As social and environmental justice activists struggle for a just world, one without oppression or inhumanity, where the earth is respected and all are free, we must realize that the context of our work is changing. Harper’s crime bill agenda will see an escalation in the criminalization of dissent, activism, and direct action. As social supports for the poor continue to evaporate under neoliberal attacks, more members of our community will end up behind bars, even as global resistance to the austerity agenda continues to mount. And while the government and corporations continue to pillage indigenous lands and suppress community self-determination, Aboriginal people make up a massively disproportionate segment of the prison population.

Acknowledging the importance of these realities to grassroots organizing, WPIRG’s 2012 School of Public Interest will focus on the theme ‘Challenging the Prison System & Fostering Communities of Support’. The 2012 conference will explore the role of prisons in our lives and our society, with a critical emphasis on the prison industrial complex, the intersections between oppression and crime/criminalization, and the ways that activists challenge and are impacted by the law and policing. The gathering will provide a space for in-depth conversations on prison justice, training in support and advocacy for prisoners, explorations of concepts like abolition and transformative justice, and opportunities for networking, strategizing, and building prison justice analysis and activism into our interrelated struggles. Sessions will include panels, presentations, interactive workshops, group discussions, and working meetings.