ICOPA 18 - London 2018

OVERVIEW
About 400 activists, academics and ex-prisoners participated in the ICOPA 18 conference based at Birkbeck campus of the University of London.

It was hosted by the Department of Criminology Birkbeck University of London, Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative, the Open University, and the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. Other participating organisations were the Action for Trans Health, Bent Bars Project, Black Lives Matter UK, Empty Cages Collective, Inquest, IWW London, JENGbA, London Campaign against Police and State Violence, Netpol, North London Sisters Uncut, Race & Class collective, Reclaim Holloway, Reclaim Justice Network, Smash IPP!, Stopwatch and Women in Prison.

Justice Action brought with them a statement from Long Bay prisoners representing prisoners of Australia. (See underneath) This statement of solidarity was read as the final message of the conference on Monday afternoon. JA presented the Computers in Cells victory in Australia and shared the mechanisms for its adoption in all jurisdictions, giving prisoners the right to communication. The JUST US newspaper for people in prison and locked hospitals was distributed.

Academics from Australia and NZ presented their papers on abolition. The history of the anti-carceral feminist actions called Wring Outs in the 1980s and 1990s in Melbourne was presented by Emma Russell and Bree Carlton. Minnie Ratima and Pat Magill described resistance against Maori criminalisation and the Robson Collection in Napier Library supported by ICOPA in NZ in 1997. Community policing protecting sex workers in NZ was described.

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18th International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA18) highlights in 15-18 of June 2018: