Re: Prison Alternatives

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>From: Critresist <Critresist@aol.com>
>Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 00:43:04 EST
>To: julames@mail.interlog.com
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Subject: Re: conference info
>
>PLEASE POST, ANNOUNCE AND DISTRIBUTE
>
>        CALL FOR PRESENTERS, PAPERS & WORKSHOPS
>
>
>        CRITICAL RESISTANCE: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex
>        A National Conference and Strategy Session
>
>        September 24-27, 1998
>        University of California at Berkeley
>
>Activists, scholars, policymakers, advocates, cultural workers and former
>prisoners will come together to address the contemporary crisis occasioned
>by the emergence of a prison-industrial complex in the U.S. and
>internationally.  The exponential increase in imprisoned populations and
>prison construction is having a particularly injurious impact on communities
>of color and on rising numbers of women.  Along with this prison expansion
>has come the dismantling of rehabilitative programs and rampant human rights
>violations.  Politicians who take advantage of public misperceptions about
>crime have become increasingly influential, and punishment has become a
>profitable business in which more and more corporations are staking their
>claims.  Our mission is to develop a strategy of resistance that will
>contest the mounting trend toward imprisonment as a stop-gap approach to
>systemic social problems, and encourage more effective movements for genuine
>social and economic justice.
>
>We seek to facilitate a productive exchange between a diverse range of
>individuals-- including grassroots organizers, academics, former prisoners,
>policymakers, lawyers and other advocates-- and organizations who
>traditionally have not worked together around prison issues.  The goal of
>the conference is to establish a broad network of individuals and
>organizations committed to critical public discourse, effective social and
>cultural activism, further research, and dramatic policy transformation.  We
>hope to create a foundation for a new movement against the prison industrial
>complex.  Toward this end, we are creating task forces in the following areas:
>
>        Prison as Industry: What is the prison industrial complex and what are
>its
>implications for working class and poor communities and communities of
>color?  How does it exacerbate human rights violations within the penal
>system, and what are its long term effects on social conditions outside?
>        Law and Policy: How can researchers, legal scholars, lawyers,
>policymakers, and activists work together to educate law makers regarding
>human rights issues and to transform prison law and policy?
>        Research and Activism: How can academic researchers collaborate with
>grassroots activists to develop agendas for moving beyond the prison
>industrial complex?
>        Abolitionist Alternatives: What is the relationship between
>decriminalization and the development of new institutions to address urgent
>social problems now under the purview of the criminal justice system?
>        Human Rights and Conditions of Confinement: What role can
>international
>standards and bodies play in developing a human rights agenda for prisoners?
>        Education: How can high school and college teachers and teachers in
>community and prison education projects collaborate to develop curricula and
>research that encourage critical analyses of the prison industrial complex?
>        Media Representations and Popular Culture: What is the role of the
>mass
>media in fomenting anti-crime hysteria and promoting the prison-industrial
>complex, and how can cultural workers and others change this?
>
>The conference is structured to encourage participants to engage with others
>outside their own fields of expertise; thus, each panel must reflect two or
>more of the above subject areas, and include presenters from diverse
>backgrounds who are capable of addressing issues of race, gender, sexuality,
>age, etc.  Proposals for presentations should indicate how the presentations
>will contribute to the overall goals of the conference.  Please include a
>short description of all presenters and their organizational or
>institutional affiliations.  Proposals may be no more than one page in
>length and must be postmarked by April 15, 1998.  You may attach videotapes,
>photographs or other visual materials.  (Materials cannot be returned
>without a self addressed, postage prepaid envelope.)
>
>        Critical Resistance, P.O. Box 339, Berkeley, CA 94701
>         (510)643-2094
>        critresist@aol.com                      www.igc.org./justice/critical

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