Movements Against Mass Incarceration - Incite at Columbia University

The United States is home to one of the world's largest prison populations, both on an absolute and per capita basis. Moreover, this population has increased dramatically—by roughly five times—since 1980.

In response, a growing national conversation has attempted to address the sentencing laws, drug policies, racial disparities, systemic inequalities, and other factors that have contributed to mass incarceration. Among the most important change agents influencing the national conversation on prison and jails are incarcerated people themselves, who act by developing political visions, organizing networks, building and influencing institutions, and educating and challenging non-incarcerated publics.

Headed by David Knight and supported by a three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation, Movements Against Mass Incarceration will create a first-of-its-kind archive that centers the political ideas and movement-building of incarcerated people. The project will focus on movements led by Black and Brown people who have experienced incarceration, in addition to allied individuals and organizations outside of prisons. In doing so, the project will work toward several goals, including creating go-to historical source materials, facilitating fellowships and participatory opportunities wherein individuals and organizations can create derivative works from the project's source materials, and resourcing movements that can be supported from preserving and sharing movement histories, including their own.

“The cost of silence is a lot more compared to the price I'll pay if I speak up. And so I've got to speak up.”

Between December 2023 and March 2026, the Movement Lab will conduct oral history interviews with 200 organizers, activists, and politically oriented artists who are directly impacted by incarceration. To conduct this work, the Lab is partnering with five grassroots social-change organizations in five US geographies.