Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic, specifcally AND/+, NOT/-, and OR operators. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.
Welcome to the Freedom Archives' Digital Search Engine.The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings which date from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings. Our collection includes weekly news, poetry, music programs; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; numerous voices from behind prison walls; diverse activists; and pamphlets, journals and other materials from many radical organizations and movements.

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. Organizations covered include:

1. The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown

2. Aplan Anarchist

3. Critical Resistance

4. Freedom Now

5. Human Rights Campaign

6. Interfaith Prisoners of Conscious

7. National Lawyers Guild

8. American Friends Service Committee

9. Real Dragon Prison Project

10. United Prisoners Union

11. Prisoners Union

12. Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)

13. Prison Health Project

14. San Francisco Citizens Council on Criminal Justice

Subcollections

  • American Friends Service Committee
    American Friends Service Committee
    A social justice organization of people of faith committed to justice and peace through humanitarian service and political action.
  • Aplan Anarchist
    Aplan Anarchist
    The Anarchist Prisoners Legal Aid Network (APLAN) is an Anarchist organization that provides legal aid to known anarchist prisoners and publishes the newsletter We Never Sleep.
  • Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)
    Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)
    This underground movement has been at the forefront of the Political Prisoners and Prisoners of war solidarity movement since the early 20th century.
  • Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
    Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
    The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) was a movement organization that opposed control unit prisons in particular, and racism and oppression in general.
  • Critical Resistance
    Critical Resistance
    Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement to end the prison industrial complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe. It was formed in 1997.
  • Freedom Now
    Freedom Now
    Freedom Now was a national organization committed to building a broad movement in support of human rights and amnesty for political prisoners and p.o.w.s in the USA.
  • HRC: Human Rights Campaign
    HRC: Human Rights Campaign
    Inaugurated in 1988, the Human Rights Campaign for Political Prisoners was a coalition of families and friends of political prisoners, professionals, religious leaders, and community activists.
  • Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience
    Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience
    Prisoners of Conscience is a religious and community based organization supporting prisoners of conscience or political prisoners in the United States.
  • National Lawyers Guild
    National Lawyers Guild
    This collection contains materials published by the National Lawyers Guild. Various periodicals including Midnight Special and The Conspiracy are included as well as items like a tribute to the People's law Office in Chicago. .
  • Prison Health Project
    Prison Health Project
    The Prisoners' Health Project began operations in July, 1974 to provide health services to prisoners and work for comprehensive changes in San Francisco's jail health care.
  • Prisoners Union
    Prisoners Union
    The Prisoners Union had its origins in a 1970 work strike at Folsom Prison. The organization was named the Prisoners Union to stress the idea that certain goals were being sought by all who suffer the same conditions of confinement.
  • Real Dragon Prison Project
    Real Dragon Prison Project
    Book published annually from 1985-1996, contains poetry, inspirational pieces, political updates and graphics produced by activists to send a once a year gift of love and solidarity to currently incarcerated prisoners of war and political prisoners.
  • United Prisoners Union
    United Prisoners Union
    The United Prisoners Union (UPU) grew out of a movement in the early 1970's which recognized that real changes had to be made within the inhumane prison system.
  • San Francisco Citizens Council on Criminal Justice
    A San Francisco committee dedicated to exposing cruel conditions in Bay Area prisons/jails and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.

Documents

Michael Deutsch on Repression [mp3] Michael Deutsch on Repression [mp3]
Date: 11/1/1986Call Number: null Format: mp3Producers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Rachel Rosen Degolia on the government's war on the bill of rights and the Freedom of Information Act. Maryann Corley on the Sanctuary movement and the use of prohibition laws to conduct illegal searches. Michael Deutsch on the fundamental use of repression by the state, especially in the last 10 years.
Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? [CD] Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? [CD]
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: CD 794Format: CDProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
About closing the control units at Marion Prison. Nancy Kurshan of CEML (Committee to End the Marion Lockdown), Dr. Alan Berkman who has provided medical care for Black Liberation Army and Panther members as well as AIM activists at Wounded Knee in the 1970s. Berkman also speaks about being a former political prisoner, the prison system and control units as forms of social control which target revolutionary movements. Film segments about former LA gang member and Pelican Bay prisoner Sanyika Shakur. Transcript available for download.
Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? [CD] Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? [CD]
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: CD 810Format: CDProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
A program sponsored by the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), an organization dedicated to closing the control units at Marion Prison. Nancy Kurshan of CEML introduces Jose Lopez, Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, member of the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional, and brother of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera. He discusses the connections between American colonialism/imperialism and the extensive use of prisons in the US. This tape is a better copy of PM 336/345 Transcript available for download.
Marion Appeal Press Conference Marion Appeal Press Conference
Date: 3/1/1988Call Number: PM 431Format: CassetteProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Press conference on the appeal of Bureau of Prisons decision to keep the Marion Lock down, they're treatment of prisoners in violation of Human Rights standards and the 8th Amendment, and the classification of prisoners or lack thereof. Speakers include Dr. Steve Whitman and Attorney Jan Susler.
NPR Report on Marion Lockdown NPR Report on Marion Lockdown
Date: 10/1/1986Call Number: PM 435AFormat: Cass AProducers: National Public Radio (NPR)Collection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Jacki Lydon reports on the 3rd year of the Marion lockdown. Describes conditions, who is imprisoned and why, and allegations of ill treatment and Human Rights violations. Includes interviews with administration and inmates. Transcript is available for download: http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.inside.marion.008.pdf
Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? #2 [CD] Mass Incarceration and Control Units in Prisons: Mind Control or Social Control? #2 [CD]
Date: 10/21/1995Call Number: CD 801Format: CDProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
A program sponsored by the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), an organization dedicated to closing the control units at Marion Prison. Nancy Kurshan of CEML introduces Jose Lopez, Executive Director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, member of the Movimiento de Liberacion Nacional, and brother of political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera. He discusses the connections between American colonialism/imperialism and the extensive use of prisons in the US. This tape is a continuation of PM 336. Transcript available for download.
Shut Down the Control Units [Video Clip] Shut Down the Control Units [Video Clip]
Date: 1/1/1988Call Number: Format: Video ClipProducers: Committee to End the Marion LockdownCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
US policies at Marion violate the United Nation's Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners that were established for countries like Chile and South Africa. The control units at Marion often are used to silence political prisoners and those demanding prisoners rights.
Letter to Raymond R. Coffee Letter to Raymond R. Coffee
Author: Nancy KurshanDate: 4/8/1993Format: CorrespondenceCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
Article Attached: Whole Truth on Sentencing: It\'s a Joke. Chicago Sun-Times: March 25, 1993
The History of Marion Prison The History of Marion Prison
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesFormat: Video ClipCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
This video, created by the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown in 1988, serves to provide historical context around the opening of Marion Prison in 1963.
Model Control Unit Cell in Marion Model Control Unit Cell in Marion
Publisher: Freedom ArchivesFormat: Video ClipCollection: Committee to End the Marion Lockdown
The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML) creates a full size model of a typical control unit cell in Marion. This video, created in 1987, provides powerful visual representation of the daily existence of men incarcerated in Marion.