S I S T E R S I N S I D E I N C

B R I S B A N E , A U S T R A L I A

IS PRISON OBSOLETE? CONFERENCE

19 20 21

OCTOBER

2016

DA

Y 3

—Frid

ay 21

Octo

ber 2

016

9.0

0

Keyn

otes: Th

e Au

stralian C

on

text—In

no

vati

on

s & Id

eas

Bree C

arlton

, Mo

o B

aulch

, Tamara

Walsh

& A

man

da G

eorge

11

.00

Mo

rnin

g Tea

11

.30

Wo

rksho

p: R

espo

nd

ing to

Wo

men

, C

hild

ren &

You

ng

Peo

ple

(Avro

Ro

om

)

Wo

rksho

p: W

orkin

g Tow

ard

Co

mm

un

ity & In

divid

ua

l Ch

an

ge

(Catalin

a Ro

om

)

Wo

rksho

p: R

espo

nd

ing to

Specifi

c G

rou

ps o

f Wo

men

(D

ehavillan

d R

oo

m)

1.3

0

Lun

ch

2.3

0

Keyn

ote P

anel D

iscussio

n &

Clo

sing

Ce

rem

on

y

3.3

0

CLO

SE

DA

Y 1

—W

edn

esday 1

9 O

ctob

er 201

6

9.0

0

Op

enin

g Ce

rem

on

y W

elcom

e to C

ou

ntry: A

un

ty Vald

a C

oo

lwell an

d o

thers

Offi

cial Op

enin

g: Ho

n. Jackie Trad

, D

epu

ty Prem

ier

9.3

0

Keyn

otes: Th

e Failure o

f Priso

n

Refo

rm—

Glo

ba

l Persp

ectives o

n

Ab

oliti

on

& D

ecarcera

tio

n

An

gela Davis, K

im P

ate & D

ebb

ie Kilro

y

11

.00

Mo

rnin

g Tea

11

.30

Keyn

otes: Th

e Failure o

f Priso

n

Refo

rm—

Ind

igen

ou

s Persp

ectives

Jackie Hu

ggins, P

atricia Turn

er &

Celeste Lid

dle

1.0

0 Lu

nch

1.4

5

Keyn

otes: Th

e Intern

atio

nal C

on

text—In

no

vati

on

s & Id

eas

Gin

a Den

t, Erica Mein

ers & R

ache

l H

erzing

3.1

5 A

ftern

oo

n Tea

3.3

0

Po

st Release Talkin

g Circle

(A

vro R

oo

m)

Ab

origin

al & To

rres Strait Island

er W

om

en’s Talkin

g Circle (C

atalina

Ro

om

)

Mo

thers &

Ch

ildren

’s Talking C

ircle (D

eh

avilland

Ro

om

)

4.3

0 O

RG

AN

ISERS’ EX

CH

AN

GE

5.3

0 C

LOSE

DA

Y 2

—Th

ursd

ay 20

Octo

ber 20

16

9.3

0

Keyn

otes: C

ritical P

erspecti

ves on

In

dig

eno

us W

om

en &

C

rimin

alisa

tio

n

Melissa Lu

cashen

ko, V

ickie Ro

ach,

& Jacq

ui K

aton

a

11

.00

M

orn

ing Tea

11

.30

Wo

men

’s Pan

el: Ou

r Stories

1.0

0

Lun

ch

2.0

0

Wo

rksho

p: In

digen

ou

s In

carcera

tio

n &

Deca

rcerati

on

a

cross th

e Tasm

an

(C

atalina R

oo

m)

Wo

rksho

p: State V

iolen

ce &

Dea

ths in

Cu

stod

y (A

vro R

oo

m)

Wo

rksho

p: D

ecarceratio

n &

C

om

mu

nity Ed

uca

tio

n

(Deh

avilland

Ro

om

)

4.3

0

Aft

erno

on

Tea

6.3

0

AR

T AU

CTIO

N

The

Pro

gram …

At a G

lance

!

9.00

Opening Ceremony

Room: Catalina Dehavilland Chair: Anne Warner

Welcome to Country: Aunty Valda Coolwell, Lala Bayles (poetry recitation) & Aboriginal Dancers

Official Opening: Hon. Jackie Trad, Deputy Premier

9.30

Keynotes: The Failure of Prison Reform—Global Perspectives on

Abolition & Decarceration Room: Catalina Dehavilland

Chair: Anne Warner Angela Davis

Kim Pate Debbie Kilroy

11.00 Morning Tea: Southern Cross Pavilion

11.30

Keynotes: The Failure of Prison Reform—Indigenous

Perspectives Room: Catalina Dehavilland

Chair: Melissa Lucashenko Jackie Huggins

Patricia Turner Celeste Liddle

1.00 Lunch: Southern Cross Pavilion

1.45

Keynotes: The International Context—Innovations & Ideas

Room: Catalina Dehavilland Chair: Debbie Kilroy

Gina Dent Erica Meiners

Rachel Herzing

3.15 Afternoon Tea: Southern Cross Pavilion

3.30

Post Release Talking Circle

Room: Avro Facilitators: Ann-Marie Tilley & Yari Silva-Cabezas

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Women’s Talking Circle

Room: Catalina Facilitators: Zofia Wasiak & Neta-Rie Mabo

Mothers & Children’s Talking Circle

Room: Dehavilland Facilitators: Karina Bell & Julie Lowe

4.30 ORGANISERS’ EXCHANGE: Avro Room

An informal opportunity for abolitionist activists, organisers and practitioners from throughout the world to talk about their work.

5.30 CLOSE

DAY 1 Program - Wednesday 19 October 2016

DAY 2 Program - Thursday 20 October 2016

9.30

Keynotes: Critical Perspectives on Indigenous Women &

Criminalisation Room: Catalina Dehavilland

Chair: Karina Hogan Melissa Lucashenko

Vickie Roach Jacqui Katona

11.00 Morning Tea: Southern Cross Pavilion

11.30

Women’s Panel: Our Stories

Room: Catalina Dehavilland Chair: Debbie Kilroy

1.00 Lunch: Southern Cross Pavilion

2.00

Workshop: Indigenous incarceration & decarceration across the

Tasman Room: Catalina

Chair: Zofia Wasiak Where are the Women in Sentencing Indigenous Offenders? (Thalia Anthony, University of

Technology Sydney)

An Alternative Justice System for Maori (Te Ringahuia Hata & panel, New Zealand)

Decarceration and Decolonisation (Panel of Wahine Maori of the WAI 2540 Treaty Claim

Against Corrections, New Zealand)

JustSpeak: Young people changing the rules in Aotearoa New Zealand (Katie Bruce & Julia

Whaipooti, JustSpeak, New Zealand)

Workshop: State violence and deaths in custody

Room: Avro Chair: Karina Bell Confronting State Violence: Feminist histories & abolitionist imaginings (Emma Russell,

Deakin University, Vic)

Punishable Bodies and Penal Governance: Interrupting the figuring of the punishable female

bodies (Lara Palombo & Lana Sandas, WIPAN – Women in Prison Advocacy Network, NSW)

Women who have died in custody in Western Australia (Kelly Somers, Deaths in Custody

Watch Committee (WA) Inc., WA)

The Australian State’s Marking of Indigenous Women’s Bodies: Seeing Ms Dhu in the

Custodial Deathscape (Pauline Klippmark, Griffith University, Qld)

Workshop: Decarceration & community education

Room: Dehavilland Chair: Debbie Kilroy God's Place in Hell: Spiritual and Secular Philosophies in Alternative Approaches to Justice

(Fairleigh Gilmour, University of Otago, New Zealand)

The Bandyup Action Plan (and how all women can relate to scratchy undies), (Arlia Fleming

& Carol Bahemia, Bandyup Action Group, WA)

Gender Violence and Imprisonment: The invisibility of criminalised women in responses to

family violence (Flat Out, Vic)

Bail Decision-making and the Extension of Carcerality (Cara Gledhill, Monash University, Vic)

Decarceration in Practice: The Supreme Court Bail Program (Debbie Kilroy & Simone Healy,

Sisters Inside, Qld)

4.30 Afternoon Tea: Southern Cross Pavilion

6.30 ART AUCTION: Southern Cross Pavilion

DAY 3 Program - Friday 21 October 2016

9.00

Keynotes: The Australian Context—Innovations & Ideas

Room: Catalina Dehavilland Chair: Debbie Kilroy

Bree Carlton Moo Baulch

Tamara Walsh Amanda George

11.00 Morning Tea: Southern Cross Pavilion

11.30

Workshop: Responding to women, children & young people

Room: Avro Chair: Amanda George The Importance of Maintaining Connections Between Incarcerated Mothers and Their

Children (Julie-Anne Toohey, Flinders University, SA)

Every Woman AND CHILD: Collaborating for children of criminalised women (Andrea

Duff, Linda Fisk & Michele Jarldorn, Seeds of Affinity, SA)

Optimising Family Relationships: Sisters Inside programs for criminalised women and

their children (Zofia Wasiak, Karina Bell & Julie Lowe, Sisters Inside, Qld)

Breaking the Cycle of Intergenerational Criminalisation: The Crucial Connections

program (Neta-Rie Mabo & Whit Church, Sisters Inside, Qld)

Workshop: Working toward community & individual change

Room: Catalina Chair: Bree Carlton “Hey, Sis”: Working together to reduce and prevent sexual assault in Indigenous

communities in NSW (Ashlee Donahue & Dixie Link-Gordon, NSW)

Creating Peaceful Pathways – A community solution to a community problem (Esther

Cowley-Malcolm, New Zealand)

“What I know now”: Radio as a means of empowerment for women with lived prison

experience (Dr Charlotte Bedford, University of Adelaide & Seeds of Affinity, SA)

Getting to Know Ex-prisoners through their Photography: Educating the public,

challenging stereotypes (Michele Jarldorn, Flinders University & Seeds of Affinity, SA)

Workshop: Responding to specific groups of women

Room: Dehavilland Chair: Debbie Kilroy A Holistic Response to Criminalised Women with Mental Health Issues: The Day2Day

Living Program (Ann Marie Tilley, Sisters Inside, Qld)

A Tailored Approach to Employment and Training: The Work Pathways Program (Yari

Silva-Cabezas and panel, Sisters Inside, Qld)

Working Ethically and Effectively in a Prison Setting: The Sexual Assault Counselling

program (Denise Eagleton, Sisters Inside, Qld)

Women with an Intellectual Disability in the Criminal Justice System (Julie-Anne

Toohey, Flinders University, SA)

1.30 Lunch: Southern Cross Pavilion

2.30

Keynote Panel Discussion & Closing Ceremony

Room: Catalina Dehavilland Chair: Anne Warner

3.30 CLOSE

The Keynote Speakers

Distinguished Professor Emerita Angela Davis,

author & activist (USA). Angela Davis is an activist, writer, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of History of

Consciousness and Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Her work as an educator – both at the university level and in the

larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender justice. She is the author of ten books, the most

recent of which is entitled Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement. Having helped to popularise

the notion of a “prison industrial complex,” she now urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement.

Professor Kim Pate CM, Canadian Association of Elizabeth

Fry Societies & University of Ottawa (Canada). Kim is mother

to Michael and Madison. She is a lawyer and teacher by training and has completed post graduate work in the area of forensic mental health. Kim is a Member of the Order of

Canada and recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, five honorary doctorates

(Law Society of Upper Canada, Universities of Ottawa, Carleton, St. Thomas and Wilfrid Laurier), and a number of other awards. She is also the Executive Director of the

Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS) and a part-time professor at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law and occupied the Sallows Chair in Human

Rights at the University of Saskatchewan College of Law for the past 18 months. CAEFS is a federation of autonomous societies that work with, and on behalf of, marginalised, victimised, criminalised and institutionalised women and girls

throughout Canada. Kim has also worked with youth and men during her 30+ years of working in and around the legal and penal systems.

Debbie Kilroy OAM, Sisters Inside Inc. & Kilroy & Callaghan

Lawyers. A former prisoner, Debbie drove the development of Sisters Inside during the 1990’s, and was the first person

convicted of serious criminal offences admitted to practice law in Australia. As CEO of Sisters Inside, Debbie has contributed to decarceration, advocated for the monitoring of human

rights within youth and women’s prisons and worked against discriminatory practices. Sisters Inside has NGO Consultative

Status at the United Nations, and Debbie has participated in a number of international meetings, including the expert meeting to develop the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women

Prisoners … (The Bangkok Rules). Debbie is also Principal Lawyer at Kilroy and Callaghan Lawyers, a qualified social worker and has a Graduate

Diploma in Forensic Mental Health.

The Keynote Speakers

Dr Jackie Huggins AM is a Bidjara (central Queensland) and

Birri-Gubba Juru (North Queensland) woman from Queensland who has worked in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs

for over thirty years. Jackie is a celebrated historian and author who has documented the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander people throughout the decades. In 2001, Jackie received the Member of the Order of Australia for services to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. Throughout

her career spanning over four decades, Jackie has played a leading role in reconciliation, literacy, women’s issues and social

justice. Jackie holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland and Flinders University (with Honours), a Diploma of Education and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of

Queensland. Most recently, Jackie was the Director of Jackie Huggins and Associates, a consultancy business, following a long and distinguished record of public service and

professional achievement.

Patricia Turner AM, National Aboriginal Community

Controlled Health Organisation. The daughter of an Arrente

man and a Gurdanji woman, Pat was raised in Alice Springs. As CEO of NACCHO, she is at the forefront of community efforts to

Close the Gap in health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Pat has over 40 years’ experience in senior leadership positions in government, business and

academia including being the only Aboriginal person, only woman and longest serving CEO of the Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). Amongst her many appointments, she also spent 18 months as Monash Chair of Australian Studies, Georgetown University, Washington DC, and was inaugural CEO of NITV. She has

travelled widely throughout Australia in her various roles, and has an excellent appreciation of the challenges facing Indigenous women in remote, regional and urban

settings. Pat holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Canberra where she was awarded the University prize for Development Studies.

Celeste Liddle, Black Feminist Ranter. Celeste is an Arrernte

woman living in Melbourne. She is the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Indigenous Organiser for the National Tertiary

Education Union (NTEU) and a freelance opinion writer, social commentator and public speaker. Celeste has an honours degree in arts (theatre and drama) a Graduate Diploma in Arts (mainly political

science), and writing continues to play a central role in her life. She identifies as politically "hard left" though not affiliated. Her main

forum for advocacy and ideas is her very popular and challenging blog at http://blackfeministranter.blogspot.com.au. Over the last couple of years, she has appeared at writers’ festivals throughout Australia, and, recently on the ABC’s Q&A.

She is currently a columnist for Daily Life and has published works both online and in print.

The Keynote Speakers

Associate Professor Gina Dent, (Ph.D., English &

Comparative Literature, Columbia University) is Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and

Legal Studies at University of California, Santa Cruz. She served previously as Director of the Institute for Advanced

Feminist Research and as Principal Investigator for the UC Multicampus Research Group on Transnationalizing Justice. She is the editor of Black Popular Culture ([1993] New York: The

New Press, 1998) and author of articles on race, feminism, popular culture, and visual art. Her forthcoming book Anchored

to the Real: Black Literature in the Wake of Anthropology (Duke University Press) is a study of the consequences—both disabling and productive—of social science’s role in translating black writers into American literature. Her current project grows out of her

work as an advocate for human rights and prison abolition—Prison as a Border and Other Essays, on popular culture and the conditions of knowledge. She has offered

courses in critical race studies and black feminisms in Brazil (Universidade Federal da Bahia), Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), and Sweden (Linköping University) and lectures widely on these and other subjects. In June 2011, she was a

member of a delegation of indigenous and women of color feminists to Palestine and speaks often from that experience.

Professor Erica Meiners, Northeastern Illinois University,

activist & academic (USA). Based in Chicago, Erica has been involved with a number of initiatives working for

justice. In 1998 Erica co-founded and still teaches at an alternative high school for people exiting prisons and jails; in

2011 started work with others to organize education programs at Stateville Prison; and in 2014 started the Illinois Deaths in Custody Project. The author of several books, including For the

Children? Protecting Innocence in a Carceral State (University of Minnesota Press, 2016), Erica is currently a Soros Justice Fellow

and her recent writing on queer justice issues includes articles in Women’s Studies Quarterly, In These Times, Windy City Times, Counterpunch, PhiloSOPHIA, The Next System, & Captive Genders. Erica is the Bernard J. Brommel Distinguished Research

Professor at Northeastern Illinois University, an open access public university in Chicago where she is also an active member of her labor union.

Rachel Herzing, Critical Resistance, StoryTelling & Organizing

Project, California (US), where she fights the violence of policing and imprisonment. She is a co-founder of Critical Resistance, a

grassroots organization dedicated to abolishing the prison industrial complex and the Co-Director of the StoryTelling &

Organizing Project, a community resource sharing stories of interventions to interpersonal harm that do not rely on policing, imprisonment, or traditional social services.

The Keynote Speakers

Melissa Lucashenko, novelist and founding member of Sisters Inside.

Melissa is an award-winning novelist who lives between Brisbane and the Bundjalung nation. Her writing explores the stories and passions of

ordinary Australians, with particular reference to Aboriginal people and others living around the margins of the First World. Melissa’s most recent

book is Mullumbimby, a contemporary novel of romantic love and cultural warfare, which was awarded the prestigious 2013 Queensland Literary Award for Fiction and was listed for a variety of other awards. In 2014,

her essay ‘Sinking below sight’ won a Walkley Award. She is currently working on a novel of historical Queensland, as well as on a theatrical

production with NORPA in Lismore.

Vickie Roach, Indigenous activist. A Yuin woman and member of the

Stolen Generations, Vickie had a long history in the child protection, youth justice and adult justice systems. Whilst serving her final sentence, she

engaged in education, earning a Masters degree in writing and beginning a PhD. In 2007 whilst still in prison, she fought a landmark High Court

case that overturned an Australian Government attempt to remove the vote from all serving prisoners. She challenged the constitutionality of excluding prisoners from the democratic process, and raised concerns

about the further social alienation this causes and its disproportionate impact on Indigenous people. Since her release in 2009, Vickie has worked for the Koorie

Heritage Trust and continued to lobby to improve the situation of women prisoners.

Jacqui Katona, community campaigner. A member of the Djok clan,

located within Kakadu National Park, Jacqui was at the forefront of the

highly celebrated campaign against development of the Jabiluka uranium mine on the land of the Mirrar people. In recognition of her efforts to

protect country and culture from uranium mining, Jacqui received the Australian Conservation Foundation's 1997 Peter Rawlinson Environmental Award and (with Yvonne Margarula) the 1999 Goldman

Environmental Prize. Since then, Jacqui has served in number of Aboriginal organisations including as EO of the Gundjehmi Aboriginal

Corporation and CEO of the Lumbu Indigenous Community Foundation. She continues to focus on national social issues including limits on access to health and education; lack of recognition of Aboriginal people’s right to land and the benefits of land; and the failure to

invest in sustainable resource management strategies for future generations.

The Keynote Speakers

Dr Bree Carlton, Monash University. Bree is a Senior Lecturer in

Criminology and joined the team in the School of Social Sciences in 2006. Before her academic career she worked as a freelance public

historian and a community radio broadcaster. She has a background in trade union organising and social justice activism. Bree’s politics and

commitment to transforming structural injustice have long inspired and shaped her research focus on documenting and redressing institutionally generated experiences of discrimination, harm and violence. She has a

strong interest in histories of resistance and punishment in Australia. In 2013 Bree edited, with Marie Segrave, Women Exiting Prison: Essays on Women’s Post-release

Survival. Her first monograph, Imprisoning Resistance: Life and Death in an Australian Supermax (2007) was nominated in the True Crime Category of the 8th Davitt Awards in 2008.

Moo Baulch, Domestic Violence NSW Inc. This organisation is the peak

body for specialist domestic and family violence services in New South

Wales: as CEO, Moo is responsible for its management, development and strategic direction. Prior to this position, Moo had extensive experience in

the non-government sector as a CEO, Project Manager/Coordinator, Researcher and Producer in the UK, Australia, Asia and Spain. Her commitment to civil rights and social action is reflected in her many

positions focused on domestic violence, women’s rights and LGBTIQ rights, and her work with other groups at risk of social exclusion. Moo’s overall

interest in human rights is also reflected in her coordination of local projects run by non-profit organisations in Bali, Indonesia and Thailand for several years following the Boxing Day Tsunami, and her work with groups at risk of social exclusion in Spain.

Professor Tamara Walsh, University of Queensland. An Associate

Professor of Law, Tamara has an international research reputation in the fields of social welfare law, human rights and discrimination/equal

opportunity law. She has published extensively in leading legal journals. Furthermore, she was a founding member of the UQ Pro Bono Centre and has subsequently undertaken significant and relevant pro bono research

involving a wide range of stakeholders, including Community Legal Centres and social services organisations.

Amanda George, Flat Out. Amanda was one of the founders and is now

chairperson of Flat Out, a support and advocacy service for criminalised women and women exiting prison. She has been a prison activist and

community lawyer since the 1980’s and has written on prison issues focusing on women, home detention, privatisation and the politics of

incarceration. Amanda is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University’s School of Social Sciences. For the last few years she has been focussed on raising 2 boys. She continues to take great heart and new

insights from the creativity, methods and enthusiasm of the new round of prison abolitionists.

Sisters Inside Inc. is an independent community

organisation, which exists to advocate for the human rights of women in the criminal

justice system, and to address gaps in the services available to them.

We work alongside women in prison in determining the best way to fulfil these roles.

Phone 07 3844 5066

Email admin@sistersinside.com.au