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

Pelican Bay Program (1 of 2) Pelican Bay Program (1 of 2)
Date: 10/1/1991Call Number: PM 220Format: CassetteCollection: Pelican Bay
Corey Weinstein and Catherine Campbell discuss their trip to Pelican Bay Prison in Northern California as part of a legal delegation affiliated with the Real Dragon Prison Project. Included are descriptions of Control Units and the infamous "SHU de-briefing” techniques, as well as the prison system’s use of informants and the effects of the psychological torture used against prisoners. Weinstein and Campbell also dispel some of the myths surrounding the "worst of the worst" label put on many prisoners housed in Pelican Bay and expose the roundup of anti-authoritarian and prisoner with organizing and leadership potential.
Pelican Bay Program (2 of 2) Pelican Bay Program (2 of 2)
Date: 10/1/1991Call Number: PM 221Format: CassetteCollection: Pelican Bay
CONTINUED FROM PM 220: Corey Weinstein and Catherine Campbell continue their discussion of the conditions within the Pelican Bay Prison. Weinstein and Campbell elaborate on the relationships between different prison groups, guard torture and brutality, and the economic condition and opinions of the communities surrounding Pelican Bay Prison.
Interview with Susan Rosenberg about conditions in the women’s political prison, Lexington. Interview with Susan Rosenberg about conditions in the women’s political prison, Lexington.
Call Number: PM 438AFormat: Cass AProducers: Sally O’Brian, Terry BissonCollection: Political Prisoners- General Info
Interview with Susan Rosenberg, an American revoluntionary anti-imperialist female political prisoner, about Lexington prison. . Susan Rosenberg describes the focus of Lexington as “the psychological element of incarceration to disintigrate the personality”. She speaks about the terribly harsh and restrictive conditions of Lexington, as well as the psychological impact of the prison. Rosenberg speaks about how every prisoner is there for political reasons, as the control unit is not based on disciplinary measures, but on classificationof who and what the prisoners are associated with. Susan Rosenberg’s attorney, Michael Schubert, speaks about the isolation and solitary confinement the Lesington prisoners experience, and how such isolation is aimed at keeping the prisoners isolated from politics.
Pelican Bay Prisoners Pelican Bay Prisoners
Date: 1/15/1996Call Number: PM 316Format: Cass A & BProducers: Prison Activist Resource CenterProgram: On The OutsideCollection: Political Prisoner Periodicals
Corey Weinstein and Leslie DiBenedetto discuss the Pelican Bay Information Project (PBIP) and its efforts to end prisoner abuse. Also includes an interview with a prisoner who speaks about prisoner resistance, human rights and conditions.
Political Prisoners in US Control Units Political Prisoners in US Control Units
Date: 1/24/1992Call Number: PM 407Format: CassetteProgram: KPFA BrainstormCollection: Marianna Penitentiary
Discussion of Control Unit prisons with interviews by Bo Rita Brown. Interview with Dr. Corey Weinstein, and Political Prisoners Susan Rosenberg and Sylvia Baraldini while imprisoned at Marianna, Florida.
Lexington Prison Interviews 1987 Lexington Prison Interviews 1987
Date: 5/1/1987Call Number: CD 779Format: CDProducers: Judy GerberCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Alejandrina Torres, Silvia Baraldini, and Susan Rosenberg describe their living conditions at the control unit of the federal women’s prison in Lexington which opened in 1986. The interviews stress the importance of public pressure to have the unit closed.
Pelican Bay Program (1 of 2) Pelican Bay Program (1 of 2)
Date: 10/1/1991Call Number: CD 781Format: CDCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Corey Weinstein and Catherine Campbell discuss their trip to Pelican Bay Prison as part of a legal delegation affiliated with the Real Dragon Prison Project. Included are descriptions of Control Units and the infamous "SHU de-briefing” techniques, as well as the prison system’s use of informants and the effects of the psychological torture used against prisoners. Weinstein and Campbell also dispel some of the myths surrounding the "worst of the worst" label put on many prisoners housed in Pelican Bay and expose the roundup of antiauthoritarian and prisoner with organizing and leadership potential.
Pelican Bay Program (2 of 2) Pelican Bay Program (2 of 2)
Date: 10/1/1991Call Number: CD 782Format: CDCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
CONTINUED FROM PM 220: Corey Weinstein and Catherine Campbell continue their discussion of the conditions within the Pelican Bay Prison. Weinstein and Campbell elaborate on the relationships between different prison groups, guard torture and brutality, and the economic condition and opinions of the communities surrounding Pelican Bay Prison.
Political Prisoners in US Control Units Political Prisoners in US Control Units
Date: 1/24/1992Call Number: CD 797Format: CDProgram: KPFA BrainstormCollection: Compact discs and videos representing digitized copies of analog tapes
Discussion of Control Unit prisons with interviews by Bo Rita Brown. Interview with Dr. Corey Weinstein, and Political Prisoners Susan Rosenberg and Sylvia Baraldini while imprisoned at Marianna, Florida.
Voices on and of Prisons Voices on and of Prisons
Date: 2/1/1996Call Number: PM 417AFormat: Cass AProducers: WMVA AmherstProgram: UndercurrentsCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Steve Whitman on: The basics of imprisonment rates, racial hysteria and its beginnings, what kind of people are in control units and how control units are used against political prisoners, as well as the Amnesty International investigation into control units violations of human rights.