Written accounts during or after the prison experience remain the largest genre of carceral creativity, ranging from the famous Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy, written in prison in Pavia, Italy in the year 524 and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," written in 1963, to the infamous Hitler's Mein Kampf, which he began writing in Landsberg Prison in Bavaria in 1924.
In addition to many published accounts, is a vast trove of letters, poems, and other records, including audio and visual recordings, of the prison experience written by people in prisons around the world. Several efforts have been undertaken to compile archives of these testimonials, which provide a profound treasure of primary source material. Here we offer links to such archives currently known to us, with brief descriptions quoted from each site. In addition, references to known books based on materials from each archive are also provided.
With thanks for assistance in compiling sources to Mr. Dehler Ingham, honors student at Hamilton College, Clinton, New York.
INTERNATIONAL
International Detention Coalition Collection (International/Immigrant detention)
https://idcoalition.org/multimedia/graphics-immigration-detention-in-art/
“IDC and FES are proud to showcase a selection of six artists whose work speaks to the realities of immigration detention and the power of alternatives. Drawn from across IDC’s archives, these pieces come from different IDC projects and collaborations — including collaboration with Amnesty International Malaysia and the Global Campaign to End Child Detention — and reflect diverse interpretations of migration, confinement and freedom. Many of the artworks are accompanied by stories from people with lived experience of detention and community-based alternatives. These stories reveal not only the hardship of detention, but also the resilience and hope that persist in the face of injustice.”
MS-238: Prisoner of War Letters from World Wars I and II (International/POW Camps)
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/findingaidsall/203/
“This collection consists of various correspondence between POWs and their families, including 86 letters, 174 postcards, and about eight package slips during both world wars. Most of this correspondence was authored by the prisoners and sent to their families from camps in Europe, although it contains some correspondence from camps in Asia and Africa. The collection also contains correspondence from prisoners in concentration camps, such as Auschwitz, and from interned civilians in France and Germany. Because these letters were the main way to contact family members, most of the POW correspondence contain thoughts of homesickness and loneliness along with updates on an individual’s health and the various activities around the camps, including work and leisure….In addition, there are various other items in the collection, including a gardening manual and nine photos from a Taiwanese prison camp, unused postcards, seven postage receipts, stamps from India, a work-receipt from Burma, and three anti-Semitic labels from Belgium, as well as various materials from previous owners of the collection.”
Prison Insider (International/Prisons)
https://www.prison-insider.com/en/temoigner/temoignage
“Prison Insider is an information platform on prisons in the world. Its objective is to inform, compare and share testimonials on conditions of detention, with regard to fundamental rights. Its work contributes to the fight against torture and the prevention of human rights violations. The platform collects, verifies and synthesizes existing data. It produces knowledge and makes it accessible to the greatest number of people - in accessible language and in English, French and Spanish. All its information is made public via its website, with dissemination via newsletters and social media. Prison Insider also facilitates a diversified network of actors involved throughout the world.”
CANADA
Journal of Prisoners on Prisons
https://uottawa.scholarsportal.info/ottawa/index.php/jpp/issue/archive
"Since 1988, the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons (JPP) has been a prisoner written, academically oriented and peer reviewed, non-profit journal, based on the tradition of the penal press. It brings the knowledge produced by prison writers together with academic arguments to enlighten public discourse about the current state of carceral institutions. This is particularly important because with few exceptions, definitions of deviance and constructions of those participating in these defined acts are incompletely created by social scientists, media representatives, politicians and those in the legal community. These analyses most often promote self-serving interests, omit the voices of those most affected, and facilitate repressive and reactionary penal policies and practices. As a result, the JPP attempts to acknowledge the accounts, experiences, and criticisms of the criminalized by providing an educational forum that allows women and men to participate in the development of research that concerns them directly. In an age where `criminalization, imprisonment, and other forms of carceral control` have become lucrative and exploitable, the JPP exists as an important alternate source of information that competes with popularly held stereotypes and misconceptions about those who are currently, or those who have in the past, faced the deprivation of liberty."
GERMANY
Prison Letters Archive of Birgitta Wolf
https://skbl.se/en/article/BirgittaWolf (the archive source is being located)
"Her archive contains tens of thousands of letters from convicts and she quickly became known as “the angel of the convicts”. In order to give them a public voice she collected manuscripts, poems, and sayings which she published as a book in 1963 entitled Die Vierte Kaste. In 1968 she also published a book in Swedish, called Det stulna livet: brev från fångar."
Wolf, B. (Ed.). (1968). Aussagen: Briefe von Strafgefangenen, mit einer Orientierung von Birgitta Wolf. Langewiesche-Brandt.
Wolf, B. (Ed.). (1972). Anklage erhoben (Charges filed): Gedichte und Grafiken von Strafgefangenen. Burckhardthaus-Verlag.
Münster Archive of Prison Writing
https://www.gefangenenliteratur.de/
Collected by Helmut H. Koch at the University of Münster
"We define 'prisoner literature' as texts written by prisoners while incarcerated or composed in retrospect based on their prison experiences. This is distinct from literature in which prison appears as a motif but is described merely from the outside. It is advisable to adopt a broad definition of prisoner literature (or "literature of marginalized groups") so that important forms of writing are not overlooked due to traditional categorizations."
Colvin, S. (2017). Unerhört? Prisoner narratives as unlistened-to stories (and some reflections on the picaresque). The Modern Language Review, 112(2), 440–458. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.112.2.0440
Colvin, S. (2022). Shadowland: The story of Germany told by its prisoners. Reaktion Books.
MENA: MIDDLE EAST/NORTH AFRICA
Prisons Museum
https://prisons.museum/en
"What started as a search for missing colleagues after ISIS was defeated turned into a systematic effort to document all of its prisons in Syria and Iraq using the latest 3D technology with the goal of publication for accountability.
The first version of the virtual museum, the ISIS Prisons Museum, enriched with testimonies and documents, went online in the fall of 2024, soon followed by the Syria Prisons Museum in the summer of 2025. The projects are actively working with victims’ initiatives and legal bodies in support of truth and justice."
UNITED KINGDOM
Immigration Detention Archive (England/Immigrant detention)
https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/immigration-detention-archive/immigration-detention-archive / https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1In11hF-ODsWFeWFUocTDyJtP7kmItiw6
“This archive includes a range of material culture produced by and about detention. It currently houses several thousand pages of bureaucratic documents and 30 letters, 3000 photographs, 400 drawings and over 70 other art works and materials gathered during fieldwork and art workshops. Items produced in detention can be interpreted in many ways and can contribute evidence to research on mental health, effects of uncertainty, trauma, reasons for migrating to England, colonial legacies, art therapy, roles of gender and race, language, bureaucracy, paternalism and abuses of power. These are expressed in self-portraiture, landscapes, fantasy and fiction, documentary photographs, poems, sculptures, letters, drawings of detention cells, sound recordings, videos, music CDs, detainee letters, life histories, cookbooks, copies of official regulations, and other documentation. In their physicality, these documents make real the detention experience, reminding us of the people working and living in these places…The archive is a digital and physical collection at Oxford that anyone can make an appointment to visit.”
UNITED STATES
American Prison Newspapers, 1800s-present: Voices from the Inside (US/Prisons)
https://www.jstor.org/site/reveal-digital/american-prison-newspapers/?so=item_title_str_asc&searchkey=1785857940128&pagemark=eyJwYWdlIjoyLCJzdGFydCI6MjUsInRvdGFsIjoyMzl9
“On March 24, 1800, Forlorn Hope was published within a prison in New York state, edited by an incarcerated person. In the intervening 200+ years, over 700 prison newspapers have been published from U.S. prisons in all fifty states. American Prison Newspapers will bring together hundreds of these periodicals from across the country into one collection that will represent penal institutions of all kinds, with special attention paid to women-only institutions….These publications depict and report on all manner of life within the walls of prisons, from the quotidian to the upsetting. Incarcerated journalists walk a tightrope between oversight by administration–even censorship–and seeking to report accurately on their experiences inside. Some publications were produced with the sanction of institutional authorities; others were produced underground. Development of the collection began in July 2020, with new content added regularly.”
American Prison Writing Archive
https://prisonwitness.org/
"The mission of the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) is to replace misrepresentation of prisons and imprisoned people with first-person witness by those living in legalized confinement."
Larson, D. (2024). Inside knowledge: Incarcerated people on the failures of the American prison. New York University Press.
Hinton, E., & Lora, E. J. (Eds.). (2026). Harm and punishment. Haymarket Press.
Arts Capacity
https://artscapacity.org/program-impact/
"Arts Capacity’s interactive concert programs are designed to support incarcerated individuals by fostering pro-social behavior, enhancing emotional intelligence, and strengthening family connections. As of fall 2024, Arts Capacity has presented twenty-three interactive concerts across five correctional facilities with varying security levels in Kansas, Georgia, South Carolina, and Arizona. We are collecting data and sharing our data-driven insights in an effort to extend the positive impact of this programming to more facilities nationwide. We gather detailed data through surveys, and the feedback helps us refine our programs, ensuring they contribute positively to each facility’s environment. The following data points are from responses to surveys filled out anonymously by incarcerated individuals." Arts Capacity has over ten years of data on the experience of musical performance in prisons awaiting digitization.
Densho Digital Repository: Concentration Camps (US/Japanese Internment)
https://ddr.densho.org/browse/topics/65/
The Denscho Digital Repository tells “the story of the Japanese American incarceration experience from those who lived it,” through “thousands of historic photographs, documents, newspapers, letters and other primary source materials from immigration to the WWII incarceration and its aftermath.” The link above goes to the expansive collection of materials generated by Japanese-Americans at internment camps.
End the Exception (United States/Prisons)
https://letters.endtheexception.com/#letters
“The following letters and artifacts represent years of communication between the #EndTheException campaign and incarcerated workers, often at risk of serious retaliation for those behind prison walls. We honor their stories.” End the Exception is part of the Abolish Slavery National Network, a progressive PAC.
Florence Project, Detained Collection
https://detained.digitalscholarship.library.arizona.edu/items/browse
"The Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal service organization providing free legal and social services to adults and unaccompanied children in immigration custody in Arizona. Although the government assists indigent criminal defendants and civil litigants through public defenders and legal aid attorneys, it does not provide attorneys for people in immigration removal proceedings. As a result, an estimated 86 percent of the detained people go unrepresented due to poverty. The Florence Project strives to address this inequity both locally and nationally through direct service, partnerships with the community, and advocacy and outreach efforts."
Letters from Dilley (US/Immigrant detention)
https://www.lettersfromdilley.org/
“This site contains some of the letters sent by children held at the ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas.”
Minutes Before Six
https://minutesbeforesix.com/
"Our Mission: to give a voice to those silenced through incarceration. To achieve this, we facilitate a publicly-accessible, online platform that displays the contributions of many talented incarcerated individuals. We provide them with the opportunity to creatively express themselves and allow them the chance to feel connected to the free world by knowing their works are shared with the public. By carrying out our work, our organization offers prisoners a way to maintain a relationship with the outside world; an important lifeline many do not otherwise have available to them. Equally, our vision is to afford prisoners a productive outlet by contributing to the literary and arts communities, while also educating our readership about prisoner experiences navigating the criminal justice system, via our website."
North American Slave Narratives
https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/texts.html/Documenting-the-American-South-North-American-Slave-Narratives
"'North American Slave Narratives' collects books and articles that document the individual and collective story of Black people struggling for freedom and human rights in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. This collection includes all the existing autobiographical narratives of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people published as broadsides, pamphlets, or books in English up to 1920. Also included are many of the biographies of self-emancipated and formerly enslaved people and some significant fictionalized first-person accounts of enslavement published in English before 1920."
Prisoner Express
https://prisonerexpress.org/
"Prisoner Express is a program of the Durland Alternatives Library."
Prison Writers
https://prisonwriters.com/
"What happens in prison usually stays in prison. Prison Writers is changing that. Since 2015, we have published more than 800 firsthand stories that give the public an unfiltered view of life inside, while giving incarcerated writers purpose, accountability, and a real voice."
Real Cost of Prisons
https://www.realcostofprisons.org/
"The Real Cost of Prisons Project brings together justice activists, artists, researchers and women and men directly experiencing the impact of mass criminalization who are working to end the carceral state. The Real Cost of Prisons Project is a national organization, begun in 2000. The RCPP created workshops, a website visited by 1,500 people a day and which includes extensive sections of writing and comix by prisoners."
Rikers Public Memory Project Oral History Collection (United States/Prisons)
https://rikersmemoryproject.org/
https://archives.nypl.org/mss/186398
“The Rikers Public Memory Project (RPMP) documents and preserves the experiences of those who have been directly impacted by Rikers Island jail complex, and supports the campaign to close the facilities. The Rikers Public Memory Project oral history collection comprises eighty-nine oral history interviews conducted between 2018 and 2021 with formerly incarcerated individuals and their families. In addition to the audio recordings, the collection also holds transcripts and photographs.”
Slave Narratives at the Library of Congress
https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/
"Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress."
Litwack, L. F. (1979). Been in the storm so long: The aftermath of slavery. Vintage Books.
Smithsonian Folkways: Prison Recordings (United States/Prisons)
A collection of recordings from inside prisons. Most are work songs and gospel.
Prison Worksongs
https://folkways.si.edu/prison-worksongs/blues/music/album/smithsonian
“In the late 1950s, ethnomusicologist professor Dr. Harry Oster made a series of field recordings at state penitentiaries in Louisiana. This collection focuses on the type of prison work songs sung by incarcerated people performing physically demanding labor. Of note is a version of the African American ballad “John Henry” sung by a trio with Robert Pete Williams and two songs sung by Odea Matthews, a woman incarcerated at the state penitentiary in Angola. The liner notes are written by Dr. Oster.”
Negro Prison Camp Worksongs
https://folkways.si.edu/negro-prison-camp-worksongs/african-american-music-folk/album/smithsonian
“Recorded by Pete & Toshi Seeger in the winter of 1951 at two Texas prison farms, this album represents some of the oldest and most traditional work songs found among African American communities of incarcerated people in the southern United States. Traditionally a participatory art form, these songs were typically sung while groups of 10-30 people performed tasks such as chopping and hoeing. With origins reaching back to their West African ancestry as well as during the era of African American enslavement, work songs served the purpose of alleviating the mundane nature of repetitive tasks as well as providing a forum for the song leader to keep the group together through rhythms and lyrics. 10 songs, 40 minutes, with liner notes featuring an introduction by Pete Seeger and song lyrics.”
Angola Prison Spirituals
https://folkways.si.edu/angola-prison-spirituals/gospel/music/album/smithsonian
“Angola Prison, officially known as the Louisiana State Penitentiary, is one of the largest maximum-security prisons in the country. In the 1950s, LSU English professor Dr. Harry Oster (1923-2001) recorded a series of music performances by African Americans incarcerated at the infamous facility. Among the performances were the singing of gospel and spirituals. The songs provide a sense of soul present in the music—pain, hope, and heart. Part of the royalties from this collection go to the Inmate Welfare Fund at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.”
Live Interviews of Life in Prison with James Carr
https://folkways.si.edu/james-carr/the-view-from-the-end-of-the-world-live-interviews-of-life-in-prison/african-american-spoken-documentary-oral-history-biography/album/smithsonian
“James "Jimmy" Carr, founder of the Wolf Pack, an infamous prison gang in California during the 1960s, tells the story of life behind bars. Carr had unique experiences in the prison system as he was, at seventeen, still a juvenile when incarcerated in California’s oldest correctional facility. The incidents described on this album are taken from tapes Carr recorded as testimonial of his time in prison, and his evolution as a leader.”
Solitary Watch
https://solitarywatch.org/
"Solitary Watch is a national nonprofit newsroom whose mission is to uncover the truth about solitary confinement and other harsh prison conditions in the United States by producing high-quality investigative journalism, accurate information and analysis, and authentic storytelling from both sides of prison walls. By amplifying the voices and experiences of those most directly affected, we generate public awareness, shift narratives, promote accountability, and spur policy change on an underreported humanitarian crisis."
University of Chicago Letters from Prison Exhibit (United States/Prisons)
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/exhibits/letters-prison/1500s-1800s/
“Statistics aside, what does it mean to a human being to be imprisoned? This exhibit draws together letters written by incarcerated people, across time and space. The centerpiece and inspiration for the exhibit is the collected letters of Chris Vega to his brother. Mr. Vega has been imprisoned by the Illinois Department of Corrections almost continuously since 2007. Juxtaposed with Mr. Vega’s letters and poems are published works written by or for incarcerated people, from the collection at the University of Chicago Library.”