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Historians and the Carceral State

Examining histories of mass incarceration and views on teaching histories of the carceral state.
via Process: A Blog for American History on June 18, 2015
Prisoners hoeing a field at Cummins Prison Farm in Arkansas, 1972.

Prison Plantations

One man’s archive of a vanished culture.
by Maurice Chammah via The Marshall Project on May 1, 2015

The Awakening of Thurgood Marshall

The case he didn’t expect to lose. And why it mattered that he did.
by Gilbert King via The Marshall Project on November 20, 2014
A crew of inmate firefighters begins to work on containment during the Hughes Fire in California in 2025.
partner

The Troubling Slavery-Era Origins of Inmate Firefighting

The history of enslaved firefighters offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on involuntary labor to fight blazes.
by Justin Hawkins via Made By History on January 31, 2025
A young girl in profile with syringes looming behind and a reddish, gritty spiral behind

New Docs Link CIA to Medical Torture of Indigenous Children and Black Prisoners

While we may never know the full truth, we owe it to those harmed and killed to illuminate their stories.
by Orisanmi Burton via Truthout on June 22, 2023
A woman behind bars, and hands writing.

A History of Incarceration by Women Who Have Lived Through It

The members of the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project scrutinize official records not only for what they reveal, but also for what they omit.
by Rachael Bedard via The New Yorker on May 22, 2023
Collage of Holmesburg Prison aerial view with a gloved hand picking up a medical vial in the foreground.

Holmesburg Prison's Medical Experiments Are Philadelphia's 'Lasting Shame'

For over 20 years, Dr. Albert Kligman experimented on incarcerated men at Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison. Those who profited have yet to redress the harm.
by Tamar Sarai via Prism on May 15, 2023
Women feeding chickens at the Indiana Reformatory Institution for Women and Girls.

The Forgotten History of America’s First Public Women’s Prison

The editors of a new book talk about the history of the Indiana facility — written by people who were held there almost 150 years later.
by Candice Norwood, Elizabeth Nelson, Michelle Daniel Jones via The 19th on March 23, 2023
Agnes Wilkinson, Ahmeenah Young, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons.

Black Power Meets Police Power

The experiences of Michael and Zoharah Simmons show that the fight against the carceral state is embedded in a larger project of building a just world.
by Dan Berger via Inquest on January 24, 2023

Inventing Solitary

In 1790, Philadelphia opened the first American penitentiary, with the nation’s first solitary cells. Black people were disproportionately punished from the start.
by Samantha Melamed via Philadelphia Inquirer on June 8, 2022
Book cover for Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage," showing a photo of incarcerated men speaking to the media.

How Rikers Island Made New York

In “Captives,” former Rikers detainee Jarrod Shanahan traces the history of New York City’s sprawling jail complex, and its centrality to brutal class struggle.
by Jarrod Shanahan, Alana Mohamed via Hell Gate on May 16, 2022
The Rikers Island docks.

The Long Crisis on Rikers Island

A new book about Rikers Island is essentially a labor history, revealing how jail guards seized control from managers, politicians, and judges.
by Brendan O'Connor via The Baffler on May 12, 2022
Photograph of woman interrogated by soldier at Korean prisoner-of-war camp

A Permanent Battle

A new history draws on recently declassified archives to illustrate how the Korean War was an intimate civil conflict, not just a proxy battle between superpowers.
by E. Tammy Kim via New York Review of Books on May 5, 2022
Photograph of prison warden T. M. Osborne and two other men in a penitentiary hallway.

Were Early American Prisons Similar to Today's?

A correctional officer’s history of 19th century prisons and modern-day parallels. From Sing Sing to suicide watch, torture treads a fine line.
by Charles Neal via JSTOR Daily on January 19, 2022
Zoomed in 1949 map of Atlanta.

A Brief History of the Atlanta City Prison Farm

Slave labor, overcrowding, and unmarked graves — the buried history of Atlanta City Prison Farm from the 1950s to 1990s shows it’s no place of honor.
via Atlanta Community Press Collective on August 14, 2021

Everything You Know About Mass Incarceration Is Wrong

The US carceral state is a monstrosity with few parallels in history. But most accounts fail to understand how it was created, and how we can dismantle it.
by Adaner Usmani, Jacobin via Jacobin on March 17, 2020

Uncovering the Truth About a Raid on the Black Panthers

How a team of lawyers exposed lies about police violence.
by Flint Taylor via Literary Hub on February 25, 2019
Map of the Panama Canal Zone

The Unknown History of Japanese Internment in Panama

The historical narrative surrounding the wartime confinement of ethnic Japanese in the United States grows ever more complex.
by Greg Robinson, Maxime Minne via Discover Nikkei on April 26, 2018

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