About Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies

 

Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies is a curated database that provides a rare breadth of study for students to investigate both crucial global trends in mass incarceration, and the detailed prison infrastructure of specific countries. Mass Incarceration and Prison Studies is organized around a selection of key historical and contemporary events and themes, bringing together archival and reference materials, court cases, first-hand accounts, videos, Supreme Court audio files, research on rehabilitation, training materials and artistic works. 

Statistically, the U.S. incarcerates more people than other countries around the world. The collection examines prison populations in the US and globally, and their relationship to major prison labor systems; and how correctional facilities may serve as central service providers for those with mental health issues.  Other events include: the use of the death penalty; the history of correctional institutions for juvenile offenders; internment camps and ethnic groups; prison gangs and riots; the loss of rights for prisoners.  Materials are featured on specific prisons such as Alcatraz, Sing Sing, Rikers, Norway’s prison, Halden fengsel and its rehabilitation within the prison system. Students have the opportunity to survey the topic of DNA for prisoner exoneration; the U.S. War on Drugs; prison culture and identity; and the prison industrial complex. 

Browsing by “Subjects” offers a comprehensive way to access this new collection.  The wide array of subjects includes:  AIDS, alternatives to imprisonment, children of prisoners, commercial products made in prisons, forced resettlement and transgender persons. 

Content Highlights & Sources

Marina Parker’s BBC Worldwide film “Execution,” the story of capital punishment through the eyes of young people.

Materials related to Japanese Internment Camps include archival abstracts of witness testimony; biographical witness information; testimony of congressmen and of Pulitzer Prize winning writer Studs Terkel. 

The award-winning playwright/novelist Kia Corthron’s play “Megastasis” about the War on Drugs.

“The women political prisoners and their situation in the female wing of the ‘Tres Alamos’ detention camp,” describing the camp operated from 1974 to 1976 during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile. 

An exclusive, in-depth interview with Katherine Vockins, the founder of Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) at Sing Sing prison.

The books “Women in Solitary” presenting the powerful testimony of six women who were in solitary confinement in New York State Prisons and “Regulating Police Detention: Voices from behind closed doors” including the voices of detainees.

Archives, Foundations, and Rare Books 

  • Senate House, University of London
    Selections on the history of prisons and incarceration from the Bromhead Library Special Collections; Family Welfare Association Library Special Collections 
  • National Archives Records Administration
    Records of the National Recovery Administration, 1927 - ca. 1939 (RG9). Records Relating to Prison Labor, 1934 - 1935 (PI 44 334) 
  • Russell Sage Foundation
    Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration Why Are So Many Americans in Prison? 

Publishers  

  • ABC-CLIO 
    Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia 
  • Bristol University Press 
    Reshaping Probation and Prisons 
  • Fordham University Press 
    Death and Other Penalties: Philosophy in a Time of Mass Incarceration 
  • L’Harmattan 
    Le Prisonnier : Récit d'une Incarcération 
    Vivre avec la Prison : des Familles Face à L'Incarcération d'un Proche 
    Une Mère en Prison ou L'Apprentissage de la Résistance : Uruguay 1972-1976 : Récit 
    Les Usages Sociaux du Théâtre Hors ses Murs 
  • National Academy Press 
    The Growth of Incarceration in the United States 
  • New York University Press 
    Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration 
    5 Grams: Crack Cocaine, Rap Music, and the War on Drugs 
  • Oxford University Press 
    Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality 
    Harsh Justice: Criminal Punishment and the Widening Divide Between America and Europe 
    Concentration Camps: A Short History 
  • PM Press 
    Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women 
  • Routledge 
    Contrasts in Punishment: An Explanation of Anglophone Excess and Nordic Exceptionalism 
  • Temple University Press 
    The Disenfranchisement of Ex-Felons 
  • University of Bristol. Policy Press 
    Imprisonment Worldwide: The Current Situation And An Alternative Future 
    Competition for Prisons: Public Or Private? 
    Getting Out and Staying Out: Results Of The Prisoner Resettlement Pathfinders 
  • University of California Press 
    Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States 

 Video

  • BBC Worldwide 
    Miami Mega-Jail, Part 1 & 2; Tough Justice: Texas Style 
  • Daedalus Productions 
    Through the Wire; Lock Up: The Prisoners of Rikers Island 
  • Music Video Distributors 
    Not for Rent! 
  • Parallel Lines 
    Thanatos Rx 
  • TVF International 
    He Didn't Do It 
    Three Sons Behind Bars 
  • Windrose 
    Behind the Bars 
  • L’Harmattan 
    La Récidive en Question 

Editorial Board

Hannah Elsisi, Lecturer in Modern Middle East History, King’s College London 

https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/hannah-elsisi

 

Julie Murphy Erfani, Associate Professor, Arizona State University 

https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/40266

Catherine Filloux, Playwright, Social Justice 

https://www.catherinefilloux.com/

Amy S. Green, Chairperson & Associate Professor, John Jay U.  School of Criminal Justice 

https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/amy-green-0

Anna Gunderson, Professor of Political Science, Louisiana State University 

https://www.lsu.edu/hss/polisci/faculty_and_staff/gunderson.php

Vivian D. Nixon, Executive Director, College & Community Fellowship 

https://www.collegeandcommunity.org/vivian-nixon

James Oleson, Associate Professor, University of Auckland  

http://www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/people/jole011

Andrew Taylor, Research Scientist, Research Analyst at Vera Institute of Justice 

https://www.vera.org/people/andrew-taylor

 

 

Sensitivity Statement and Takedown Policy

Materials contained on the Alexander Street platform include historical content that may contain offensive language, negative stereotypes or inaccurate representations. Alexander Street does not endorse the views expressed in such materials, but believes they should be made available in context to enable scholarly comparison, analysis and research.

In making material available online, Alexander Street and our content partners act in good faith. To the best of our knowledge, content contained within these collections has been cleared for publication by the appropriate rights holders and has not been placed under any restrictions for privacy, cultural or other sensitivities. If you have found material for which you believe you hold the copyright without proper attribution, which contravenes privacy laws, or which is a breach of the protocols determining accession provision for heritage materials which reflect indigenous history, culture, language or perspective, please contact us in writing at history@alexanderstreet.com. Please include with your query:

1. Your full name

2. Your contact information

3. URL to the content in question

4. The reason for your inquiry

Upon receipt of inquiries, the following steps will be undertaken:

1. Inquirer will receive confirmation of receipt.

2. Alexander Street will contact the holding source and/or any related copyright holder to notify of the inquiry.

3. Alexander Street will make all possible efforts to resolve the takedown request quickly and to the satisfaction of all parties involved. Possible outcomes include: Access to content remains unchanged on the Alexander Street platform; Access to content is modified on the Alexander Street platform; Access to the content is removed from the Alexander Street platform.

Alexander Street strives to provide the broadest possible online access to content where permissions have been granted by the known rights holders and/or the content holding institution. Permanent access restrictions will be considered only as an exceptional response.