Determined to break this silence, Michael Jacobson-Hardy entered the prison system to record the voices and lives of people who live and work within its walls. Jacobson-Hardy examines the physical and psychological environments of a range of contemporary correctional institutions and the lives they contain. In her Foreward Angela Y. Davis writes, The razor wire functions, both metaphorically and materially, as a universal symbol of suspended liberty. Essays by John Edgar Wideman, Marc Mauer, and James Gilligan, M.D., make a searing indictment of America s criminal justice system, while offering a framework for understanding the photographs in their historical and cultural context. By recording the faces, the emotions, and lives of those who live and work in the prison system, Jacobson-Hardy heightens public awareness and promotes dialogue on criminal justice policy.
Art can be a means of redressing the public s ignorance and wishful thinking about prisons.
The truth of art in a book of photos, a story, poems, autobiography, dance, a movie can throw light on what occurs inside prisons. His photographs have been exhibited widely and are included in many public and private collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, the Addison Gallery of American Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.