Arkansas Times I Griffen Coop
The conference comes amid prison expansion talks in Arkansas, where officials announced plans last week for 608 additional beds at several facilities. State prison officials and the office of Gov. Sarah Sanders are also in preliminary stages of planning a new 3,000-bed facility, according to a press release from the state Department of Corrections last week.
Arkansas prisons have also drawn attention this year for a number of suspected suicides, the quality of mental health treatment for prisoners and contention among the department’s leadership.
Speakers at the the DecARcerate conference will include Judah Schept, a professor in the School of Justice Studies at Eastern Kentucky University and the author of two books on incarceration; Liz Blum-Guttierrez, a community organizer in northern California; Nicole Porter, an advocate against mass incarceration; Arkansas Rep. Vivian Flowers (D-Pine Bluff); Rehana Lerandeau, an Atlanta organizer with Critical Resistance, a group that says it works to eliminate the prison industrial complex; and Dan Berger, professor of comparative ethnic studies at the University of Washington Bothell.
Berger will also give a guest lecture at Philander Smith College on Monday, Sept. 9, at 6 p.m. The event is open to the public.
The day-long conference will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Ron Robinson Theater at 100 River Market Ave. The full agenda is available here.