Presentation from permaculture & prisons workshop at the International Permaculture Conference 2015, London. For more info visit: www.emptycagesdesign.org

1. Permaculture & Prisons!
International Permaculture Conference 2015

2. Beginnings…
“In chaos lies unparalleled opportunity for imposing
creative order”
- Bill Mollison

3. 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

4. Quiz
In March 2014, what percentage of the
prison population was from a minority
ethnic background?
!
A. 39%
B. 14%
C. 6%
D. 26%

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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. 8
What is your first memory of prison?

9. 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

10. 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

11. Prison Industrial Complex in the UK

12. Are Prisons compatible with
permaculture?

13. 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.

14. “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

15. 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

16. Design Interventions

17. What do you need if you’ve
experienced harm?

18. Constellations of Alternatives

19. 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’

20. Inspiration & Further Resources

21. Get involved:
• Community Action on
Prison Expansion Campaign
• Publications
• Research
• Popular Education
• Prisoner Solidarity &
Labour Organising
Empty Cages Collective
•www.prisonabolition.org