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.

Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Support Women Prisoners

Out of Control (OOC) was a self-supporting committee formed in 1987 to organize resistance to the Lexington Control Unit for women. Through connections with other grassroots campaigns, churches and civil rights groups, the 10 women of OOC sought to expose the brutality of this federal penitentiary, culminating in a lawsuit and the closure of Lexington. For 10 years of active struggle the group aligned itself with 25 women political prisoners, provided support work for HIV positive prisoners, and battered women convicted of killing their abusers. The group started the Women Political Prisoners Commissary Fund in tandem with LAGAI, and co-hosted an annual Sparks Fly benefit to commemorate International Women Political Prisoners Day on November 2nd. In 1989 they began publication of Out Of Time newsletter which eventually became an insert to Ultra Violet, LAGAI’s newsletter.

The collection covers publications and correspondences from 1987-200, including promotional materials for OOC’s annual Sparks Fly benefit. Many items were scanned on loan and are only available online.

"Out of Control Lesbian Committee to Support Women Political Prisoners." Prison Activist Resource Center, n.d. Web. 6 Aug. 2012. .

Documents

Letter to "Sisters and Brothers" Letter to "Sisters and Brothers"
Publisher: Out of ControlYear: 1991Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Support Women Prisoners
1 copy missing last page
Letter to "Sisters and Brothers" Letter to "Sisters and Brothers"
Publisher: Out of ControlFormat: CorrespondenceCollection: Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Support Women Prisoners
Includes handwritten notes
Letter to "Sisters and Brothers" Letter to "Sisters and Brothers"
Authors: Bo (Rita Brown), Julie and BluePublisher: Out of ControlYear: 1991Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Out of Control: Lesbian Committee to Support Women Prisoners
Reproduction