Photos of women and girls after their imprisonment at Mercer
The Criminalized and Incarcerated Project is connected with descendants of imprisoned ancestors from every decade Mercer existed (1880-1969), including people who were born while their mother was imprisoned. Below are some photos courtesy of the descendants involved in the project whose deceased ancestors were imprisoned at the Andrew Mercer Reformatory. These photos show a glimpse of the full lives women and girls lived outside of their incarceration at the Mercer when they were no longer subjugated and dehumanized which is lacking in the archival records. Please keep in mind some descendants don’t have photos as their ancestor died while incarcerated at Mercer.
Photos of those born to an incarcerated mother at Mercer
Most people born to an incarcerated mother (we refer to them as Mercer Babies) don’t have baby pictures. This is a growing collection of photos courtesy of the descendants of deceased Mercer Babies, or of actual living Mercer Babies. Often these Mercer Babies were adopted and never knew they were born to an incarcerated mother, see the Hidden Histories section on the website.