Category: Incarcerated Adults

Incarcerated Adults

Archiving Prisons

I was recently asked about resources around archives, images, and prisons.  Here are three resources that address these topics.

Indiana University Women’s Prison History

A college-course for incarcerated women led to an unveiling of the history of an Indiana prison.  Women read historical texts through their own experience as a way of growing the archive and disturbing the history on the prison.  More on the course is available at Prison history assignment yields surprise, passion for research and a student publication is available at Women’s Prison History: The Undiscovered Country.

Prison Public Memory Project

The Prison Public Memory Project works to unearth histories and relate them to contemporary issues around incarceration and penal systems.  It includes archival photographs and records alongside new media and oral histories.

Prison Photography

Prison Photography is a collaborative effort to include recent and archival images of prisoners (I believe it is primarily focused on the United States).  Here is a highlighted project that disrupts the boundaries of time by including the notes of present-day prisoners on historical images – Vast Archive of 10,000 Negatives Unearthed at San Quentin

Access, Incarcerated Adults, Reading

Access and Making Meaning

John Oliver, on Last Week Tonight, recently highlighted an often unaddressed aspect of library services to incarcerated people.  In an example that pales many mentions of what access to materials can mean for people who are imprisoned or maintained, Oliver highlights an individual formerly detained in Guantánamo discussing his experiences there.

Oliver is correct in mentioning that libraries in prison and detainment centers are considered ‘luxuries’ by many people (hinting that they are often used as a gesture toward reform), the words of this former detainee reflect the true value of library services to incarcerated and detained people.  He describes Guantánamo as equivalent to Azkaban, the prison in Harry Potter – a place where there is no possibility of feeling.

Watching this clip, I was struck by how access to materials can potentially assist people in understanding the worlds they inhabit (or have been forced to inhabit).  The full clip is available on-line at