The Long Term — Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project
Sara Ross of The Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project donated a series of 15 riso-prints called The Long Term, to our call for art in 2024. This gift was so precious we kept the portfolio for our Permanent Collection instead of auctioning it off. This series asks the question How long is long?—regarding prison sentences. This speaks to the desire of Let’s Get Free’s community in PA prisons who do not have a sentence of life without parole but to those that have “life by numbers” or “basketball numbers”. Let’s Get Free has devoted a great amount of energy focused on those with death by incarceration and this series helps us open the conversation to many who feel left out of our community organizing.
Between 2016 and 2018, artists, writers, and other members of the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project created a series of thematic works around long-term sentencing policies and the other long terms they produce: long-term struggles for freedom, long-term loss in communities, and long-term relationships behind the prison wall. These projects emerged out of classes and collaborative work at Stateville Prison, where people are serving extraordinarily long prison terms (whether life or 60, 70, and 80 years), often for crimes for which they would have already been released, had they been sentenced 30 years earlier, or in a different country.
RISOGRAPHS
Fifteen Chicago-area artists were invited to create print designs in response to essays from the P+NAP book, The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working for our Freedom (October 2018) that focuses on the issue of long term sentencing and the long term struggle for freedom, written by educators, activists, incarcerated people and formerly-incarcerated people. The portfolio of prints is one of the many attempts to make visible how punitive policies and incarceration negatively shape communities, families, and ultimately, life-chances.
The portfolio features prints by artists: Ivan Arenas, Elizabeth Brent, William Estrada, Eric Garcia, Maria Gaspar, Ryan Griffis, Sam Kirk, Damon Locks, Nicole Marroquin, Dave Pabellon, Claire Pentecost, Sarah Ross, Fred Sasaki, Monica Trinidad, and myself (Aaron Hughes). And was released in May at an popup exhibition event at Art In These Times that featured readings by Tara Betts, Elizabeth Brent, Daniel Cooper, Monica Cosby, Deana Lewis, Orlando Mayorga, and Maria Moon.
Read Aaron Hughes’s interview (2018) with Sarah Ross and Dave Pabellon about the making of the series at Justseeds
Print by William Estrada 
Print by Eric J. Garcia 
Print by Maria Gaspar 
Print by Aaron Hughes 
Print by Sam Kirk 
Print by Damon Locks 
Print by Elizabeth Brent 
Print by Nicole Marroquin 
Print by Ivan Arenas 
Print by Ryan Griffis 
Print by Dave Pabellon 
Print by Claire Pentecost 
Print by Fred Sasaki 
Print by Monica Trinidad 
Print by Sara Ross
Connections to Pennsylvania
The print below materialized from an essay by three of Pennsylvania’s freedom fighters: Felix Rosado, David Lee, and Layne Mullett. Three long time members of CADBI—The Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration. Felix Rosado was released through commutation in spring of 2021 after 27 years in prison. Both Felix and Layne have brought little ones to earth and continue as a part of our movement 🥰 Our beloved David Dawud Lee died in prison in March of 2024 after being denied commutation. See brief tribute to Dawud that was published in Daughters Magazine below.
The essay is called Larger Than Life—Building a Movement across Prison Walls to Abolish Death by Incarceration and starts with this quote:
We believe this systemic
negation of the human capacity for redemption
is a crime against humanity.
—Right 2 Redemption
ANIMATION
Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project presents The Long Term, a hand-drawn, animated film developed by artists serving long-term sentences. The video uses personal narrative and research to describe the scale and impact of these sentencing policies including stories about the fear of dying inside, the feeling of being programmed by prison, and the impact on family life; from the perspective of 11 artists serving life or long-term sentences.
Created by artists from Stateville Prison and artists-in-residence from the Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project:
Chester Brost, Devon Daniels, Joseph Dole, Francisco “Paco” Estrada, Darrell W. Fair, R Dot Nandez, Damon Locks, C. McLaurin, Flynard “Fly 1” Miller, Andrés Reyes, Sarah Ross., B. R. Shaw, Bring and Johnny Taylor.
Art Directors: Damon Locks + Sarah Ross
Animator Director: Rob Shaw
Editors: Rob Shaw + Sarah Ross
Sound: Damon Locks + Nick Mazzeralla
Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra
Thank you for generous support from: Open Society Foundation, Soros Justice Media Fellowship, IL Humanities
Learn more about the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project
This is why we fight : Remembering Dawud