standards US Abuse of International Human Rights Standards
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 2000Format: TranscriptCollection: American Friends Service Committee
discusses US compliance with international agreements against torture, and US prison policy and the proliferation of control unit prisons. Kerness history in community organizing; conditions of control unit prisons discussed through anecdote; Use of extended isolation; Racially targeted policies;
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Descrimination Against Women United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Descrimination Against Women
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 2005Format: TranscriptCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Discusses the incarceration of women and juvanile sin control unit style correctional facilities. Includes accounts of abuse and neglect.
Rutgers Senior Seminar in Social Work Rutgers Senior Seminar in Social Work
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 2000Format: TranscriptCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Explores associations between community organizing and social work and how this plays out in the fight for prisoners' rights.
Best Practices and Human Rights in Supermax Prisons: A Dialogue Best Practices and Human Rights in Supermax Prisons: A Dialogue
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 2001Format: TranscriptCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Mission, direction and accomplishments of the AFSC. Includes excerpts from inmate letters.
Torture in America: Abuse of Human Rights in the United States Torture in America: Abuse of Human Rights in the United States
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 2000Format: TranscriptCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Presented at Simmons College. Kerness history in community organizing; conditions of control unit prisons discussed through anecdote; Use of extended isolation; Racially targeted policies;
Prison Labor Prison Labor
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 1999Format: MonographCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Discusses prison labor as "neo-slavery"; torture as a device; racially targeted policy and practice.
Turning the Tables on US Abuse of International Human rights Standards: Exploring Ways to Use International Treaties and Covenants in Domestic Litigation Turning the Tables on US Abuse of International Human rights Standards: Exploring Ways to Use International Treaties and Covenants in Domestic Litigation
Publisher: Bonnie Kerness, American Friends Service CommitteeYear: 1999Format: TranscriptCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Presented at the National Conference of Black Lawyers 10/1999. Quotes from letters of inmates, discusses US compliance with international agreements against torture, and US prison policy and the proliferation of control unit prisons.
National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons How To Packet National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons How To Packet
Publisher: National Campaign to Stop control Unit PrisonsFormat: PamphletCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Includes forms for gathering information on nearby control units, conditions of living and incarceration; Copy of Essay "From Alcatraz to Marion to ADX Florence: The Nightmare Escalates" by Jan Susler; Weinstein, Dr. Corey M.D. "Fighting the American Gulag." Third Force v.2 n.6 Jan/Feb. 1995 pp. 24-27.
Social Control & The Politics of Prisons Social Control & The Politics of Prisons
Publisher: National Campaign to Stop Control Unit PrisonsFormat: ReportCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Details action of the NCSCUP, Control Unit Monitoring project, the NCSCUP Meeting in Wisconsin.