Archive for the ‘Upcoming Events’ Category
Upcoming Event: January 27-28 Symposium on Women and Incarceration at UCLA
The UCLA Law Review’s upcoming symposium may be of interest to readers in Southern California, and it’s free and open to the public — you just need to pre-register here. Here’s the full description:
Overpoliced and Underprotected: Women, Race, and Criminalization
Recently, mass incarceration has been theorized as a system of racialized social control. This frame, however, often relies on long-standing gender reductionism that posits the primary subject of punishment and criminalization as male. At the same time, the unprecedented growth of female incarceration has spawned a host of gender-sensitive interventions, yet the discourses that are gender-sensitive often marginalize if not entirely erase the distinctive racial dimensions of the punitive turn in public policy. This Symposium will interrogate how criminalization is mediated through various intersections of race, gender and class and will shed light on the dimensions of racialized criminalization that are gendered differently.
Moreover, this symposium will investigate the parallel and reinforcing nature of institutions that prepare certain populations for incarceration and function to exclude them upon their release. In examining various logics of punishment, the discussion will not be limited to formal boundaries of the criminal justice system, nor the processes that govern adjudications of innocence or guilt. Instead, this symposium will interrogate the processes of control that parallel and intersect with the prison system such as the public health, welfare, foster care and education systems. Examining these overlaps reveals the way that systems which are seen as policing race have gender dimensions and those which are seen as embodying gender norms police them along racial lines. Lastly, we will examine the ways in which formalistic examinations of the criminal justice systems and constitutional limitations on state action can obscure these race and gender dynamics.
The full lineup of panels and panelists is at this link.
Upcoming Event: Conference on Attica, 40 Years Later
Doug Berman notes an upcoming conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising:
40 Years After the Attica Uprising:
Looking Back, Moving Forward
University at Buffalo Law School, The Baldy Center for Law & Social Policy
Monday, September 12 & Tuesday, September 13, 2011
The first panel looks especially interesting, as it will bring together many who were there in 1971:
Looking Back: The Attica Uprising and Aftermath
Scholars of the Attica Uprising and individuals with first-hand experiences of the Uprising and its impact will recall the events leading up to the Uprising, reconstruct the historical timeline, specifically discuss their role in the events that followed the Uprising, and discuss the significance of those events to prisoners, corrections, and to communities four decades later.
Malcolm Bell, Former Special Assistant Attorney General (NYS Attica Investigation)
Arthur O. Eve, Former NYS Assemblyman & Negotiator/Observer
Melvin Marshall, 1971 Attica Inmate
Dee Quinn Miller, Director, Forgotten Victims of Attica
Herman Schwartz, Professor of Law, American University and Negotiator/Observer
Michael Smith, Attica CO in 1971 and Hostage
Heather Ann Thompson, Professor of History, Temple University
Teresa A. Miller, Professor of Law, University at Buffalo (moderator)
Other panels will include a wide range of academics, lawmakers, prison officials, and lawyers. The full schedule and registration is here.
Upcoming Event (& New Book!): Children of Incarcerated Parents Conference at Rutgers-Camden
Rutgers-Camden will host a public conference on Wednesday, June 23, “that aims to open a dialogue about the needs of children and families of the incarcerated and how the private and public sectors can better respond.” More details:
Panels will be held on policy issues surrounding the Adoption and Safe Families Act (AFSA); the role of educators supporting children and families; the developmental effects of trauma on children; interventions for children of incarcerated parents; and best practices for supporting child and parent relationships. Representatives from regional corrections facilities and social services agencies will also be speaking, in addition to the keynote speaker, a formerly incarcerated father who founded Frontline Dads, for fathers dealing with life before and after incarceration.
The occasion for the conference is Rutgers professor Jane Siegel’s new book, Disrupted Childhoods: Children of Women in Prison(Rutgers UP, 2011). The conference is open to the public, but it looks like there’s a $45 fee. Registration form here.
Upcoming Events of Interest — NYC & Bay Area
A few upcoming events of possible interest to readers of this blog — follow the links for details. Late notice on the first two, but maybe you’ll have an opening in your calendar.
- San Francisco: Brown Bag Lunch for Pro Bono Attorneys on California Prison Overcrowding Case — Thursday, June 9, 12 PM; RSVP required
- Oakland: Panel on Realignment of California Juvenile Justice System — Thursday, June 9, 5:30 PM; RSVP required
- New York: Forum on Solitary Confinement in New York State Prisons — Thursday, June 21, 7 PM at Riverside Church
Upcoming Event: “Isolation within U.S. Prisons,” April 5 in San Francisco
A quick exception to the hiatus to note this event that should be of great interest to my Bay Area readers:
The Center for Constitutional Rights Presents:
Isolation Units Within U.S. Prisons: A Panel Discussion
featuring Dr. Terry Kupers; Keramet Reiter, PhD Candidate U.C. Berkeley, Zahra Billoo, Exec. Director, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR_SF), and CCR Staff Attorney Alexis Agathocleous.
Tuesday April 5, 2011
6:30 p.m.
Audre Lorde Room
The Women’s Building
3543 18th St. #8
San Francisco
More info here. More on Terry Kupers, a leading expert on prison mental health issues, here.
Upcoming Event: Prison Reproductive Justice Panel at Stanford’s Shaking the Foundations Conference
This year’s edition of the annual Shaking the Foundations conference, put on by students at Stanford Law School, will feature a panel entitled “Locked Up and Locked Out: Reproductive Rights of Women in Prison.” The panel will be Saturday, October 15, featuring the following speakers:
- Kim Buchanan, Associate Professor of Law, University of Southern California, Gould School of Law
- Sara Ainsworth, Senior Legal & Legislative Counsel, Legal Voice
- Amy Fettig, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown Law School/Staff Counsel, ACLU National Prison Project
- Sally Lieber, Former State Assembly Member, State of California
- Carolyn Sufrin, M.D., Clinical Faculty, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of California, San Francisco/Women’s Health Specialist, San Francisco Department of Public Health/Jail Health Services
Other panels of possible interest to readers will cover immigration reform, wrongful convictions, healthcare for transgender people, and more. The cost for the two-day conference is $5 for students, $20 for other attendees, and includes three catered meals. You can register online at this link.
Tomorrow: Ninth Circuit Oral Argument in Important Felon Voting Rights Case
Tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 21, the Ninth Circuit will hear oral argument in Farrakhan v. Gregoire, an important case that could affect the voting rights of prisoners in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, California, Hawaii, and Arizona. Back in January, a split Ninth Circuit panel ruled that, in Washington State, “minorities are more likely than whites to be searched, arrested, detained, and ultimately prosecuted,” and that, because “some people becom[e] felons not just because they have committed a crime, but because of their race, then that felon status cannot, under section 2 of the [Voting Rights Act], disqualify felons from voting.” Washington State appealed for en banc review, which is what tomorrow’s proceeding will be.
The proceedings will be broadcast live at 2 PM PST/5 PM EST on C-SPAN 3 available on C-SPAN 3 at a later time.* If you are in or near San Francisco, you could also attend the hearing in person — it’s scheduled for 1:30 PM in the Ninth Circuit courthouse at Mission and 7th. Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and All of Us or None are organizing a group to attend — here’s the flyer (.doc file).
* EDIT: When I first visited the NAACP LDF case page, it suggested there would be a live broadcast, but it looks like they’ve since edited the page to reflect otherwise.
Upcoming Event (Tomorrow): Bipartisan Press Conference on Prison Rape Elimination Standards
Pat Nolan (courtesy Prison Fellowship)
Pat Nolan’s Prison Fellowship, Just Detention International, and a host of co-sponsors ranging from the ACLU to Focus on the Family will unveil a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder tomorrow, Tuesday, August 17, at the National Press Club at 10 AM (Eastern time), urging Holder to formally adopt the standards proposed by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. Thought I’d pass this along to my media readers, as there will be opportunities for on-site interviews with representatives from the coalition, left and right.
Upcoming Event: NASC 2010 on the Alabama Gulf Coast
The National Association of Sentencing Commissions (NASC) will hold its 2010 conference this August 8-10 in Point Clear, Alabama, which is on the Mobile Bay. Registration info available here. (h/t: Doug Berman)
I had the opportunity to attend some sessions of the 2008 NASC conference in San Francisco and can attest that it’s an informative, thought-provoking event that attracts a wide range of criminal justice professionals from around the country. And based on many childhood vacations, I can also attest that the Alabama Gulf Coast region is a very nice place to visit! (Although it has tragically been hit hard by the BP oil spill.) The conference agenda is available here; the theme is “Sound Sentencing Policy: Balancing Justice and Dollars”:
This year’s conference will offer plenaries, workshops and roundtable discussions on issues relating to sentencing practices and the hurdles sentencing commissions and criminal justice officials must overcome during these times of shrinking budgets and scarce resources, as well as innovative ways that states have faced these challenges. Welcoming the conference attendees will be Alabama’s Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, Federal Circuit Judge, Bill Pryor, former Attorney General of Alabama and leader in establishing Alabama’s Sentencing Commission, and Commission Chair, Retired Circuit Judge Joe Colquitt, Beasley Professor of Law, University of Alabama School of Law.
Prison Law Blog 