Ruth Morgan, San Francisco County Jail # 3, 1979–81. Black-and-white photograph. 20 x 20 inches.
The San Francisco Public Library has purchased the San Francisco County Jail Arts archive for their Resource Center. The archival collection includes hundreds of photographs documenting the lives of incarcerated men in the County Jail #3 in San Bruno as well as arts programming in the jail from the late 1970s through the 1990s.
From 1979–81, I was a California Art Council Artist-in-Residence in San Francisco County Jail, teaching photography to men incarcerated in the jail located in San Bruno. The Jail Arts program was the first comprehensive arts program in any local jail or state custody facility. Many Bay Area artists participated in the program over the years: Kim Anno, Enrique Chagoya, Jos Sances, Robbin Henderson, Claudia Bernardi, writers Lucia Berlin and Gloria Frym, among numerous other artists, writers, and musicians.
It was the first time I set foot in a jail and offered my first glimpse into the impact of mass incarceration on the lives of the mostly Black and brown prisoners I would see and work with every day. It would be the start of my 40-year career as a portrait/documentary photographer and as the founder and Executive Director of a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering individuals, families, and youth affected by incarceration.
The photographs in this series are printed in black and white as 16 x 20-inch and 20 x 20-inch prints.