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.

Committee to End the Marion Lockdown

The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) was a movement organization that opposed control unit prisons in particular, and racism and oppression in general. It was founded in 1985 and came to a close in 2000. Over the course of those 15 years, CEML led and organized hundreds of educational programs and demonstrations in many parts of the country and tried to build a national movement against “end-of-the-line” prisons. Along the way the Committee wrote thousands of pages of educational and agitational literature and pioneered new ways of analyzing and fighting against this national quagmire that morphed into the proliferation of the “prison industrial complex.”

Collection includes: Publications on their efforts to shut down the Marion Prison control unit, prevent the opening of USP Florence, CO; protests against toxic water at Crab Orchard Lake; efforts to improve conditions for inmates; efforts to stop the proliferation of Control Units in general; and further human rights and social justice in the US prison system.

Kurshan, N. (2012). OUT OF CONTROL: A Chronological Narrative of the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown's 15 Year Struggle (manuscript ed., p. 1).

Documents

Women and Imprisonment in the US Women and Imprisonment in the US
Author: Nancy KurshanFormat: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
History of women's imprisonment since medieval ages. Discusses the disproportionate ratio of white to minority incarceration rates. Includes feminist discourse. Hard copy is reproduction of version that appeared in Cages of steel, edited by Ward Churchill and J.J. Vanderwall.
Yasu Yasu
Author: Nancy KurshanYear: 2011Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
excerpt from CEML narrative.
José López José López
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1999Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Pamphlet put together for a birthday tribute to José López at the time there was a Cointelpro-like campaign against him.
Tribute to the Rev. Seiichi Michael Yasutake Tribute to the Rev. Seiichi Michael Yasutake
Publisher: Out of Control, Lesbian Committee to Support Women; Political Prisoners and POWsYear: 1996Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Program for tribute to the Executive Director of Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project. November 9, 1996. Chicago, IL
Midwest Regional Hearing: Control Units, Prisons & Political Prisoners Midwest Regional Hearing: Control Units, Prisons & Political Prisoners
Publisher: National Campaign to Stop Control unit PrisonsYear: 1996Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Program for Chicago Event. April 20, 1996
Reflections on the First Year of the Control Unit Prison at Florence Reflections on the First Year of the Control Unit Prison at Florence
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1995Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Collection of personal essays from prisoners. Sent to the October 21st program.
Reflections on Ten Years of the Lockdown at USP Marion Reflections on Ten Years of the Lockdown at USP Marion
Publisher: Committee to End the Marion LockdownYear: 1993Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Reflections of current and former prisoners commemorating tenth anniversary of the lockdown on October 27, 1993.
Breaking Men's Minds: Behavior Control and Human Experimentation at the Federal Prison In Marion, IL. Breaking Men's Minds: Behavior Control and Human Experimentation at the Federal Prison In Marion, IL.
Year: 1993Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Photocopy from: Journal of Prisoners on Prisons Vol. 4 No. 2 (1993). Available online through Journal of Prisoners on Prisons: http://www.jpp.org/documents/forms/JPP4_2/Griffin.pdf
From Alcatraz to Marion to Florence: Control Unit Prisons in the United States From Alcatraz to Marion to Florence: Control Unit Prisons in the United States
Authors: Fay Dowker, Glenn GoodYear: 1993Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Treatise on the history and conditions of Alcatraz and Marion USP. Version also available in Journal of Prisoners on Prisons. 4(2) 1993. Digital version available through external source
Shawnee Control Unit: A Control Unit for Women Shawnee Control Unit: A Control Unit for Women
Authors: Silvia Baraldini, Marilyn Buck, Susan Rosenberg, Laura WhitehornYear: 1992Format: MonographCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Shawnee Control unit as a control unit; The underrepresentation of women as inmates of CU, and the experiences of inmates at Shawnee.