Salah-El's correspondence spans twenty-eight years of incarceration and chronicles his relationships with activists and scholars, Lois Ahrens, Mechthild Nagel, Elizabeth Dede, Montgomery Neill, Ann-Britt Sternfeldt, Howard Zinn, and musicians George W. Harvey and Robert "Bootsie" Barnes, among others. With letter writing his primary method for sustaining personal relationships and maintaining contact with the outside world, Salah-El keeps in almost constant touch with his network of friends and supporters. In addition to writing and receiving letters on a regular basis, Salah-El frequently forwards the letters he receives to other friends in his circle fostering new relationships and renewing old contacts. As a result, many letters written by one individual are later annotated by Salah-El and sent on to another correspondent. This practice of annotating and forwarding letters complicates the arrangement of the correspondence in the collection, but emphasizes the multiple connections within Salah-El's world. As a general rule, letters are filed under the name of the last person to receive the document, which takes into account both Salah-El's intention to include that person in the communication as well as the comments he specifically addresses to that individual.

Despite his surroundings, Salah-El's letters are overwhelming positive in tone; he is optimistic and unfailing grateful for the support he receives from friends. Since the bulk of the letters within the collection were written more than two decades after his incarceration, his letters do not by and large discuss the crimes for which he was convicted. A complete account of his earlier life and introduction into prison activism can be found in his autobiography filed in series 3. What Salah-El does discuss are those issues which are most near and dear to his heart: life-long learning, music, Quakerism, and of course prison abolition. Salah-El also relays some details about his life in prison, including prison conditions, rules and regulations, and overall treatment of inmates. While many of these details are highlighted because of their negative impact on his life and the lives of his fellow prisoners, Salah-El consistently meets these challenges with a positive outlook--an outlook he has perfected in response to years of frustration and anger aimed at the prison system.

As a prison abolitionist communicating from within the walls of prison, Salah-El's letters offer a unique perspective on the existing prison system. He observes firsthand how the correctional system in the U.S. fails on two levels: first, it fails the inmates who are not exposed to the reform and education programs necessary to transition from prison back into their communities upon release and second, it fails society as the financial underwriter of a large and expensive prison system that neither reforms nor re-trains prisoners ensuring that the cycle of crime and incarceration is repeated by the same offenders. Salah-El's letters with prison activists and educators offer research and statistical data supporting their assessment of the judicial system as well accounts and evidence from within the system itself.

This series is made up of records documenting Salah-El's activities while incarcerated, detailing his battles with prison bureaucracy. Among these are memos and administrative documents regarding policy changes in prison, documents relating to Salah-El's litigation with the Delaware County Prison, and legal reference documents assembled by Salah-El for the use of other prisoners. A prison activist for more two decades, this series also contains materials relating to Salah-El's efforts to abolish the very prisons he sees as having failed both the prisoners and society.

Out of the materials documenting the prison abolition movement, the most important are those relating to the Coalition for the Abolition of Prisons (CAP). Founded in 1995 by Salah-El, CAP was established to introduce positive transformation to the criminal justice system with a focus on abolishing prisons. Soon after CAP was established the group began producing a newsletter, which Salah-El contributed to and edited. In these newsletters, Salah-El and other contributors examine the existing prison system and seek alternatives to traditional justice. The conclusion drawn in these articles--that prison abolition is the only answer to the problem--is certainly controversial, however, Salah-El and others believe that the system is too corrupt to be saved. While this conclusion may seem radical, Salah-El asserts the opposite: "The least controversial observation that one can make about American criminal justice today is that it is remarkably ineffective, absurdly expensive, grossly inhumane, and riddled with ruthlessness and racism." His efforts are aimed at convincing the public, both frightened by and suspicious of the idea, that the existing prison system neither reforms its inmates nor protects their communities from future crime.

This series contains newspaper clippings, printed articles, brochures, fliers, posters, form letters, journals, and pamphlets that Salah-El collected or sent to his correspondents while in prison. Manuscripts feature writings by Salah-El and other activists. Also included are sheet music collected by Salah-El, sheet music used for musical instruction in prison, and sheet music composed by Salah-El himself.

Of singular importance is Salah-El's manuscript of his autobiography. It is the only place within the collection where his full history is documented from childhood to young adulthood and his first incarceration to his later involvement in the drug underworld and organized crime and his second incarceration. The fact that the story is told by Salah-El himself makes it even more valuable in understanding how he became a prisoner and what he did subsequently to change his life through education, Quakerism, and prison activism.

As much as his letters connect Salah-El to the intellectual and emotional aspects of the outside world, the photographs he collects connect him to the physical world he was removed from three decades ago. Every photograph sent to him over the years Salah-El has treated as a treasured object, not just because they offer him a view of the outside world, but because they are physical depictions of the people he has corresponded with for years at a time, many of whom he has never met in person. Most of the images, ranging from snapshots of friends and their families to interior views, vacations, and pets, are not extraordinary when taken on their own. What makes them extraordinary is the value Salah-El places on them and the intent of the photographer to share a piece of his or her world with him. Other photographs depict Salah-El's early childhood and family.