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

8

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