Carceral State Project

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Ann Arbor, MI
Carceral State Project

The Carceral State Project is a scholarly and advocacy collaboration based at the University of Michigan.

Our research is focused in the multifaceted study of the historical and contemporary processes of criminalization.

02/18/2025

You’re invited to the Carceral State Project 2025 Symposium Saturday March 29th from 10:30-4:30 at the Trotter Multicultural Center (428 S State St, Ann Arbor). RSVP at the link in our bio.

Join us for an engaging, day-long symposium on the evolving landscape of criminal-legal reform in Michigan. Attendees can expect to learn about the historical context and current struggles against harsh criminalization, surveillance, and incarceration in Michigan and hear directly from some of the state’s leading advocacy organizations about their ongoing legislative and grassroots efforts. Each organization will detail recent achievements and current campaigns around ending mass incarceration in Michigan.

Following the panels, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in workshops and learn directly from those working on the ground. Community advocates across Michigan will offer tools and techniques for effective grassroots activism.

All are invited to attend a Closing Reception with refreshments and tour the PCAP Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons at the Duderstadt Center Gallery.

02/10/2025

As the United States is a prison nation, Michigan can aptly be described as a prison state. Throughout its history, Michigan has housed more than 90 state-run carceral facilities incarcerating adults, and the State’s incarceration rates have mirrored national trends of mass incarceration. In this story by our researcher Lawson Schultz, “Postcards, Prison Camps, and Politics”, Lawson Schultz combs through the planning archives to demonstrate that the prison landscape of Michigan was not an inevitable product of history but a consequence of active and intentional planning.

01/11/2025

Join us now in the Michigan League for the Michigan Against Solitary Confinement Summit, we’ll be here all day!

10/24/2024

As of 2024, the ACLU reports that Michigan has the17th highest youth incarceration rate in the United States; for every 100,000 people, 217 youths are in confinement. Our new story, “Silenced Voices: Surviving and Resisting Youth Incarceration in Michigan” by Adler Fritz, spotlights the problematic conditions of youth confinement and pervasive cruelty within Michigan’s juvenile justice system, this story further aims to inspire important dialogue and action by examining the transformative powers of self expression and community collaboration in creative arts programs. Click the link in our bio to read the full story.

09/24/2024

The Policing and Social Justice HistoryLab has just released curriculum guides for high school and middle school teachers and students based on the website exhibit Detroit Under Fire and the investigative report The Kercheval Incident (a confrontation between the Detroit Police Department and Black Power activists in 1966). These guides were designed alongside experts at CEDER (Center for Education Design, Evaluation, & Research), and were tested by Detroit Public School teachers. Click the link in our bio to check out all three sets of the curriculum guides.

09/23/2024

The Confronting Conditions of Confinement Team is thrilled to present our newest research project, written by Alex Melody Burnett. This project investigates the origins of women’s prisons in Michigan, the conditions of incarceration faced by the women and other imprisoned people inside, and the stories of their protests and resistance. This piece will soon be followed by the post-1970s story about women’s lives in Michigan’s women’s prison, Women’s Huron Valley prison, as well as several companion storymaps. Click the linktree in our bio for access the full story.

07/04/2024

We’re hiring for TWO positions! Come work with us this fall!

Address

500 S. State St
Ann Arbor, MI
48109

Website

https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/dcc-project/

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