2-5:00pm Networking, Strategizing and Discussion Session (detailed agenda below)
5:00pm Food / social gathering
5:30pm Special Performance of "Prison?" by Charlie Ryder
Charlie performs using puppets, masks, physical theatre and silences to shine a light on his 8 months in prison. This show will be followed by a question and answer session.

The location is wheelchair accessible including the toilet. Wheelchair access is through side entrance.

Please note that on 22 Nov there are planned engineering works / closures on the Hammersmith, Circle and Metropolitan lines, which restrict access to Aldgate, Aldgate East and Whitechapel Stations. Access is still available via the District line, but you may want to plan your travel route accordingly or allow for extra time to avoid closed tube lines.

The goal of the event is to provide an opportunity for groups who are already working on issues related to imprisonment – whether it be poverty, policing, criminalization, deaths in custody, violence, drug policy, mental health, racial profiling, immigration detention, sex work or other issues -- to share information, offer mutual support and collectively strategize around how to stop prison expansion in Britain.

How to get involved:

1) Attend the event on 22 November: We invite individuals and representatives from groups to the November 22 event. You will have a chance to share information about the work your group does, make links with others doing related work, and offer strategies around how to connect current projects with broader efforts to stop prison expansion.

2) Make a public statement against prison expansion: We have drafted a statement about why we oppose the creation of any new prisons (below). We invite you to add your name to this statement. Alternatively we encourage you to write your own statement. The statement doesn’t have to be long – even a few sentences can be effective. We know there are many different reasons to oppose the building of new prisons, so we want to collectively compile as many perspectives as possible.

3) Share information about your work. We are hoping to promote the work that groups are currently engaged in, in order to strengthen ties and support each other in the work we are doing which broadly relates to issues of imprisonment, policing, immigration detention and criminalization. If you have upcoming events or current campaigns you are working on, we’d like to post them on our website. Please let us know:  communities.of.resistance@gmail.com

If you or any member of your organisation needs assistance with travel costs, childcare, accommodation (if coming from out of town), translation, or accessibility support please let us know. The location is wheelchair accessible including the toilet. Wheelchair access is through the side entrance on Settles Street. Further, as food will be offered after the workshop, please inform us of any dietary restrictions that we should take into consideration. Contact Stacy at  communities.of.resistance@gmail.com.
If you would like more information about the upcoming event or want to meet to chat in person, please let us know. We look forward to seeing you on Sunday the 22nd at 2pm!

~From Communities of Resistance
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Sunday 22 November - AGENDA

Part 1: Go Around / Introductions “Why We are Here” (45 minutes)

Welcome
If you are part of group – tell us about your group – and how does your current work relate to strategies against imprisonment? (2-3 minutes for each person)
If you are not part of a group, tell us what brought you here.
Part 2: Small Group Discussion (45 minutes)

In small groups, discuss the following:

What are three of your main organizing priorities/goals?
What support can you offer to others in developing an anti-prison expansion campaign?
What support do you want from others in working on an anti-prison expansion campaign?
Folks to write up their threemain organizing priorities/goals on paper; we will then post them around the room as a visual reminder for the larger discussion.

3:45PM – 15 minute break

Part 3: Large Group Discussion (1 hour)
Report back from small groups
Guiding Question:
The CORE statement anti-expansion statement was circulated before the event and again today. Do folks feel that they could sign on to an anti-expansion statement?

5:00-5:30 – FOOD BREAK

5:30 – PERFORMANCE of “PRISON?” by Charlie Ryder

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COMMUNITIES OF RESISTANCE
STATEMENT AGAINST PRISON EXPANSION IN BRITAIN
†
We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, call upon all levels of government to immediately stop all plans for prison expansion in Britain. †We also call upon businesses, social agencies, community organizations, academics and financial institutions to refuse to support, endorse or assist with any plans for prison expansion in Britain.
†
We make this call in the context of a government that is currently embarking on a £3.2 - 4.7 billion prison-building spree, with plans to construct five “mini-Titan” prisons and five other possible prisons by 2014. We make this call knowing that there is no clear evidence that more prisons will make our communities safer. In fact, considerable research shows that more prisons will contribute to further harm and violence.
†
The prison population in Britain has nearly doubled in the past 20 years, largely due to changes in sentencing policy. Although reported crime rates have not increased during that period, the number of people locked behind bars has risen dramatically. Prisons are increasingly used as warehouses for those who are poor and homeless, people with mental health issues, people of colour, migrants and people with disabilities. Among those in prison are approximately 3,000 children.†
†
Britain is following prison expansion trends that are dangerously similar to that of the United States, which now locks up 1 in every 100 adults.† Yet as made painfully clear in the US context, prisons do not reduce crime. Prisons have failed to protect our communities and have failed to stop violence, particularly against women, migrants, people of colour, queer and transgender people, people with disabilities, children and youth. As Dr Carol Hedderman, a former senior Home Office researcher, has stated: “Prison will never be an effective crime-control tool because the evidence clearly demonstrates that it actively creates or compounds the factors that contribute to offending.”
†
We do not need more prisons in Britain. We need real solutions and community-based responses that prioritize prevention and focus on root causes of harm and violence.
†
For these reasons, we demand a complete halt to all plans to build any new prisons and immigration detention centres in Britain.

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Communities of Resistance (CoRe) is a new grassroots initiative that aims to stop prison expansion in Britain. We oppose building new prisons, because prisons do not make our communities safe. Our long-term aim is to build a vibrant and broad-based movement to end the violence of incarceration. We support and believe in developing effective, community-based solutions to social problems that do not rely on models of imprisonment. www.co-re.org