carceral technologies are bound up in the control, coercion, capture, and exile of entire categories of people.

carceral power in the so-called united states has always been racially segregated; these tech are what mediate that distribution.

carceral technologies are tech that are bound up in the control, coercion, capture, and exile of entire categories of people.

these tech—and the industries and institutions that sustain their use—are the inheritance of a long history of racialized surveillance and developmentalism in the so-called united states, one that targets black, indigenous, immigrant, and poor communities.

carceral tech have a shared genealogy with chattel slavery, indigenous genocide, land waste, segregation, and enclosure/racial banishment. they are an investment, made by both whiteness and the state, and their achievement is necessarily racialized violence.

the history of carceral tech does not begin with computational policing or risk assessment algorithms. this kind of periodization only services police-adjacent academics, media, and system reformists.

our communities are well aware that carceral power in the so-called united states has always been racially segregated, and that these tech—both digital and analog—are what mediate that distribution.

carceral tech are often deployed experimentally, with an eye toward commercial development and use.

this is innovation at the expense of the safety and well-being of our communities.

we are mobilizing to protect our people.

carceral tech are often deployed experimentally, with an eye toward commercial development and use.

these tech are the product of settler-and-post-colonial relationships, and circulate through transnational economies of war and imperialism.

precarious lives worldwide are connected by a shared experience of being surveilled and targeted for data-extraction, innovation, and profit.

carceral tech industries exploit the visibility and exposure our communities face for financial gain, and do so under the guise of innovation, security, and academic knowledge production.

this is innovation at the expense of the safety and well-being of our communities—and we are mobilizing to protect our people.

too much of the information our communities rely on for safety is either partial, lags behind the pace of rollout, or acts in the service of carceral science and legitimates these tech and their designers.

through community archiving and participatory research, ctrn works to build power against the encroachment of harmful technologies.

given how rapidly these tech and their contexts change, there is an urgent need to share information and understanding across communities and to build on each other’s expertise.

the safety of those most often targeted by carceral tech relies on the information they’ve accessed through foia/pra requests, police commission meetings, trade circulars from proprietary entities, etc.—not to mention the consideration these tech receive from academia and popular press.

so much of this information is either partial, lags behind the pace of rollout, or acts in the service of carceral science and legitimates these tech and their designers.

ctrn is building circuits of exchange and knowledge-sharing between community organizations campaigning across contexts and causes. through community archiving and participatory research, we work to build power and defense against the encroachment of harmful technologies.