ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition

We are excited to announce that ICOPA X1, the eleventh International Conference on Penal Abolition will happen in Tasmania, Australia from February 9 - 11,2006. Please pass this onto all networks.

Previous conferences have happened in 1983 Toronto Canada, 1985 Amsterdam Netherlands, 1987 Montreal Canada, 1989 Poland, 1991 Indiana USA, 1993 Costa Rica, 1995 Spain, 1997 Auckland NZ, 2000 Toronto Canada, and 2002 Lagos, Nigeria.

Justice Action has accepted the responsibility to coordinate this conference, and will be working with others around the world to ensure that it is an historic, inclusive and accessible event. We want prisoner and exprisoner involvement to be a feature. Let those most affected be heard and let us share their future!

Each ICOPA asks these questions:

What is wrong?
What are we doing?
What can we do?

The agenda and the form of the conference is now open. Please email us proposals and pass to others this notice. Some suggestions for strands are:

* The Politics of Imprisonment

Northern Ireland, Palestine and the Middle East, (Post) Colonial Justice Nigeria and West Africa, South Africa: ANC, Brazil, USA, Canada.

* Contemporary Forms of Penal Custom

Human Rights & Imprisonment: a Global Perspective, International trends, Imprisonment of Women, Marginalisation and Political Dissent in the USA,
Refugee and Immigration Prisons, Prisons under Occupation.

* Post Carceral Resettlement

Organising Inside: Prisoners' resistance and the Outside Community, Writing and Art as Resistance, Barriers to Reintegration, Surveillance, Organising in the Community - Exprisoners' Organisations, Convict Criminology.

* Action Now

Proposals for the future.

We will be linking with the ANZSOC criminology conference happening from 7-9th of February 2006 in Tasmania. They haven't finalised the program yet, but do plan to have four plenary sessions around the theme of Human Rights:

'Prisoners and Human Rights'
'Refugees and Human Rights'
'State Crime and Human Rights'
'Terrorism, Racism and Human Rights'

Tasmania is an ideal place to discuss punishment. It used to be called Van Dieman's Land, and was the place where most of the original convicts were sent from England from 1788 until the 1850's. It was the ultimate as a penal colony, was almost entirely a prison, and changed its name to avoid the historic shame. It had penal settlements where convicts were tortured - all well documented. And the convict responses are very special learning experiences, still valid today.

Robert Hughes book "The Fatal Shore" ISBN 0 099 45915 9 is well worth the read.

From the Internet:

Transport cost from Sydney/Tasmania return Aus$220 USA/Syd ret Aus$1600

SEE YOU IN VAN DIEMAN'S LAND 2006!!

Justice Action
65 Bellevue St, Glebe, NSW 2037, Australia
P.O. Box 386, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia
ja@justiceaction.org.au
voice: 612-9660 9111 fax: 612-9660 9100

Please log into the Justice Action Web site, designed and sponsored by Breakout Design & Print, exercising good corporate citizenship:

PREVIOUS ICOPAs

1983 - ICOPA 1, the First International Conference on Prison Abolition took place in Toronto, Canada. It was organized by grassroots prison rights activists, prison abolitionist academics, ex-prisoners, Quakers and interested community members. A resolution was passed to make ICOPA a bi-annual event.

1985 - ICOPA 11 was held in Amsterdam and was organized by mainly academics and European scholars.

1987 - ICOPA III was organized by a prison abolitionist group in Montreal, Canada. This conference marked a huge change in the abolitionist movement. Participants and conference organizers decided that a goal to abolish the prison was not sufficient. The real problem was the penal mindset which allowed the prison to exist; thus, to abolish the prison without abolishing the penal mentality and penal structure would only open us up to more oppression. As a result of this realization, the International Conference on Prison Abolition transformed to become the International Conference on Penal Abolition.

1989 - ICOPA IV was held in Poland during a time of political upheaval (iron curtain had not fallen yet) and great oppression. This conference was small but very successful in its showing of bravery and true human commitment to this movement.

1991 - ICOPA V was held in Indiana, USA. This conference focused on Native/Aboriginal Justice and racism in the American Justice System.

1993 - ICOPA VI was held in Costa Rica. This is considered to be among the most successful conferences because it included many scholars, activists, ex-prisoners and government officials who were taking the movement and its ideas seriously.

1995 - ICOPA VII was held in Spain. This conference was not very focused on abolition and thus received many complaints and criticisms from its participants

1997 - ICOPA VIII was held in Auckland, New Zealand. This conference was a good opportunity to learn about Maori Justice and Alternative Justice models based on Maori traditions.

2000 - ICOPA IX was held in Toronto, Canada. Returning to the city it was born in, this conference focused on Transformative Justice and the Corporate Agenda's role in Criminal Justice.

2002 - ICOPA X in Lagos, Nigeria. It was the first one in Africa. The theme: Transformative Justice and Practical Alternative to the Penal System..

ICOPA History

The Movement to Abolish Prisons is as old as prisons themselves. In the 19th century, voices like Thomas Buxton of the British Parliament and Victor Hugo of France condemned the prison system and retributive justice. In 1976 Gilbert Cantor, a former editor of the Philadelphia Bar magazine, wrote in that prestigious magazine: "If our entire criminal justice apparentus were simply closed down...there would probably be a decrease in the amount of behaviour now labeled 'criminal'. The time has come to abolish the game of crime and punishment, and to substitute a paradigm of resitutition and responsibility. The goal is the civilization of our treatment of offenders."

Justice Action - ICOPA

Justice Action is a community-based organisation of criminal justice activists. We are prisoners, academics, victims of crime, ex-prisoners.

Updated 11 April 2009

ICOPA X1: Listen! You Tube

The documentary addresses penal abolition as a concept and issues surrounding that policy. It presents the 11th International Conference on Penal Abolition held in Tasmania, Australia over the 9-11th February 2006.

By Justice Action 28 April 05

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Conference: Indigenous Legal Services in Crisis?

Indigenous Legal Volunteers

Current issues in legal services for Indigenous Australians Wednesday 16 June and Thursday 17 June 2004 Sydney.

Are Indigenous legal services in crisis? Is there a more general crisis across the range of organisations and individuals providing services around legal business? Regardless of the ATSILS tendering process, there are issues on the boil right across the country.

The future may be a very different place. The Indigenous Law Centre is hosting a conference that will reveal information, encourage debate and foster networks. We apologise for the short notice but extend a warm invitation to join us here in June.

With this two-day conference we aim to:
consider issues affecting service delivery right now; explore pressing legal issues; share knowledge and innovation; discuss possible futures for service delivery; affect public policy in these areas; and celebrate the work of Indigenous legal services and their partners.

The conference program will include sessions that cover:
hot spots in the law: family, criminal and civil
accessibility and cultural sensitivity: in whose eyes?
innovation in service delivery
getting in early: breaking cycles
to tender or too tender: the future for specialist Indigenous legal services
recommendations from the Royal Commission: a[nother] reckoning
resolving disputes and conflict: methods and madness
services from other sources: roles, relationships, communication
governance, management, accountability
resources: cold hard cash, pro bono, services in-kind
understanding and measuring legal needs

The conference will be of interest to:
lawyers, paralegal staff, field officers, administrators, educators, board members, counsellors, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal, Services, Indigenous Women's Legal Services, Family Violence Protection Legal Units, Community Legal Centres, Legal Aid Commissions, Native Title Representative Bodies, public lawyers, policy makers, police services, courts, public prosecutors and defenders, councillors and staff of ATSIC Regional Councils, private legal practitioners, researchers and students, staff of other organisations providing services to, Indigenous Australians, advocacy and rights organisations.

More information:
program: A detailed program will be made available shortly. Your ideas about topics and speakers are very welcome. We can arrange places to meet for groups with shared interests. Please direct any suggestions or inquiries to the Indigenous Law Centre at ilc@unsw.edu.au or call 02 9385 2252.

Venue: The venue is the Mathews Theatres at the Kensington campus of the University of New South Wales. The campus is easily accessible from the city, eastern suburbs and airport. Enter through Gate 9 on High Street or through the Anzac Gate on Anzac Parade and follow the University Walk to Upper Campus. Maps are available at Indigenous Law Centre Faculty of Law University of New South Wales Sydney 2052 Australia phone 02 9385 2252 fax 02 9385 1266 email ilc@unsw.edu.au

Indigenous Law Centre Faculty of Law UNSW
Terry Hicks (David's father), Maha Habib (Mamdouh's wife) and Stephen Hopper (Habib's solicitor) will hold a Press Conference at 2pm, Saturday 29 May, at Breakout, 65 Bellevue St, Glebe. They will be speaking at the Justice for Hicks and Habib public forum to be held at 6pm tomorrow, Saturday 29 May, at the Granville Youth and Community Recreation Centre, 3A Memorial Drive, Granville.

Press Release *** Press Release *** Press Release Friday 28 May 2004.

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Law, Power, and Change Conference: Oct 4th - 6th UTS, Sydney

The Progressive Law Students Network was established in 2001 at the University of Technology, Sydney, as a forum for law students interested in human rights, community law and progressive social change.

Since then the network has expanded, and this conference will be the first opportunity to bring together community and student activists, legal scholars/practioners and law students from around the country who have been working on a variety of projects and campaigns. (Name Removed by Request), one of conference's organisers, spoke to Green Left Weekly about the conference. (article 1)

Conference Information:

The conference is open to all to attend, and is most definitely not limited to law students or lawyers. We encourage people from any background to participate. For the agenda and information on registration, location of the conference, accommodation and making donations please check out http://jump.to/lawpowerandchange/ .

Free childcare can be arranged. For more information, please contact Brigid O'Connor on 0405 185 070 or email Brigid.L.O'connor@uts.edu.au For any other inquiries about the conference, please contact, (Name and Contact Removed By Request). In particular, if you cannot attend the conference, and would like to stay in contact with the Progressive Law Students Network, please let us know.

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Tim Anderson, Lecturer in Political Economy at the University of Sydney. Dr. Mary Crock, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Sydney. Kerry Nettle, Australian Greens Senator for NSW. Chris Cunneen, Director, Institute of Criminology, University of Sydney Law School. Rosemary Gillespie, International human rights lawyer and 'human shield' in Iraq. Ray Jackson, Indigenous Social Justice Association. Ron Callus, Director of the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training (ACCIRT), University of Sydney Mr Colin Gale, Aboriginal Land Rights Corporation Gillian Moon, Visiting Fellow, School of Law, University of New South Wales. Vicki Sentas, Co-ordinator, UTS Community Law and Legal Research Centre. Amanda Tattersall, Special Projects Officer, Labor Council of NSW. Rita Mallia, Senior Legal Officer, Construction, Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU). Louise Buchanan, Community Liaison/Volunteer Co-ordinator, UTS Community Law and Legal Research Centre. Anthea Vogel, Refugee casework coordinator, University of Sydney (Name Removed by Request), Progressive Law Students Network, University of Technology, Sydney. Yasmin Hunter, Womens Research Officer, UNSW Student Guild. Dale Mills, Legal Observers Project.

Radical activists and the law

By Dale Mills

A national conference of legal activists will be held at the University of Technology, Sydney, on October 4-6. (Name Removed by Request), one of conference's organisers, spoke to Green Left Weekly about the conference. Who is organising the Law, Power and Change conference and what do you hope to achieve at it?

The conference is being organised by the Progressive Law Students Network, which began in 2001 as a small network of students at UTS. We started with a relatively modest vision of trying to inject a progressive current into the law faculty at UTS by involving students in campaigns such as the refugee or anti-war campaigns, providing a space to develop a radical critique of the function of the law in society, and creating opportunities for students to get involved in community legal work for example, by assisting people in detention centres with their legal appeals.

This small project generated a huge amount of interest, initially from students from other Sydney campuses, and then nationally. The conference is the first opportunity to bring together people from around the country to discuss issues of pressing concern to legal activists, and also the possibility of forming a national network. What sort of people do you expect to come along to the conference?

People have already registered from almost every state in Australia, including law students, people representing a variety of legal organisations and community centres, and progressive academics from a range of disciplines. We have also tried to publicise the conference amongst activist networks, and promote the conference as an opportunity to develop relationships between lawyers and law students, and the wider activist community.

You have speakers on everything from terrorism, refugees, native title, rape, the building industry, to feminism and the environment. Why are all these issues being spoken about at the same conference? Do they have anything in common? The broad theme of the conference is an exploration of how the law as an institution reflects/entrenches power relations, and what potential exists to work for progressive social change, both within and outside of the legal system.

This exploration is grounded in an examination of what we believe are some of the key issues facing society today. More importantly, however, the conference highlights issues we believe a national network of radical lawyers and students could take on as a focus for their activity, either by contributing to existing movements or by initiating new campaigns.

What are you hoping to achieve through the conference? We hope that the conference will provide an opportunity to forge enduring relationships between the various participants, initiate new projects or involve people in existing projects, and contribute to developing a current and radical critique of the law.

On a grander scale, we hope that the conference might constitute the beginning of a movement of progressive lawyers and students to combat the pervasive conservatism of the legal profession. Isn't this just a bunch of elite lawyers speaking to each other. Why should ordinary people care?

The issues addressed in the conference relate to how the law as a system is used to implement a particular social order that impact mostly negatively on every element of the lives of ordinary people. In general terms, the law operates as the engine oil that sustains capitalism, with the obvious attendant consequences.

In more specific terms, the topics dealt with in the conference have immediate relevance to ordinary people. For example, the erosion of the right to organise in the workplace has serious consequences for the capacity of working people to seek to improve their working conditions. The use of the criminal justice system to terrorise and disrupt the lives of Indigenous and poor communities has massive implications for the daily lives of people in those communities.

The war on terrorism , implemented in Australia through an ever-expanding executive arm of government, raises a serious threat to the security of Muslim communities, among others. This is not to mention the threat posed to the security of the world's population given the potential for the arbitrary pre-emptive use of force to continue to seriously destabilise particular regions.

Address: Oct 4-6 @ UTS (City & Haymarket Campuses) - (Named Contact Removed by Request).

Green Left Weekly

by Progressive Law Students Network October 3 03

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Civil Liabilities: Howard's diversity? I had a dream?
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Second International Conference on Human Rights & Prison Reform

Seminar on Discrimination in the Criminal Justice Systems Throughout the World**

August 2th-7th, 2003 Centre Le Cenacle 17, Promenade Charles Martin Geneva, Switzerland Tel: +41-22 707 08 30 Fax: +41-22 840 30 40 email info@cenacle.ch Le Cenacle

Saturday, August 2th

6:30 PM -10 PM Self-introductions, preparation for the next day and social.

Sunday, August 3rd

8 AM - 6:30 PM Indepth discussion of draft on prisoner discrimination based on the Universal Declaration On Human Rights and other major human rights documents (this segment and other segments will have breaks for coffee, lunch, etc. where appropriate).

Monday, August 4th

8 AM - 2 PM Break-up into two committees on prisoner discrimination (1) within prison systems (2) within the "free world".

2:30 PM - 5 PM Observing the meeting of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

Tuesday, August 5th

8 AM - 2 PM Reports of the committees on prisoner discrimination.

2:30 - 5 PM Observing the meeting of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

6:30 PM - 10 PM Finalization of our Report on Prisoner Discrimination.

Wednesday, August 6th

9 AM- Noon Observing the meeting of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.

Noon - 2 PM Luncheon for members of the Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. Deliverance and brief presentation of our Report on Prisoner Discrimination.

2 PM - 5 PM Continued Observing Sub-Commission on Promotion & Protection of Human Rights.

6:30 PM - 10 PM Discussion of how the day went and where we go from here.

Thursday, August 7th

Individual goodbyes during breakfast.

* Over 200 people participated in this first gathering that was in October, 2001, in New York City which was three weeks after 9/11. Although 40 countries had indicated interest, many could not receive visas to come.

Most of the 24 countries that were represented prepared and delivered report cards to their UN Ambassador on the status of human rights in the prisons of their country. These report cards as well as the Proceedings of this Conference will be studied at this second conference.

**This second gathering will be much smaller and more in depth in participation. A report on the human rights violation of discrimination in regard to prisoners will be produced. This report will be given to the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights which will be having its annual meeting near our conference and is the"think tank" for the human rights agenda of the United Nations.

NO FEE TO PARTICIPATE BUT ON YOUR OWN FOR ALL EXPENSES AND ARRANGEMENTS

Housing

For the time being, The Cenacle has 7 twin bedded rooms and 6 single rooms available from the 2nd to the 7th of August. the price of the rooms is in Swiss francs : 64.00 per SGL and CHF: 96.00 per DBL, with breakfast and services included. To reserve and pay, contact William Celestrin at info@cenacle.ch

Please Fill Out This Form If You Are Coming and email it to cure@curenational.org or fax to (413) 845-9787.

Name_____________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________ City_______________________________________________ Country ___________________________________________ Telephone _________________________________________ Email Address ______________________________________

Posted 20 May 03

Related:

Justice Action's complaints about ACM to the NSW Ombudsman fell on deaf ears The Federal Government is reviewing allegations that the company it pays to run Australia's detention centres the same company who runs Junee Jail in NSW has fraudulently reduced staffing levels in at least one centre to increase its profits.

PAROLE BOARD REWARDED? FOR DEADLY MISTAKE
The Justice Minister has released government reforms to the Parole Board following the death of an aboriginal inmate, which was due to a Parole Board error.

Letter from the mother of a prisoner on remand at the High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre I am writing to give you permission to make any inquiries on my behalf as I am invalid pensioner who doesn't drive and been only well enough to travel by train once in 15 months to see my son Scott Simpson. I have enclosed a copy of Scott's letter and also a copy of gaol papers form I have to fill out and wait to see if I'm allowed in to see him. He doesn't get any visits. He is in the Supermax and deprived of any privileges not even legal Aid will fund a solicitor to see him in Goulburn.

Carr's Castle the real story H.R.M.U.The High Risk Management Unit Goulburn Correctional Centre The Australian Institute of Criminology's Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia - 1996 just don't cover the Goulburn HRMU according to Mr Ron Woodham Commissioner of Corrective Services. The High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) is the centrepiece of a major $22M redevelopment of Goulburn Correctional Centre.

Australia: Private Prisons, Junee NSW
When I got to Junee I was given nothing except bed linen. That's it! No clothing. I had to put my name down for clothing, which they said I could get on Saturday. When I went down to get my clothing on Saturday I was told they had nothing but I was told that I could buy what I wanted on their monthly buy-up. In the mean time I got rashes between my legs from the dirty clothes I had on.

ARUNTA PHONE SYSTEM: IDC Lithgow Prison
The prisoners of Lithgow Correctional Centre have requested that the Lithgow Inmate Development Committee write to you on their behalf and ask that the phone systems heavy burden upon the prisoners at this institution and their families be reviewed. I will outline the problems.

Health problems denied in prison
Lithgow Correctional Centre (IDC) Inmate Development Committee "Currently there are 72 inmates on the doctors waiting list with only one doctor coming fortnightly and usually on a weekend".

NSW Prisons Inmate Development Committee speaks out
I am writing on behalf of the IDC Inmate Development Committee in area 3, MSPC at Long Bay. Area 3 is where, the Department is congregating minimum-security offenders within maximum-security walls whilst awaiting mandatory programs at Cubit (Sex Offenders Program).

THE GULAG TREATMENT - The Trauma Of Court Appearances When Incarcerated Prisoner transport vehicle 10th January 2003 It's about 4.40am, very darkoutside and although I'm expecting it, it is still intrusive when my dreams are interrupted by the sound of my name, it is the officer checking that I'm awake ready to face the long day ahead.

Sir David Longland Correctional Centre
If it were possible to characterize the term B Block attitude in a modern dictionary, it would read something like "demeanor of inhabitance" or "state of mind or behaviour of occupants".

SIR DAVID LONGLAND CORRECTIONAL CENTRE QLD - CELLS IN B BLOCK The cells in B Block are like no other in any Queensland prison. After Mr. Cooper was severally embarrassed by the Abbott and Co escape on 4th November 1997, he visited B Block and the surrounding grounds. It was that visit, by Cooper, that set in motion a plan (up the ante) to make sure security in B Block would never embarrass him again. It was like closing the gate after the horse has bolted.

The Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986 Qld
The Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986 (Qld), requires that any person who has committed an offence which is less than 10 years old or which resulted in a prison sentence of more than 30 months, must disclose that offence if requested eg. for employment purposes. If a criminal record is disclosed in a job application, it is unlikely that person will be given the job.

Judged Forever- The Orange County Register
US: California's largest job-placement program for parolees will be shut down May 31 after an Orange County Register investigation found that ex-convicts were sent to questionable jobs [?] and that the state was charged for placements that did not occur. [? According to the ruling-class]

My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?
LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]