The United States incarcerates the world’s largest prison population, caging surveilling and supervising more people than any other nation. The Mass Incarceration Lab @CSREA seeks to curate a comprehensive archive of mass incarceration in the United States– centering and perserving the narratives and writings of those individuals (including family and community members) who have been impacted by the criminal justice system.

It is through their oral testimony and writings that we understand the “living history” of mass incarceration and its legacies. Ultimately, this humanities lab project is an important act of historical preservation, capturing first-person accounts of mass incarceration for generations to come and centering the voices of those who have been impacted.

The Mass Incarceration Lab is a Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity initiative generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.