Organized by the UCLA School of Law

Date: September 22-September 23, 2023
Location: UCLA School of Law, 385 Charles E Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA 90095

Register Here

This conference is for people and organizations committed to the fight to end mass incarceration and immigration detention. Specifically, this conference is designed to address important questions that come up in the work to close or prevent the construction of jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers:

1. What will happen to the facilities and spaces themselves, and when should we repurpose them for community use? How can we meaningfully repurpose carceral facilities?
2. What will happen to people held in these facilities?
3. How can we intervene in plans for jail construction or expansion in ways that can direct government spending outside of the criminal legal system, work with planners and architects for community-led repurposing, and further just transitions?
4. How do we address job loss and the community economic impact upon closure? How do we critically analyze the claims that new facilities will be an economic boon?
5. How can government funds used for incarceration be redirected to just transitions and economic development?
6. What can we learn from the labor and environmental movements’ just transitions framework as we move to close or prevent new carceral facilities?

Who should come? 

Community organizers and advocates involved in campaigns to close, repurpose, and/or prevent construction of jails, prison and immigrant detention centers; students, scholars, and practitioners in architecture, urban planning, economic redevelopment, environmental sustainability, law, public health, social work, municipal budgeting, labor, and ESG financing who are supporting or want to support decarceral and just transition efforts in this critical and strategic conference.

Topics Covered:

1. Participatory and community-based planning and architecture processes in campaigns to repurpose jails, prisons, and detention centers;
2. Lessons learned from campaigns to close, repurpose, and/or prevent the construction of jails, prisons, and detention centers;
3. Understanding public and private financing, data analysis, and budget interventions when proposing carceral facility closure or opposing new construction;
4. The role of public officials in carceral closure and just transitions;
5. Just transitions for incarcerated and detained people, workers, and communities directly impacted by facility closure;
6. Lessons on just transition from the environmental justice movement and consideration of the role of public officials; intersections with the environmental justice movement;
7. Building and implementing a just transition framework for and with incarcerated and detained people, workers, and communities directly impacted by facility closure;
8. Public health and social work perspectives on carceral closure and just transitions;
9. Gender dynamics of carceral closure and just transitions;
10. And more!

Conference Planning Committee:

Eunice Cho, ACLU National Prison Project; Jasmine Heiss, Vera Institute of Justice; Marcela Hernandez, Detention Watch Network; Nicole Porter, Sentencing Project; Judah Schept, Professor, Eastern Kentucky University; Alicia Virani, UCLA School of Law; Kyle Virgien, ACLU National Prison Project; Samantha Weaver, ACLU National Prison Project; Maurice BP-Weeks, Interrupting Criminalization.