Incarceration Policing (2 results)

[African American] [Mug Shots] [Prison] Photo archive of 4 African American Men mug shots. Three date from the 1940s, all from the Cleveland, Ohio Police Department, and one from the 1960s from the Detroit Police Department. 4 Silver gelatin photographs. All 3 from Cleveland measure 2.75" x 4.5." The one from Detroit measures 4" x 3.25." All have front shots and profile shots, making a total of 8 images. All images are in black and white. The photo from Detroit, dated 7-30-69 has a name and address written on the verso: "Melvin Reynolds, 3450 Belvedere, Mothers Home." One photo from Cleveland features a man in his late 30s, with a shaved head and wearing a sportcoat that is dated 3-22-1948. Another features an African American man in his late 20s wearing a sportscoat and button down shirt from Cleveland dated 10-3-1947. Another photo from Cleveland features an African American man in his early 30s, dated 8-31-1945. All photos offer a glimpse into the booking process and document a time rarely seen. Beginning in the 1960s, a "law and order" rhetoric with racial undertones emerged in politics, which ultimately ushered in the era of mass incarceration and flipped the racial composition of prison in the United States from majority white at midcentury to majority black by the 1990s. In the 1960s and 1970s, as riots broke out in a number of urban centers and a wave of violent crime rolled across the United States, politicians on both sides of the aisle not only continued to link race and crime in rhetoric, they took action, enacting harsh, punitive, and retributively oriented policies as a solution to rising crime rates. Archive is in very good condition.

[Prison] Four press photographs showcasing the prison industrial system from the 1940s-1980s. Original Black and white silver gelatin press photographs measuring mostly 8.5" x 11". Press photographs with original news articles printed either en recto or en verso. Prisoners range in class, creed, gender, and race. One photograph from 1963 shows a high school graduation of prisoners in caps and gowns from Menard Penitentiary in Menard, IL. Other inmates were in attendance but graduating party's relatives were not permitted to attend. A 1967 photograph from the Lewisburg, PA Federal Penitentiary shows two inmate students learning from a dental technician instructor. The article en verso partly states "Criminal behavior is related to medical problems, and also to lack of vocational skills." Another photograph from the 1940s shows a smiling woman "Mrs. Gene Clarida" being released from a women's prison in Corona, California on the charge of narcotics. The article states the woman to be joined with the likes of high society, having only spent 43 days in prison and quoting her; "I had a wonderful time, I'm not really on dope now--I don't have the habit, but if they hadn't picked me up, [I] might have become a junkie--imagine." Conversely, the last photo taken in 1981, shows the smiling Aaron Owens alongside his two daughters, as he's released from San Quentin's after 8 years of serving time for a wrongful double murder conviction. Owens was formerly convicted for drug related crimes, and it is believed that his race and former drug crime related history landed him 8 years of an unjust sentence. Photographs are in very good condition with minor edge wear. An interesting archive that provides a glimpse into the oft-overlooked lives of prisoners, their education, and the racial and gender bias throughout the mid to late 20th century.