Places of incarceration are, to some degree at least, places of removal and silence the spaces to which individuals are taken when they are separated from 'society'. The architecture of spaces of detention and incarceration whilst often facilitating the observation of those incarcerated frequently obscure outside view, through means such as high walls or isolated locations. Incarceration is also often a tactic in political suppression and sites of incarceration are often also entangled with broader political struggles. What does it mean to subsequently open these places up to the public? How is what was hidden from view made visible? Are these also spaces of memorialisation similar to sites of mass loss of life? How are/should the stories of these sites told? Is there something specific about sites of incarceration? Or do they raise similar issues about memory and heritage to other sites of conscience? 

This round table brings together curators of sites of conscience that have been locations of incarceration and academics who have studied such sites to explore these questions.