The Washington Prison History Project archive gathers materials produced by or with currently or formerly incarcerated people and others about the development and conditions inside the state’s prisons.
Central to this collection is the series of prisoner-produced newspapers that appeared between 1975 and 1995. These publications–authored and edited inside of prison–are essential historical records. They record how incarcerated people understood or participated in the tremendous protest, reform, and punishment characterizing Washington prisons in those years. They provide a sense of how incarcerated people understood, protested, or otherwise participated in such a tumultuous period in the history of incarceration–both in Washington and around the nation.
The archive also features a number of materials from activists, journalists, and others about prison conditions, prison construction, and prison reform.
Some materials FROM THE ARCHIVE: