Join us on Thursday, Nov 30 at 6 p.m. for a book talk with historian and artist Michelle Daniel Jones who will be speaking about Who Would Believe a Prisoner? Indiana Women’s Carceral Institutions, 1848 – 1920, a collection of essays co-edited with Elizabeth Nelson. The book offers a new history of Indiana’s carceral institutions for women written by Daniel Jones and ten incarcerated and formerly incarcerated colleagues at the Indiana Women’s Prison.

A reception will follow the talk.

More about Who Would Believe:

What if prisoners were to write the history of their own prison? What might that tell them—and all of us—about the roots of the system that incarcerates so many millions of Americans?

In this groundbreaking and revelatory volume, a group of incarcerated women at the Indiana Women’s Prison have assembled a chronicle of what was originally known as the Indiana Reformatory Institute for Women and Girls, founded in 1873 as the first totally separate prison for women in the United States. In an effort that has already made the national news, and which was awarded the Indiana History Outstanding Project for 2016 by the Indiana Historical Society, the Indiana Women’s Prison History Project worked under conditions of sometimes extreme duress, excavating documents, navigating draconian limitations on what information incarcerated scholars could see or access, and grappling with the unprecedented challenges stemming from co-authors living on either side of the prison walls.

With contributions from ten incarcerated or formerly incarcerated women, the result is like nothing ever produced in the historical literature: a document that is at once a shocking revelation of the roots of America’s first prison for women, and also a meditation on incarceration itself. Who Would Believe a Prisoner? is a book that will be read and studied for years to come as the nation continues to grapple with the crisis of mass incarceration.

Bio:

Michelle Daniel Jones is a fourth-year doctoral student in the American Studies program at New York University. She is interested in excavating the collateral consequences of criminal convictions for people and families directly impacted by mass incarceration. Michelle’s advocacy extends beyond the classroom through collaborations and opportunities to speak truth to power. While incarcerated, she presented legislative testimony on a reentry alternative she created that was approved by the Indiana State Interim Committee on the Criminal Code. As a subject matter expert, she serves in the development and operation of task forces, think tanks and initiatives to reduce harm and end mass incarceration and has joined the boards of Worth Rises and Correctional Association of New York and advisory boards of the Urban Institute and A Touch of Light.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/who-would-believe-a-prisoner-book-talk-with-michelle-daniel-jones-tickets-757517123107?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Center for the Study of Race Politics and Culture, Chicago, Hyde Park, Michelle Daniel Jones, Who Would Believe a Prisoner? Book Talk with Michelle Daniel Jones