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 We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings.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.

Prison - Women

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. 

Subcollections

  • Santa Cruz Women
    Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project (SCWPP)
    The Santa Cruz Women’s Prison Project (SCWPP) was an educational project committed to the rehabilitation of communities and the abolition of prisons.
  • Women
    Women's Bail Fund
    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

Documents

Schedule - Action Conference of Women Against Repression and Prison Schedule - Action Conference of Women Against Repression and Prison
Publisher: Women's Prison Coalition-Western RegionDate: 10/1977Call Number: Format: AgendaCollection: Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project (SCWPP)
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. The agenda includes some contextual information and lists workshop topics, including Women in Legal Services, Setting Up Women's Prisoner Support Groups, International/Political Prisoners, Lesbians in Prison, and more.
Birth of the Women's Prison Coalition Conference Report Birth of the Women's Prison Coalition Conference Report
Authors: Sally Johnson, Debra MillerPublisher: Women's Prison Coalition-Western RegionDate: 10/19/1977Call Number: Format: ReportCollection: Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project (SCWPP)
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.
Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project Progress Report - October 1973 Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project Progress Report - October 1973
Publisher: Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project (SCWPP)Date: 10/1973Call Number: Format: ReportCollection: Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project (SCWPP)
This report contains a comprehensive account of the Santa Cruz Women's Prison Project's (SCWPP) prisoner support work from 1972-1973 at the California Institution for Women (CIW). The report emphasizes the impact of SCWPP workshop offerings to incarcerated women, which enabled women at CIW to receive the first college credit to be granted to prisoners in the history of the institution.
Resistance at Bedford Hills Prison Resistance at Bedford Hills Prison
Publisher: Solidarity with Sisters Inside CommitteeCall Number: Format: PamphletCollection: Prison - Women
This pamphlet includes papers written by women at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility who come out of a long history of Black and Latina-led resistance against the racist and inhuman conditions in Bedford Prison. The pamphlet situates struggles at Bedford Hills in the context of national liberation movements and focuses on conditions of inadequate health care. It also includes information about Mattawan, State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where women from Bedford Hills were illegally transferred and subjected to behavior modification.