Life in San Quentin Prison
A prosaic and perilous glimpse behind bars
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1963-1978
Located on a small peninsula north of San Francisco, San Quentin State Prison has housed prisoners since 1852, making it the oldest penitentiary in the state of California. Today, it is crowded with 3,952 inmates, far above its design capacity of 3,082.In 2011, California State University professor Nigel Poor began teaching a history of photography course to San Quentin inmates. Because the prisoners were not allowed cameras, Poor printed out copies of famous photos with wide borders and asked her students to write their thoughts and analyses in the margins, then expand those into creative narratives or personal writing. She called this technique “archive mapping."
In 2013, the prison’s public information officer presented Poor with access to a massive and barely organized trove of negatives taken by correctional officers in the prison from 1948 to 1987, mostly with terse captions or no captions at all.Though some of the images are violent or disturbing — documenting the aftermath of a fight, a stabbing, a suicide — most are simple records of everyday life and events in the prison. Inmates work in the prison shops, have conjugal visits with family, play, exercise and celebrate holidays.Poor integrated the photos into her class, encouraging her students to analyze the images and think about how they relate to the inmates that came before them and the history of the institution that (for many serving life sentences) is their home.
One of my goals is to demystify prison in a way…. Inside prison, everything happens that happens on the outside. Family, jobs, education…. And on top of that, there is the fear of violence and lack of freedom. - Nigel Poor
Though Poor no longer teaches at San Quentin, she continues to work with the inmates and sift through the prison’s vast archive of photos. One of her hopes is that the images will provide a humanizing view of the incarcerated to people who have never seen the inside of a prison, apart from violent films and television. She hopes that seeing prisoners as typical human beings with everyday concerns, rather than “others,” can help spur meaningful conversations about prison reform.
Visit Premier Exhibitions at 417 5th Avenue to see the past become present again at "Retronaut's New York." This pop-up exhibition of extraordinary, digitally restored photographs captures New York City at the turn of the 20th century. It's only open until March 28, so be sure to get down there before it’s gone.