Manuscripts Department
              Library of the University of North Carolina
                            at Chapel Hill

                    SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION

                                 #4655
            SOUTHERN COALITION ON JAILS AND PRISONS RECORDS
                               Inventory

Abstract:      The Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons was
organized in 1974 with the missions of abolishing the death  
penalty, stopping prison construction and dependency on
incarceration, developing alternatives to incarceration, and
protecting the human and civil rights of prisoners.  The
Coalition was active in North and South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana,
and Kentucky until the early 1990s.
               Papers include scattered office files of the
Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons, including some issues of 
the Coalition newsletter.  There are also newsletters of other
prison and criminal justice reform groups and miscellaneous short
writings apparently collected by Coalition staff.  Topics covered
include prison reform, capital punishment, prisoners' rights, and
criminal justice reform in general.  Included are several files
with materials relating to the execution of specific individuals.

Online Catalog Terms:
   Capital punishment--Southern States--History--20th century.
   Criminal justice, Administration of--Southern States--History
     --20th century.
   Jails--Southern States--History--20th century.
   Prison reformers--Southern States--History--20th century.
   Prisoners--Law and legislation--Southern States--History--20th
     century.
   Prisoners--Legal status, laws, etc.--Southern States--20th
     century.
   Prisoners--Southern States--History--20th century.
   Prisons--Southern States--History--20th century.
   Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons.

Size:  About 2,000 items (4.5 linear feet).

Processing Note:   Awaits refoldering.

Provenance:    Received from the Southern Coalition on Jails and
               Prisons through Lao Rubert of the Carolina Justice
               Policy Center, Durham, N.C., in March 1993 (Acc.
               93050).

Access:        No restrictions.

Copyright:  Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or
their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

                           HISTORICAL NOTE

   The Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons was organized in
1974 with the missions of abolishing the death penalty, stopping
prison construction and dependency on incarceration, developing
alternatives to incarceration, and protecting the human and civil
rights of prisoners.  Initially, the Coalition was active in six
southern states:  North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama,
Mississippi, and Tennessee.  By 1977, it was also active in
Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Kentucky.  Over its history,
the Coalition operated with as many as ten and as few as four
member organizations, among them the Alabama Prison Project, the
Clearinghouse on Georgia Prisons and Jails, the Florida
Clearinghouse on Criminal Justice, the Kentucky Prisoners'
Support Council, the Louisiana Coalition on Jails and Prisons,
the North Carolina Prison and Jail Project, the South Carolina
Criminal Justice Project, the Southern Prison Ministry, and
the Delta Ministry. 
   Operating with an executive director and central office in
Nashville, Tenn., the Coalition produced a quarterly newsletter
and sponsored project coordinators in member states.  Each
project coordinator was charged with identifying persons and
groups in his or her state that shared the Coalition's goals and
organizing these individuals and groups into local coalitions to
develop education programs on prison and criminal justice reform,
to identify and prioritize the needs of state and federal
prisoners in their locality, to identify and prioritize areas in
need of immediate change or reform within the criminal justice
and penal systems, and to formulate and implement plans of action
aimed at bringing about the necessary changes.
   The Southern Coalition on Jails and Prisons and its member
organizations were financed by contributions from individuals and
by grants from various private funding agencies.  Some of the
constituent organizations have apparently survived the demise in
the early 1990s of the Coalition.

                               BOX LIST

Note that folder labels have largely been maintained as received.

Box 1
   Alabama Prison Project
   ACLU:   Capital Punishment Project
           Death Penalty, General
   Amnesty International
   Bishop, Jesse, Execution
   Clark Proposal, 1980
   Conference on the Death Penalty, 1981
   "Death Watch"
   Dorsey, L. C., Associate Director
   England:  Death Penalty
   Expert Witnesses
   Florida Clearinghouse on Criminal Justice
Box 2
   Funding
   Georgia Clearinghouse on Criminal Justice
   Gilmore, Gary
   Health Care Proposal
   Incarceration Rates
   Kanjian, Robert
   Lethal Injection
   Louisiana Coalition
   Maps
   Maryland Alternatives to Incarceration
   Memos
   Mississippi Coalition
   Nagel, William
   National March Against Death
   Newsclippings
   Newsletter Copy
   Newsletters, 1978-1980 (incomplete run)
   Other Newsletters:  "Jericho"
                       "Journal of the National Prison Project"
                       "Liberty to the Captives"
                       "Lifelines"
                       "Moratorium"
                       "National Catholic Reporter"
                       "North Carolina Prison & Jail Project      
                          News"
   Playboy Printing Memo
   Potts, Jack
   Press Contacts
   Prison Construction Litigation
   Proposal, 1978-1979
   Reidsville Brothers
   Shevin, Robert
   South Carolina Criminal Justice Project
   Southern Prison Ministry
Box 3
   Spenkelink, John, Execution
   Staff
   State Reports:  1981
                   1982
                   1983
                   1985
   Tennessee
   Wicker, Tom
   Writings:   Collection of photocopies and typed short writings 
               on issues of interest to the Coalition