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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

Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control?
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: PM 336Format: Cass A & BProducers: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML)Collection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Mind Control or Social Control? About closing the control units at Marion Prison. Nancy Kurshan of CEML (Committee to End the Marion Lockdown), Dr. Alan Berkman who has provided medical care for Black Liberation Army and Panther members as well as AIM activists at Wounded Knee in the 1970s. Berkman also speaks about being a former political prisoner, the prison system and control units as forms of social control which target revolutionary movements. Film segments about former LA gang member and Pelican Bay prisoner Sanyika Shakur. Transcript available for download.
Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? CEML #3 Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? CEML #3
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: PM 345AFormat: Cass AProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
A program sponsored by the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), an organization dedicated to closing the control units at Marion Prison. Nancy Kurshan of CEML introduces Jose Lopez, Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, member of the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional, and brother of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera. He discusses the connections between American colonialism/imperialism and the extensive use of prisons in the US. This tape is a continuation of PM 336. Transcript available for download.
Law and Order Hysteria and the US Imprisonment Binge Law and Order Hysteria and the US Imprisonment Binge
Date: 8/22/1994Call Number: V 361Format: VHSProducers: The Campaign to Confront the Racist Imprisonment Binge, the National Lawyers Guild Chicago ChapterCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Forum held at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois about racism in prisons - includes testimonies of formerly incarcerated people. Moderated by Erica Thompson, Speakers: Jerome Miller, Carlos Vega, Randolph Stone.
Mass Incarceration: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown Mass Incarceration: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: PM 383Format: CassetteCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Mass incarceration and how money is being taken from education and put into expanding prisons. Also how prisons are being privatized and people are being exploited for labor.
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.
Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control?
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: PM 419Format: Cass A & BProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
A program sponsored by the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), an organization dedicated to closing the control units at Marion Prison. Nancy Kurshan of CEML introduces Jose Lopez, Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, member of the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional, and brother of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera. He discusses the connections between American colonialism/imperialism and the extensive use of prisons in the US. This tape is a better copy of PM 336 and PM 345 A. Transcript available for download.
CEML Ex-Prisoner Panel and Discussion CEML Ex-Prisoner Panel and Discussion
Date: 3/16/1990Call Number: PM 424Format: Cass A & BProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Former political prisoners talking about their struggles, cases and the cruel policies and procedures of control unit prisons.
Workshop #3 - Part 1 Workshop #3 - Part 1
Date: 10/1/1990Call Number: PM 425Format: Cass A & BProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
One of the first strategy sessions to organize resistance to the opening of USP Florence CO and to shut down all control units. Facilitated by Steve Whitman.
Workshop #3 - Part 2 Workshop #3 - Part 2
Date: 10/1/1990Call Number: PM 427Format: Cass A & BProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
One of the first strategy sessions to organize resistance to the opening of USP Florence CO and to shut down all control units. Facilitated by Steve Whitman.
Marion Evening Program - Part 1 Marion Evening Program - Part 1
Date: 10/1/1990Call Number: PM 426AFormat: Cass AProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Program includes speakers from American Indian Movement, and Safiya Bukhari-Alston, former member of the Black Liberation Movement speaking out against Marion Control Unit. Facilitated by Nancy Kurshan.