Methods
Handle Carceral Records Without Stigma
This field note is part of the FOBA learning stream. It is meant to orient readers and point toward better source work.
Key points
- Carceral records can preserve names and dates while also carrying stigma and system violence.
- The public page should name the record system, not reduce a person to the charge or sentence.
- For convict leasing and forced labor, labor context and power context belong in the same paragraph as the record fact.
Next steps
- Capture charge, court, date, sentence, labor site, custodian, outcome, and follow-up sources.
- Search newspapers, court minutes, pardon files, cemetery records, and family-safe oral history.
- Use reader-care language and avoid recent or living-person details unless reviewed.
Source trail
- FOBA Convict Leasing Records and Carceral Caution – Internal carceral-records toolkit entry.