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.
The Santa Cruz Women’s Prison Project (SCWPP) was an educational project committed to the rehabilitation of communities and the abolition of prisons.
The Women's Bail Fund (WBF) was an organization based in New York City. They bailed women out of the Women's House of Detention at Greenwich Village and later, at Riker's Island, provided legal aid, and political education on the issue of women's imprison
Found 60 records
This flyer calls for Rockefeller's Prison Committee to be abolished, providing context for some of the crimes related to Attica which took place under Rockefeller, and for the immediate implementation of prisoner's demands.
Typed flyer on a sheet of blue paper, double-sided. Opens with a discussion of the June 1971 transfer of inmates from NYC's infamous Women's House of Detention to the newly constructed New York City Correctional Facility for Women, which was done suddenly to try to avoid protests. The new facility at Rikers Island is described as an "isolated penal colony" which the city of New York spent somewhere between 16 and 24 million dollars building. Corrections authorities called it a "unique hotel," with a "college campus design" to be used as a model prison. The flyer argues that women incarcerated on Rikers are actually worse off than they were at the previous facility, citing isolation from other prisoners, families, lawyers and communities of support. It also mentions new technology used to separate prisoners, such as steel doors which only open via electronic switchboard. Women are often left in their cells for 15 or 16 hours a day, and lights are kept on 24/7. It also describes forced labor for pennies, limited access to basic necessities from the comissary, a lack of use in the educational and recreational facilities because of understaffing of guards, and inadequate food and medical care. The text of this flyer was reprinted from Vol.1 No. 1 od the prisoner community newsletter "Mid-Night Special," published in November of 1971.
This pamphlet includes a list of twenty-eight demands issued by prisoners at Attica State Prison in New York in May, 1971, and 42 demands issued by women prisoners at Alderson Federal Prison, which were presented during a four day sit-in in solidarity with Attica prisoners during the week of September 14, 1971. Many of these demands refer to basic rights such as access to adequate food, water, and shelter. Other demands relate to parole, work programs, censorship, and more. The pamphlet also features a poem by a Black Attica brother entitled Afraid No More.
This article provides analysis of how the prison system, judicial system, and law enforcement operate in socialist China, in order to better understand potential alternatives to the current criminal justice system in the US.
Flyer with handwritten title announcing Angela Davis' release from prison while demanding the same for Ruchell Magee. Three typed paragraphs about Ruchell, Angela's codefendent, whose trial for murder-kidnap-consipiracy is to begin on August 1. Magee was the only person to survive the attempt to escape from the Marin County Courthouse in 1970, which was led by Jonathan Jackson. Magee is accused of killing Judge Harold Haley, but witnesses claim that police shot the judge while trying to stop the escape. The flyer states that Magee has been in jail for the last 20 years, since he was 13, and has been unable to exercise his right to free speech or to an appeal of his case. Instead, guards have brought him into court in chains. For the last five years, Magee has also been acting as a jailhouse lawyer, teaching other incarcerated people about the prison system.
The Action Conference of Women Against Repression and Prison brought together 120 women and former prisoners from across the western U.S. to discuss the state of the women's prison movement, establish a strategy for action, and create a communication network among women working in the women's prison movement. This attendance sheet lists the various organizations in attendance at the conference.
A periodical centering stories of incarcerated women, with an emphasis on gender violence and political prisoners. Includes poetry, essays, and situationers. 27 pages. Contents: Ellison Witnesses Admit Testimony Was False; Inez Garcia Wins New Trial; Home Sweet Home: Boston Bail Fund; Invocation for Inez Garcia; Rehabilitation in Chile: Testimony of Luz Nieves Ayress Moreno; and more.
The Action Conference of Women Against Repression and Prison brought together 120 women and former prisoners from across the western U.S. to discuss the state of the women's prison movement, establish a strategy for action, and create a communication network among women working in the women's prison movement. This report lists the goals and outcomes of the conference, including the formation of the new group, Women's Prison Coalition-Western Region, and the creation of a newsletter.
Photograph picturing a performance by the Bozo Collective, a guerrilla theater group at UC Santa Cruz. For additional photographs documenting the collective, see Folder 8 in the Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project collection.