permaculture & prisons
TRANSCRIPT
Permaculture & Prisons!International Permaculture Conference 2015
Beginnings…“In chaos lies unparalleled opportunity for imposing
creative order”
- Bill Mollison
How many self-inflicted deaths have there been in prison custody in the past 24 years? !A. 364 B. 890 C. 1730 D. 1004
Quiz
Quiz
In March 2014, what percentage of the prison population was from a minority ethnic background? !A. 39% B. 14% C. 6% D. 26%
What is the correlation between levels of crime and the growth in the prison population? !
A. Crime rates are 25% higher than in 2002-03 B. Crime rates are 50% higher than in 2002-03 C. Crime rates are more than a quarter less than in
2002-03 D. Crime rates are more than a third less than in 2002-03
Quiz
How many people in prison are estimated to have learning disabilities or difficulties that interfere with their ability to cope with the criminal justice system?
!!A. 30% B. 15% C. 9.5% D. 5%
Quiz
The number of children that has had a parent in prison at some point in 2009 is: !A. 200,000 B. 43,000 C. 60,000 D. 75,000
Quiz
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What is your first memory of prison?
Functions of the Prison System
• Prisons are sold as solutions to social, economic & political problems
• Natural, Normal, Necessary
• State monopoly on ‘safety’ & punishment
“Prison is considered an inevitable and permanent feature of our social lives”
!- Angela Davies
Prison Industrial Complex
“We are collectively witnessing, surviving, and working in a time of unprecedented state-organized human capture and state-produced physical/social/psychic alienation.” !
- Dylan Rodríguez
Prison Industrial Complex in the UK
Are Prisons compatible with permaculture?
Are Prisons compatible with permaculture?
• Prisons are inherently violent & oppressive • ‘Therapy’ or ‘Healing’ can not come through coercion • Prisons don’t meet the needs of survivors of harm • Little evidence prisons or policing reduce harm • Caging people does not solve the social crises in our societies of racism, sexism, drug abuse, violence, or psycho-emotional struggles.
“An abolitionist approach … would require us to imagine a constellation of alternative strategies and institutions, with the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of our society.”
- Angela Davies
Designing a World without Prisons: Permaculture & Prison Abolition
Prison abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating policing, prisons, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and prison. !It is both a practical organizing tool and a long-term goal.
Prison Abolition
Design Interventions
What do you need if you’ve experienced harm?
Constellations of Alternatives
Permaculturalists & Prisons• Inform yourself about prison abolition & critical perspectives • Challenge your motives & your privilege • Ensure projects are prisoner-led & centred. • Stay critically aware & have these conversations in your groups • Beware of the Not for Profit Industrial Complex • Organise & be part of broader social struggles against prisons • Focus on transformation rather than assimilation into an oppressive society • Reject projects that naturalise, normalise or perpetuate the P.I.C and its ‘rehabilitation rhetoric’
Inspiration & Further Resources
Get involved: • Community Action on Prison Expansion Campaign • Publications • Research • Popular Education • Prisoner Solidarity & Labour Organising
Empty Cages Collective
•www.prisonabolition.org