You may not have known that a Prison Awareness Club was a thing. But in a nation apparently committed to that growth industry, it only makes good sense that college students might engage on the topic of corrections.
This Friday, March 28, the third annual Prison Education Conference will be staged at ASU.
The all-day event is sponsored by the Department of English, the School of Social Transformation, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The free event (open to the public) will include speakers, discussion panels and the screening of what looks to be a compelling film.
Writer Sought
I may be able to attend, but I currently have a conflict. If you are a law student, student of the law (most generally defined), or a lawyer—and you are NOT one of the event organizers—I invite you to contact me to discuss a guest blog post. It might cover the entire event, or perhaps be just a review of the film Zero Percent. Write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.
Keynote Speaker
The conference includes a keynote by author Marshall Frank. As a news story describes his work:
“This year’s conference features keynote speaker Marshall Frank, a retired police captain from Miami, Fla., who led more than a thousand homicide investigations during his career and has since written hundreds of op-eds and articles about the state of America’s justice system.”
“In his most recent book ‘Criminal InJustice in America,’ Frank explores inequities of the prison system, “a multi-billion-dollar industry, which would collapse if there was a sudden downturn in inmate residency.” Perhaps that’s why the United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, but a staggering 25 percent of its prisoners. Critics have hailed ‘Criminal InJustice’ as ‘challenging,’ ‘thought-provoking’ and “daring.’”
Read the complete ASU News story here.
Panels Cover Prison Education
Among the speakers will be a representative from the Arizona Department of Corrections, and his compatriot from the New Mexico prison system. The organizers also feature the insights of educators from three Arizona prison complexes.
A second keynote will be Sean Pica, head of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison. And it is the Hudson connection that may yield one of the day’s most enlightening aspects—a film.
Zero Percent Film To Screen
The film trailer for Zero Percent explains—a little—about the challenges faced by incarcerated individuals. Watch the trailer here.
More information about Hudson Link is here. And you can follow their posts on Facebook too.
The event location is the University Club on the ASU campus. A scalable map is here.
RSVP: peac.org@asu.edu
AZ Attorney 
March 24, 2015 at 9:30 am
[…] (I wrote before about this annual conference on prison education.) […]