Voices of Mass Incarceration
in the United States

The John Hay Library’s strategic collecting direction Voices of Mass Incarceration in the United States gathers and provides access to original material in all formats that document the lived experiences of incarcerated individuals in the United States as well as those affected by the American prison system. The United States prison population increased five-fold between 1970 and 2022; it now stands at two million people, more than any other nation. Though government and institutional records on incarceration, law, and policy abound, there is a paucity of archival materials by incarcerated individuals, their families, and advocates. This strategic collecting direction provides essential research material that will advance scholarship on the carceral state and its historical antecedents.¹ Brown University’s mission is to serve the community, the nation and the world by discovering, communicating and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry. Voices of Mass Incarceration in the United States fulfills this mission by making collections publicly available for free and open use by scholars, students, and advocates seeking to study an aspect of the carceral state. With full awareness of the sensitive stories that will be contained in these collections, the John Hay Library is committed to embracing an ethical framework for stewardship that is informed by archival methodologies for material related to human rights violations.

1. The “carceral state” is a term coined by scholars and advocates to describe policies, practices, ideologies, economies, and structures that punitively scrutinize individuals and communities before, during, and after contact with the criminal justice system.

Key partners

• The Pembroke Center on Teaching and Research for Women
• The Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
• The Mass Incarceration Lab Advisory Board
• The Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice

Strategic growth

The Hay will collect a range of material related to individuals, families, and communities affected by the carceral state and mass incarceration in the United States. The collection will include the growth of the prison industrial complex and the impact of immigration policies on the carceral state. The primary temporal focus is 20th- and 21st-century material, but curators will also acquire material that sheds light on the historical antecedents of mass incarceration. Materials related to individuals from historically marginalized communities or containing culturally sensitive information will require informed consent from the individual or representative community.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the following topics:

• First-person accounts and oral histories of individuals, families, and communities affected by mass incarceration and the carceral state
• Artwork, writings, and other creative outputs from incarcerated individuals
• Incarceration and public health (especially mental health)
• Humanitarian crises and incarceration, including immigration detention centers
• Wrongful conviction debates
• Prisoner advocacy organizations
• Carceral abolition activism and scholarship