For several years, Prison Public Memory Project has used public history, art, story-telling and media to engage communities in conversation about the complex roles of prisons in America.

We have also functioned as a virtual museum and library curating, interpreting and lending information about prison history in the United States to a global public.

The Project has collaborated with individuals and organizations across the country and beyond to recover, preserve, interpret, and honor the memories of what took place in our historic prisons.

In 2011, we started in Hudson, New York, a town that has hosted a prison in one form or another since 1887. We experimented with ideas and developed a model that earned many accolades and inspired people and organizations in other places to develop their own versions of what we were doing in Hudson. In 2017 we launched our own second site of prison memory in Pontiac, Illinois, host to a maximum-security prison that began as a boys reform school in 1871. For almost three years, we tested components of our Hudson model there.

In 2020, we're taking an opportunity to reflect, take stock and consider next steps for the Project. During this year, we’ll continue to publish prison stories on our website and share those on social media. We’ll conduct a couple small research projects. We’ll continue to offer scholars and others access to our archives via subscription. All our other work in the world is on hold as we take some time to rest, recreate and rejuvenate.

Thank you to everyone who has shared this journey with us so far. We are deeply grateful to you and for you. Stay tuned for more stories and definitely more news!