The collection primarily consists of correspondence created during the 1950s and 1960s. Records for the final fifteen years that the organization was known as the National Prisoners' Aid Association (1935-1950) are included, but there are none for the early years of its existence, except for a copy of the 1910 constitution.
The collection contains a history of the organization, corporate records, correspondence, miscellaneous files, newsletters, and the records of the Correctional Service Federation. The original arrangement of the files has been maintained, and correspondence is scattered throughout the collection with the appropriate subject files.
Included in the CORPORATE RECORDS are the articles of organization, the constitutions and by-laws of both the IPAA and the NPAA, minutes, and papers regarding the annual membership and board of directors meetings. This series also contains financial records and related correspondence, officers and committee reports, and files of correspondence and papers of the president and president-designate.
The CORRESPONDENCE series has been arranged by agency or class of individual requesting information or assistance from IPAA. Sections include general correspondence; inquiries from prison inmates, from students requesting information about prisons, and from schools of social work; and correspondence with member and other agencies. Included with the papers of the member agencies are also brochures, reports, and other related material.
The MISCELLANEOUS FILES contain items relating to special projects of IPAA, such as articles, speeches and brochures (including speeches of the Wisconsin Service Association), research and studies conducted on prison reform and offender rehabilitation, tours, and the United Nations' Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders. The files include correspondence regarding these various activities, reports, drafts and copies of published papers, programs, essays by school children and by prisoners, and directories of prisoners' aid agencies.
Within each folder of the NEWSLETTERS series is located a single issue of the monthly newsletter, with accompanying notes, rough drafts of articles, and correspondence pertaining to that issue. An extensive run of IPAA newsletters, some of which are not represented in the files in this series, has been separated to the Historical Library.
A few folders of papers of the CORRECTIONAL SERVICE FEDERATION, which was formed in 1963, and represents U.S. member agencies of the IPAA, are also included in the collection. Among these papers are organizational records and correspondence.
The entire collection has been microfilmed for preservation.
