Prisons
Currently the United States has 25% of the world's prison population despite only having 5% of the world's population. This totals to around 2.4 million people behind bars. Since the advent of the war on crime and mass incarceration in the 1970s, there has been a sustained movement to abolish the inhumane conditions and tortuous practices of the US prison industrial complex.
The Scope of this collection includes audio, video and a variety of paper materials all pertaining to prisons and the struggle against them. This is an extremely broad collection with a wealth of knowledge from many prison organizations, both inside and outside, active from c. 1970 to present. The collection can be widely organized in four major areas. The first is general information, narratives, statistics, etc about life in prison and America's carceral society. The second is prison newspapers, published by collaborations between prisoners and free supporters. The third is an extensive collection on prison activists and organizations. The fourth is a number of general sub-collections on some notable prisons and the struggles for self-determination and human rights that occurred and continue.
The Scope of this collection includes audio, video and a variety of paper materials all pertaining to prisons and the struggle against them. This is an extremely broad collection with a wealth of knowledge from many prison organizations, both inside and outside, active from c. 1970 to present. The collection can be widely organized in four major areas. The first is general information, narratives, statistics, etc about life in prison and America's carceral society. The second is prison newspapers, published by collaborations between prisoners and free supporters. The third is an extensive collection on prison activists and organizations. The fourth is a number of general sub-collections on some notable prisons and the struggles for self-determination and human rights that occurred and continue.
Subcollections
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Attica Prison Rebellion
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. -
Control Units
This collection contains materials pertaining to the proliferation of control units and super-max prisons across the US. -
National Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons
The Campaign to Stop Control Unit Prisons was a coalition of individuals and groups inside of prison walls whose goal was to shut down all control units. -
Pelican Bay
This collection contains materials related to Pelican Bay State Prison located in Crescent City, California. This collection includes audio as well as the Pelican Bay Prison Express, a periodical created by an independent citizens solidarity group. -
Prison - General Information
This collection contains materials that relate to life inside of America's prisons. This collection has a wide scope and includes coverage of topics such as medical and mental health care in prison, violence, labor and general information and statistics. -
Prison - Newspapers
This collection contains periodicals focusing on prison and prisoners' rights, most a collaboration between prisoners and outside supporters. -
Prison - Women
This collection contains materials relating to the specific conditions, challenges and struggles facing women in prison. Topics are varied but materials include conference papers, informational materials, legal perspectives and audio recordings. -
Prisoner Rights Organizations
This collection contains organizations that focus on issues of prisoners' rights, mass incarceration, political prisoner support, prison abolition, legal support and human rights. -
Fire Ant
The goals of this project are to raise material aid for imprisoned anarchists, spread information about imprisoned anarchists and anarchy and foster communication between imprisoned and free roaming anarchists.
Documents
Periodical includes articles on Attica, prison struggle, anti-war activists, Vietnam, Tombs Brothers, Ruchell Cinque Magee, Green Haven Prisoners, Madame Binh in Cuba, Rap Brown, Kansas City 4, Billy Dean Smith, Stephanie Kline, James Richardson, Detroit Weather Trial, attack on Israelis at Munich Olympics, Tupamaros.
This documentary brings to life the Yusef Bunchy Shakur story. Shakur’s story serves as an example of redemption, hope and transformation from deep within the belly of Detroit.Born to teenage parents, raised by an alcoholic mother and nurtured by the streets, Shakur co-founded the notorious Detroit “Zone 8” street gang. At age 19, he was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. During his nine-year imprisonment he met his father for the first time. The relationship with his father became the driving force of Shakur’s metamorphosis from a thug to a redeemed human and community leader.
Collection: Attica Prison Rebellion
Frank "Big Black" Smith and L.D. Barkley, who proclaimed the Attica Manifesto, and Elizabeth Fink, an attorney for the Attica Brothers. Barkley was killed in the massacre. Smith survived mass torture to help lead the eventually successful legal battle on behalf of the Attica Brothers.
Date: 9/18/1972Call Number: PM 157Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Bruce Soloway, Paul FisherProgram: WBAICollection: Attica Prison Rebellion
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.
Date: 11/5/1971Call Number: PM 158Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Bruce Soloway, Paul FisherProgram: WBAICollection: Attica Prison Rebellion
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.
Date: 7/2/2001Call Number: PM 166Format: DATProducers: Claude MarksCollection: Attica Prison Rebellion
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.
September 9-13 mark the 44th anniversary of the Attica Rebellion. This massive prison takeover by hundreds of inmates and the callous repression and murders by the state of New York are part of a unique moment in US history. The legacy of Attica and the fight for human rights is carried on in the prisons of Georgia, Ohio, California and wherever people are caged for years on end.
See the Movie "Attica" and learn about the Pontiac Rebellion.
Publisher: Hard Rain, inc.Date: 2/1973Volume Number: FebruaryFormat: PeriodicalCollection: Attica Prison Rebellion
Includes articles on Attica and prison struggle.
Publisher: National Lawyers Guild: New York City ChapterFormat: MonographCollection: Attica Prison Rebellion
Includes Attica prisoners list of demands, information about negotiations between Attica prisoners and prison officials, a timeline of events at Soledad and San Quentin (1969-1971), and statements issued in support of the prison uprisings.