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Prisons

Since the construction of prisons, there has been a growing movement to abolish the inhumane conditions and tortuous practices of the US prison industrial complex. The Scope of this collection includes publications and general media regarding prison struggle. This is an extremely broad collection with a wealth of knowledge from many prison organizations active from c. 1970 to present. The focus of the collection centers around the struggle to free political prisoners, as well as the methods of torture employed in their imprisonment. Includes information and articles by current and former political prisoners, news clippings and media surrounding resistance movements, prisoners unions, organizations concerned with people’s struggle as well as Information on struggles against oppression and the protection of prisoners rights.

Subcollections

  • Medical Care In Prison
    This collection contains audio and print materials related to health and medical care in prison.
  • Aplan Anarchist
    The Anarchist Prisoners Legal Aid Network (APLAN) is an Anarchist organization that provides legal aid to known anarchist prisoners and publishes the newsletter We Never Sleep.
  • Break the Chains
    Break the Chains is a non-hierarchical collective working toward building an egalitarian society free of prisons. Their focus is on prison issues, including fighting state repression, prisoner support and prison abolition.
  • Buffalo Chip
    Buffalo Chip is a quarterly newsletter published by Nebraskans for Justice to provide information about justice issues in the US, especially political prisoners. Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa are often the focus.
  • Bulldozer
    The Bulldozer collective was formed in February 1980 when 4-5 activists from various places in southern Ontario decided to put out newsletters (Prison News Service/ The Marionette) dealing with prison-related issues.
  • Cointelpro
    This collection contains material on the FBI program COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program). This program served to disrupt, destroy and infiltrate many progressive organizations during the 60s-70s in the U.S.
  • 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.
  • Control Units
    This collection contains materials pertaining to the proliferation of control units and super-max prisons across the US.
  • Critical Resistance
    Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the prison industrial complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. It was formed in 1997.
  • Cuban Prisoners
    This collection contains materials about Cuban political prisoners being held in the United States. The main focus is on the Cuban Five.
  • Death penalty
    This collection contains materials related to the morality of the death penalty and its effectiveness as a method of punishment.
  • Death Penalty/Waiting Room Rick Kamler
    Based upon specifications of the death row visiting room at San Quentin Prison, California, Richard Kamler\'s The Waiting Room is an interactive installation of images, sounds, and citizens.
  • Drugs in Prisons
    Contents include materials from the Drug Policy Alliance\'s Breaking the Chains Conference (2002), assorted news clippings around the topic and a digitally available comic book, Prisoners of the War on Drugs.
  • Folsom Manifesto
    The Folsom Manifesto was written in 1970 and served as the catalyst for a 19 day strike. Over 2,400 prisoners participated and refused to leave their cells for nineteen days, in the face of constant hunger, discomfort, and psychological intimidation.
  • Freedom Now
    Freedom Now was a national organization committed to building a broad movement in support of human rights and amnesty for political prisoners and p.o.w.s in the USA.
  • Freedom Now FN - Tribunal
  • Grand Jury
    This collection contains materials pertaining to the use of grand juries to repress political movements. Resources include historical context, what to do if the FBI shows up and principles of non-collaboration.
  • HRC: Human Rights Campaign
    Inaugurated in 1988, the Human Rights Campaign for Political Prisoners was a coalition of families and friends of political prisoners, professionals, religious leaders, and community activists.
  • Insurgent
    The Insurgent was the newsletter of the Committee to Fight Repression based in New York City.
  • Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience
    Prisoners of Conscience is a religious and community based organization supporting prisoners of conscience or political prisoners in the United States.
  • Justice for John
    This collection contains 8 press releases regarding the imprisonment of John C. Ewing.
  • Justice Matters
    This collection contains the newsletters of the Western Prison Project, now known as Partnership for Safety and Justice, based in Portland, Oregon. They focus on prison activism and the criminal justice reform movement in the Western United States.
  • LA Prison Times
    This collection contains copies of the LA Prison Times. The purpose of the LA Prison Times is to provide a common platform to represent the diverse L.A. organizations doing critical work around criminal justice issues.
  • Lexington Control Unit for Women
    The Lexington Control Unit was an experimental government prison built to house five women political prisoners. This collection contains materials related to the campaign to shut it down, its conditions and the women forced to live there.
  • Literary Prisoners
    This collection contains writings and literary selections mostly from political prisoners in the United States.
  • Marianna Penitentiary
    This collection features materials describing the conditions at Marianna FCI, opened in August 1988. Topics include misogyny, racism, psychological control, lack of programming, and the presence of women political prisoners.
  • Marion
    This collection contains a history of Marion Prison, the Marion lock-down and the subsequent creation of the Marion Control Unit and current situation at Marion.
  • Midnight Special
    Published by the National Lawyers Guild, Midnight Special served to provide news of the situation within the prisons from the prisoners point of view and disseminate legal information which will be a direct help in securing and expanding prisoner rights.
  • Military Tribunals
    This collection contains materials related to military courts, tribunals and treatment of Prisoners of War.
  • Missouri Prison Labor Union
    The Missouri Prison Labor Union was organized by prisoners and supporters in 1998 in the hope of bettering the living and working conditions in the state of Missouri prison system.
  • Native Prisoners
    This collection contains materials and information relating to native and indigenous people incarcerated in the United States.
  • New Afrikan Prisoners
    This collection contains materials related to New Afrikan political prisoners and prisoners of war.
  • Pelican Bay
    This collection contains materials related to Pelican Bay State Prison located in Crescent City, California. Includes audio as well as copies of the Pelican Bay Prison Express, a periodical created by an independent citizens solidarity group.
  • Pontiac Brothers
    This collection contains materials stemming from the 1978 Pontiac Prison Rebellion in Pontiac, Illinois. Thirty-one prisoners were prosecuted for roles in the 1978 rebellion, one of the largest prison riots in the United States.
  • Prison Art Newsletter
    Founded by former political prisoner Ed Mead, Prison Art Newsletter was created to provide an outlet for the sale of crafts and artwork created by political prisoners. It draws articles and perspectives from voices inside of outside of prison walls.
  • Prison Conditions
    This collection contains audio and paper documents detailing various aspects of living conditions inside of US prisons.
  • Prison Focus
    Prison Focus is a publication of California Prison Focus, a nonprofit organization that works with and on behalf of prisoners in California control units and other institutions.
  • Prison Labor
    This collection contains materials related to prison labor, the prison industrial complex and the growing links between corporations and incarceration.
  • Prison Newspapers
    This collection contains the prison publications Anvil, Arm the Spirit and The Outlaw. These publications were fueled by the modern prison movement and the growing mass militancy of the 1970s.
  • Prisoners Union
    The Prisoners Union had its origins in a 1971 work strike at Folsom Prison. The organization was named the Prisoners Union to stress the idea that certain goals were being sought by all who suffer the same conditions of confinement.
  • Prisons - Stats, General
    This collection contains historical background, statistics and organizing information focused on the US prison population.
  • Prisons - Visitor Search
    This collection contains materials related to visiting searches conducted in federal prisons.
  • Prisons - Youth
    This collection contains audio and paper materials related to juvenile justice and incarceration. The criminalization of youth, conditions inside of juvenile facilities and poetry and art are three major focuses.
  • Private Prisons
    Private prisons or for-profit prisons, have been an integral part of the corrections industry since the 1990s. These prisons are operated by publically traded companies and generate revenue based on how many prisoners they house.
  • Race and the Prison System
    This collection contains materials relating to the connections between race and imprisonment in the United States.
  • Raza Prison
    This collection contains materials relating to prisoners who identify themselves or their struggle under La Raza.
  • San Quentin Six
    The San Quentin Six were a group of six prisoners at San Quentin Prison in California who were accused of participating in an August 21, 1971 escape attempt that left six people dead, including George Jackson.
  • Sentencing Guide/Corres
    This collection contains materials relating to sentencing guidelines in the United States.
  • Tear Down The Walls Political Prisoner Conference
  • Torture
    This collection contains materials that pertain to torture. Most of the materials relate to torture in prison but some relate to police torture and torture internationally.
  • United Prisoners Union
    The United Prisoners Union was formed in 1970 in California by attorneys and ex-prisoners. By 1973, it had split into two groups, the Prison Union which focused on prison issues and the United Prisoners Union which allied with radical Bay Area groups.
  • Violence in Prison
    This collection contains materials relating to the barbaric, state sanctioned violence that occurs in prisons across the United States.
  • Real Dragon Prison Project
    Book published annually from 1985-1996, contains poetry, inspirational pieces, political updates and graphics produced by activists to send a once a year gift of love and solidarity to currently incarcerated prisoners of war and political prisoners.
  • Abolitionist
    The Abolitionist is a bilingual Spanish/English magazine published by Critical Resistance and dedicated to challenging and dismantling the prison industrial complex
  • Attica
    The Attica Rebellion lasted from September 9-13 1971 and serves as the largest prison rebellion in US history as well as a symbol for prison resistance for decades to follow.
  • American Friends Service Committee
    A social justice organization of people of faith committed to justice and peace through humanitarian service and political action.
  • Irish Republican Army
    This collection contains materials from the Irish struggle for self-determination. Specific focuses of the collection include information on the Irish Republican Army, prison resistance, and international solidarity campaigns.
  • Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)
    This underground movement has been at the forefront of the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of war solidarity movement since the early 20th century.
  • Graphics
  • Mental Health
  • NAPD

Documents

Big Black speaks at Attica anniversary event Big Black speaks at Attica anniversary event
Call Number: PM 052Format: CassetteProgram: Prison MovementCollection: Attica
Big Black (Frank Smith) speaks about “where we should see ourselves in 1977”; US as prison state; need for intra-racial and inter-racial solidarity; responsibility and commitment to political organizing; ends with Q and A session
Remember Attica: Blackout Remember Attica: Blackout
Date: 9/18/1972Call Number: PM 157Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Bruce Soloway, Paul FisherProgram: WBAICollection: Attica
Part III of the “Remember Attica” series. Following the Attica rebellion state officials imposed a news blackout. Days after the state troopers violently ended the rebellion many reporters, lawyers, relatives and doctors are not allowed inside. Commissioner of the State Department of Corrections, Jerry Hoolinan gives a press conference, but offers no answers to the events of the preceding days. The special assistant to the Deputy Attorney General, Robert E. Fisher, gives a public statement and yet leaves the public with no answers. Authorities offer only official statements to the press. The press corners prison guards visiting Attica from other institutions, doctors, lawyers and relatives of prisoners for information. The relatives are worried and were told they could visit , but were not allowed in when they arrived. The doctors and lawyer allowed inside the prison are able to give accounts of the attacks and conditions.
Remember Attica: Reconstruction, Reflection, Reaction Remember Attica: Reconstruction, Reflection, Reaction
Date: 11/5/1971Call Number: PM 158Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Bruce Soloway, Paul FisherProgram: WBAICollection: Attica
Part V of the “Remember Attica” series. Responses of clergy, attorneys, doctors, congressmen and the prisoner’s relatives in the weeks following the rebellion. Lawyers were admitted on 9/17/71. A week later the National Lawyers Guild gave a press conference outside the prison. They concluded that Rockefeller, and prison officials (Oswald, Mancusi and Vincent) provoked the attack by giving wrongful information to guards and troopers. On 9/17/71 BUILD, black community activists in Buffalo, went to Meyer Memorial Hospital where seriously wounded prisoners had been taken. BUILD’s executive director, Bill Gater demands that the administrative director of the hospital let him see the prisoners or give him information on their conditions. A list of prisoners and their medical conditions is read. The next day clergy and relatives are let in to see patients. Reverend Richard Ford, president of BUILD speaks about the conditions of the prisoners. Committees were formed to investigate the events at Attica. A group of New York clergymen and a congressional delegation group speak on Attica.Finally on 9/29 relatives are let into the prison to speak with prisoners. Interviews are conducted with families exiting prison.
Interview with Elizabeth Fink about the Attica Rebellion in 1971 Interview with Elizabeth Fink about the Attica Rebellion in 1971
Date: 7/2/2001Call Number: PM 166Format: DATProducers: Claude MarksCollection: Attica
Claude Marks interviews Elizabeth Fink, one of the main lawyers for the Attica Brothers Defense Committeeabout the history of the Attica Prison Rebellion and its aftermath.
Lexington Prison Interviews (1987) Lexington Prison Interviews (1987)
Date: 5/1/1987Call Number: PM 184AFormat: Cass AProducers: Judy GerberCollection: Lexington Control Unit for Women
Political prisoners 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: radical isolation, constant surveillance, sensory deprivation, no personal property, limited visits, etc. Defined by the government as the most dangerous women in prison for their political activities in various anti-war and liberation movements, Torres, Baraldini, and Rosenberg have been subjected to a sophisticated kind of psychological torture. According to them they have been used as examples of the consequences to be expected if one challenges the hegemony of US power. The interviews stress the importance of public pressure to have the unit closed.
Lexington Prison Interviews (1987) Lexington Prison Interviews (1987)
Date: 5/1/1987Call Number: PM 185AFormat: Cass AProducers: Judy GerberCollection: Lexington Control Unit for Women
Same as PM 184 Political prisoners 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: radical isolation, constant surveillance, sensory deprivation, no personal property, limited visits, etc. Defined by the government as the most dangerous women in prison for their political activities in various anti-war and liberation movements, Torres, Baraldini, and Rosenberg have been subjected to a sophisticated kind of psychological torture. According to them they have been used as examples of the consequences to be expected if one challenges the hegemony of US power. 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: 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.
Attica 1971 Attica 1971
Call Number: PM 260 AFormat: Cass ACollection: Attica
During the radio show, the Attica prison takeover was currently in action. Beginning with folk music, the radio host gives insightful information about the prison struggle through thoughtful spoken word. The host also provides current news about the rebellion, George Jackson, Juan Ortiz, prison conditions, negotiations, hostages (guards), Rockefeller, and the demands of many inmates being sent in exile to a non-imperialist country. The radio show ends with readings from black women poets.
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.