Windows on Angola Prison
States of Incarceration: A National Dialogue of Local Histories
Public Engagement Work
Benjamin Weber co-directed Louisiana’s contribution to the States of Incarceration national public history project and traveling exhibit, planning and putting on a series of fifteen public events together with those most directly affected by mass incarceration, community leaders, young people, and the public.
His graduate and undergraduate students created the multimedia content featured in the exhibit and on the “Windows on Angola Prison” webpage, and carried out the collaboration — Stories from Prison Honoring Loved Ones — designed by men who are currently incarcerated to commemorated lost loved ones displayed below.
Stories from Prison
Honoring Loved Ones
What is the Meaning of Death to a Person Serving Life?
Prison Photography interview with Benjamin Weber about the project
American Federation of Teachers Journal
Teaching Histories of Race and Incarceration in the Prison Capital of the World
By Benjamin D. Weber
News coverage
April 22, 2017
Mom of jailed No Limit rapper talks impact of incarceration: 'Not just a DOC number', New Orleans Times-Picayune
February 13, 2017
Mellon Foundation Awards $150,000 Grant to the Humanities Action Lab, UNO Campus News
January 22, 2016
National Endowment for the Humanities Gives $250,000 Grant to Coalition that Includes UNO, UNO Campus News
December 2, 2015
Leading prisoner advocate to speak at UNO on Thursday, The Times Picayune / Nola.com
From Bondage to Bail Bonds:
Putting a Price on Freedom in New Orleans
From Bondage to Bail Bonds: Putting a Price on Freedom in New Orleans
By Flozell Daniels, Benjamin D. Weber, and Jon Wool
Bail in Louisiana was once a system that enforced a constitutional right to be free after arrest and before a determination of guilt or innocence. Over time, it has been transformed into a money bail system in which that freedom is conditioned on the ability to pay money up front. What was originally designed as a right to pretrial freedom has become a means of control and extracting money from people who are arrested, and jailing those who cannot pay…
Beyond Money Bail: Looking Back to Move Ahead
By Benjamin D. Weber
As momentum to end the use of money bail continues to mount across the country our co-authored report, From Bondage to Bail Bonds: Putting a Price on Freedom in New Orleans, asks what we can learn from the past to inform alternatives to money bail now and in the future…
New Orleans Tricentennial
Visions of Justice
What should justice look like in New Orleans for the next three hundred years? The criminal justice system in New Orleans absorbs the lion’s share of the city’s operating budget. With new and renewed leadership in this important year in our city’s history, it is time to dig deep into what it means to build a system that delivers on the promise of fairness, justice, and safety for all New Orleanians. At the tricentennial we are asking: How will our city envision criminal justice reform in this historic moment?
In these short videos, New Orleans community leaders discuss key findings from Vera’s research and share their visions for the future. Created and directed by Benjamin Weber with filming and editing by Voice Monet.
News Coverage
June 15, 2019
The Vera Report on Ending Money Bail in New Orleans, Big East Magazine
June 12, 2019
Vera Institute of Justice Proposes a Plan for Ending Cash Bail, Conviction Fees in New Orleans, The Lens
June 4, 2018
Bail Bondage: The Price of Freedom, The Advocate / The Gambit (cover story)
May 14, 2018
New Orleans’ Money Bond System Puts a Price on Freedom, Report Says, The Times-Picayune / Nola.com
The Calderwoood U.S. History Series with Historian Ben Weber
WGBH Boston and PBS Learning Media
