What is the ACA?

The number of prisoners in the United States has quadrupled in the last twenty years. With over two million people behind bars, the U.S. now has the highest incarceration rate in the world. This trend particularly targets people of color; one in three Black men between 20 and 29 years old are currently either incarcerated, paroled, or on probation. In contrast to commonly held images of criminals, two thirds of prisoners are serving time for nonviolent crimes. Punishment has replaced reform as prison education programs have been cut, drug rehabilitation has been defunded, and recidivism rates continue to grow. Yet taxpayers pay more to incarcerate these people yearly than it would cost to send each of them to Harvard University. The phenomenal profits secured by the corporations involved with every aspect of the corrections industry do not, in the eyes of many citizens, justify this process.

From August 11 through August 15, the members of the American Correctional Association (ACA), many of whom are securing large profits for themselves by contracting their wares and services to prisons, will hold their annual conference in Philadelphia. The ACA is a group that bills itself as "the oldest supplier of correctional goods and services in the United States." It serves as an umbrella group for all organizations doing business in, around and with prisons. From the corporations that contract prison labor and pay prisoners as little as 19 cents an hour, to the prison HMOs often sued for medical neglect, to lobbying groups advocating for longer sentences, to the Department of Corrections officials involved at all levels of the prison system, to the companies who provide the poison and needle for executions, all willing participants in the industry will be represented at the ACA's annual congress this August in Philadelphia.

A diverse coalition of groups has come together to organize grassroots opposition to the annual meeting of the ACA in Philadelphia. This August, local activists will host a convergence of ex-prisoners, families of prisoners, activists, and concerned citizens to protest the expansion of our country's racist prison industry. This convergence will include an educational counter conference (August 10-12), permitted demonstrations, street theater and direct action.

More info from The Defenestrator: More on the ACA | The Prison Industrial Complex is Coming to Philly | Ending the Power of Capital Over Life | Proudly Continuing the Heritage of Slavery | What is the Prison Industrial Complex? | Women and Prison

For more information on the Criminal Injustice System, see the www.STOPtheACA.org/about.


CA-ACA Counter Conference

The Counter Conference will take place August 10-12, 2001:

• Against the ACA
• Toward alternative solutions to mass incarceration

As our city hosts the members and partners of the American Correctional Association -- many of whom are securing large profits for themselves by contracting their wares and services to prisons -- we will host a convergence of ex-offenders, families of prisoners, activists, and concerned citizens. We will use this opportunity to counter the perceived consensus that more prisons and more force is the only solution to the crime problem. Together, we will strategize on how to implement alternative, rehabilitative, and community-based measures to end all violence and exploitation.

Why a Counter Conference?

The Counter Conference on the Prison-Industrial Complex is a coalition effort by grassroots organizations to promote networking, education and collaborative action within the communities around one of the most pertinent human rights issues in our society today: the out of control growth of an unjust and ineffective prison and criminal justice system.

Networking: The counter conference will bring together organizations, communities, and individuals that are working on countering this trend, but that may not usually work with or interact with one another. Workshops will be forums for sharing knowledge, skills, experiences, and hopes, rather than one session after another of "expert opinion." Through this discussion, new coalitions will be forged, increasing all of our effectiveness.

Education: The counter conference will provide a public forum to debunk the myths about crime and punishment that most of mainstream media presents as a given. Presentations will make the critiques of prison expansion accessible and understandable and tangible in real-life terminology. Discussion will focus on articulating alternatives to the so-called "Tough On Crime Consensus" that has driven the actions of our politicians for nearly two decades.

Action: Through these conversations, new collaborations will form to promote organizing among diverse constituencies. The conference's end goal is to empower the emergence of a new grassroots consensus of which criminal justice issues should be prioritized in Philadelphia, and to brainstorm about how organizations and communities can support each other's work. Organizers from out of town will help us to tie those efforts into larger regional and national networks of people working to end the prison-industrial complex.

The counter conference is fundamentally about creating space to discuss what the real agenda should be in terms of seeking justice and peace in our communities. The ACA congress and trade show provides us with a tool and a rallying point to mobilize people, across race, class, age, and political lines, who are doing the vital work around these issues... and to reach out to those who would like to be. Through collaborative education and discussion, we will educate each other, debunk myths about crime and prisons, empower collaboration and action, and prepare to challenge the American Correctional Association and all who generate profit through injustice.

Event Schedule

In addition to workshops, we will be welcoming the following keynote speakers: attorney and activist Michael Coard, author Christian Parenti, and ex-death row inmate William Nieves. Throughout the weekend there will also be film screenings on prison issues, prisoners art showings and poetry readings, tours of nearby Eastern State Penitentiary (thought to the first modern-era penitentiary), and props building for the week's protests.

Below is a list of workshops that are slated for the Counter Conference. More detailed descriptions will be posted shortly. If you would have questions or information to offer about any of the topics below, or would like to help organize the conference, please email the Counter Conference Working Group: conference@stoptheaca.org.

• Custodial Sexual Abuse
• The Death Penalty and Prison Industry: Model community teach-in
• Religious Organizing around Criminal Justice Issues: Why Do It, How To Do It
• Peer education and youth organizing
• Family Members of Prisoners: Dealing with loss
• INS Detention & Asylum Seekers
• Mass Imprisonment of African people is Modern Day Slavery
• Ex-Prisoner Activism
• Fighting Prison Construction
• The religious right and prison ministry
• Queers on Death Row
• Families of Victims and Families of Prisoners: Bridging Divides
• Aging in Prison
• Understanding the Prison Industrial Complex
• Jailhouse Lawyers: Using the legal System as Direct Action Against Oppression
• Hunger Strikes at home and abroad
• Community Monitoring of prison conditions and policy
• Legislation, Policy, and Voter Education Efforts
• Grassroots Investigation as Resistance
• Juvenile IN-justice
• Prison Visitation and Prisoner-Support Programs
• "Unsafe" neighborhoods and real community-based alternatives to poverty and crime
• Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience in the US
• Medical Neglect
• Prison Labor: Slowdowns and other Direct Action
• The Catastrophic Drug War
• Philadelphia Story: Ex-Prisoners and Experimentation at Holmseburg
• Philadelphia Story: MOVE and Mumia
• Human Rights Abuses and ACA Accreditation

Pre-Conference Workshops

Would you like to have an educational workshop at your school, church or community center in advance of the Counter Conference? Please email us at prisons@stoptheaca.org to schedule a time. Be sure to include your name, organization (school, church, etc.) and a means of getting in contact with you (if you live outside the Greater Philadelphia Area we may be able to help you get in touch with organizers in your area).


The people who profit from prisons have names and addresses.
The name is the American Correctional Association.
This August, that address will be Philadelphia.
www.STOPtheACA.org