At A Glance
- Number of Cities Worldwide
- 18
- Collaborating Since
- 2015
- Impact Area
- Mass Incarceration
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States of Incarceration is a collaboration of over 1,000 students and others deeply affected by incarceration in 28 cities and counting. They grew up in a United States that incarcerates more of its people, including immigrants, than any country in the world – and at any point in its history.
In 2015, when the project began, they witnessed a new bipartisan consensus that the criminal justice system is broken and the intense conflict over how to fix it. They came together to ask: How did this happen? What new questions does the past challenge us to ask about what is happening now? To find answers, they examined their own communities’ histories. Through courses at universities led in collaboration with directly impacted leaders, local teams share stories, search archives, and visit correctional facilities.
Each team creates one piece of the project’s traveling exhibition and website, and hosts public actions. Together, these stories represent a diverse genealogy of the incarceration generation. It challenges all of us to remember our own past and use the insights of history to shape what happens next.