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

Women in Prison Women in Prison
Date: 1/1/1993Call Number: V 160Format: VHSProducers: A, E - Bill Kurtis ProductionsCollection: Videos in many formats – both camera originals as well as reference materials
For years, they were a tiny fraction of America's prison population. But now, the number of women behind bars is growing substantially, and the penal system is ill-equipped to deal with them. Go inside some of America's most troubled jails for a firsthand look at WOMEN IN PRISON. Within any prison's walls, daily life among gangbangers and drugs causes fear and anxiety. But for female convicts, there is the added pain of days spent worrying about their children. Many female prisoners are single parents whose children are cast into the abuse-ridden child-welfare system when they are incarcerated. Interviews with inmates, prison officials and psychologists highlight the many shortcomings of the current system and point to the changes that must be made as more and more women are sentenced to jail time. Meet activists who are campaigning for prison reform, and repeat offenders who exemplify the worst effects of the reality of WOMEN IN PRISON. It's a revealing look at a little-known aspect of the justice system.