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

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.
Notice: Recent Changes in the Law Notice: Recent Changes in the Law
Format: ReportCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Changes in law affecting the inmate population of South Carolina. Part of 8/1997 mailing.
Public morality and the Supermax Prison: Madison Urban Ministry Social Justice Task Force Public morality and the Supermax Prison: Madison Urban Ministry Social Justice Task Force
Publisher: Ed SteichenFormat: StatementCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Statement against building supermax prison in Madison, WI and the psychological effects of isolation and sensory deprivation on inmates. Part of 8/1997 mailing.
Public Witness to Opposition to the "Supermax" Public Witness to Opposition to the "Supermax"
Publisher: Jean EdenFormat: CorrespondenceCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Public witness letter against the building of a supermax prison in Madison, WI. Part of 8/1997 mailing.
Control Units in Pennsylvania Control Units in Pennsylvania
Format: ReportCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Information on S.M.U at S.C.I. Camp Hill and Green, PA. Part of 3/1997 mailing.
Who is Howard Peters and why is he doing those things? Who is Howard Peters and why is he doing those things?
Publisher: Campaign to Confront the Racist Imprisonment BingeFormat: FlyerCollection: American Friends Service Committee
Information on policies and conditions of prisons under the leadership of Howard Peters III. Part of 1/5/1995 AFSC Memorandum.