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ICOPA background
- Index
- Intro & History
- IFPS
- ICOPA VIII
- ICOPA IX
- ICOPA X

• ICOPA XI
- Information
- Papers & Briefs
A-C papers
D-M papers
N-Z papers
ICOPA XI   Papers & Briefs - 3
 Hobart, Tasmania. 7-11th of February 2006

The following were themes explored and expanded at the conference:

• The Politics of Imprisonment
Northern Ireland, Palestine and the Middle East, (Post) Colonial Justice Nigeria and West Africa, South Africa: ANC , Brazil, USA, Canada.
• Contemporary Forms of Penal Custom
Human Rights & Imprisonment: a Global Perspective, International trends, Imprisonment of Women, Marionization and Political Dissent in the USA, Refugee and Immigration Prisons, Prisons under Occupation.
• Post Carceral Resettlement
Organising Inside: Prisoners' resistance and the Outside Community, Writing and Art as Resistance, Barriers to Reintegration,  Surveillance, Organising in the Community - Exprisoners' Organisations, Convict Criminology.
• Action Now
Proposals for the future.
   Authors and Presenters Biographies

To view all presenters and authors biographies, click here (in PDF format)
 
    Index of Papers and Briefs - by Author
   
Authors - A-C  [click here]
Authors - D-M  [click here]
Authors - N-Z


Women’s Imprisonment
Felix Obi (Nigeria)

Lessons from Africa: Challenges and Contributions to Penal Abolitionism
Felix Obi (Nigeria)

Pathways to Resettlement
Felix Obi (Nigeria)

From Hell to Hell: The Trevails of Ex-Prisoners in Nigeria
Ogbozor Odoemena

Post Colonial Reform of Nigerian Prisons: Issues and Challenges
Dr Uju Agomoh and Ernest Ogbozor

The State of Women Prisoners in Nigeria : Problems and Options
Dr Uju Agomoh and Ernest Ogbozor

Penal Abolition: Rendering Radical Rational
Kim Pate (Canada)

Deaths in Custody
Charandev Singh (Australia)

Human Rights Behind Bars
Charandev Singh (Australia)

The Death Penalty
Cassandra Shaylor (USA)

Sexual Asault in Male Prisons
Mike Tamplin
  
Women’s Imprisonment
Felix Obi (Nigeria)

The treatment given to women prisoners and mothers with babies in prison is an outflow of the general problem of gender discrimination encountered by women in Nigeria and the world over. If women are generally disadvantaged, it follows then that women prisoners and nursing mothers in prison are much more disadvantaged.

Efforts have been made at the international, regional and, to some extent, national levels by way of setting standard provisions on treatment of female prisoners, taking into consideration their dignity and worth as human beings with human rights, to cater for the special needs of this vulnerable group of prisoners. However, study has shown that prison is a place full of antagonism for its inmates; a place of torture, hunger, disease and neglect; in fact a house of death.

The situation of mothers with babies in Nigeria prison really demands serious attention, as it is complex and delicate, which puts women prisoners in a unique state of dilemma, caring for her self and her child a times. The mothers are not provided with required sanitary and other requirements exposing them to unhygienic and filthy environment. The treatment given to women prisoners and mothers with babies in prison amount to deliberate torture, inhumane and degrading treatment, this questions the continued retention of female prison as a corrective institution.

Lessons from Africa: Challenges and Contributions to Penal Abolitionism
Felix Obi (Nigeria)

Jefferson A.M. (2005) in his article “Reforming Nigeria Prison: Rehabilitating a Deviant State” published in British Journal of Criminology, summarises the status of reform in Nigeria prisons as an attempt to rehabilitate a deviant state because they do not conform to appropriate international norms, standards and convention.

Most African prison systems are modeled by colonial prison administration with emphasis on punishment and deterrence. This negates the original objective of the establishment of the prison as corrective institution, for reformation, rehabilitation and re-integration of inmates. The position of prison in criminal justice administration in Nigeria today can best be regarded as an endangered sub-sector, occupying an inferior position in government priorities. Poverty, socio-economic and other constrains constitute bottlenecks to reformation effort.

Pathways to Resettlement
Felix Obi (Nigeria)

It is paradoxical that the difference between prison life and living in the ‘free’ Nigeria society of today is fast closing up as the inmate in some instances feel better off in prison than outside prison. Ex-prisoners moves from a life of hell typical by overcrowded cells, poor feeding, poor healthcare, maltreatment by prison officers, life full of denials to another life outside the prison walls that tend to have some similarities with what they had gone through in prison. Since the society decide to shut the doors of positive living against the exprisoners then they feel justified to force the doors open even it has to do it by returning to the same crime that took them to prison in the first instance.

From Hell to Hell: The Trevails of Ex-Prisoners in Nigeria
Ogbozor Odoemena

It is paradoxical that the difference between prison life and living in the 'free' Nigeria society of today is fast closing up as the inmate in some instances feel better off in prison than outside prison. Ex-prisoners moves from a life of hell typical by overcrowded cells, poor feeding, poor healthcare, maltreatment by prison officers, life full of denials to another life outside the prison walls that tend to have some similarities with what they had gone through in prison.
PDFs
Presentation:
Paper:

Post Colonial Reform of Nigerian Prisons: Issues and Challenges
Dr Uju Agomoh and Ernest Ogbozor

The penal system today in some African countries (ie. Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya) dates back to the colonial era and modelled on the British system. It is a secretive system with the emphasis on punishment and deterrence.
PDF
Presentation:

The State of Women Prisoners in Nigeria : Problems and Options
Dr Uju Agomoh and Ernest Ogbozor

Quote: "I was forced to drink the blood of a dead woman to prove my innocence of a murder case. I was expected to die after 3 days if guilty of the offence. But I did not die - I was then remanded in prison by Police where I had my first baby. I am still awaiting trial for close to two years"
PDF
Presentation:

Penal Abolition: Rendering Radical Rational
Kim Pate (Canada)

To many, the idea of penal abolition is considered extremely radical. Kim will discuss how anti-oppressive and substantive equality analyses lead logically to an abolitionist paradigm. She will invite us to recognize the rationality of decarceration and encourage all of us to walk the walk and not merely talk the talk of abolition.



 
  




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Deaths in Custody
Charandev Singh (Australia)

Deadly Punishments and Lethal Indifference - Strategising to end deaths in custody in the context of the abolition of prisons

Human Rights Behind Bars
Charandev Singh (Australia)

"Don’t even mention human rights in here - no one thinks that we’re even human"
- Rights talk and struggle - possibilities and abolition.

The Death Penalty
Cassandra Shaylor (USA)

Will focus on the relationship between death penalty abolitionism and abolition as a whole - the various conflicts and contests that come up around where those movements do and don’t intersect.

Sexual Assault in Male Prisons
Mike Tamplin

Introduction to Risdon Prison
In 1999/2000 a member of God’s Squad Launceston chapter was approached by the then Attorney General Peter Patmore to assist with young men incarcerated in Risdon Prison, the 18 – 25 year age group. This was because there had been 5 young men who had suicided in a relatively short space of time.

Chris Douglas died on the 4th August 1999 at Risdon Prison….he was just 18. On the 17th September at Risdon Prison Thomas Holmes was found hanged - his death was followed on by Laurence Santos 19th October, Jack Newman and Fabian Long 10th January 2000.
Word / PDF:





 Last modified:
 Thu, May 18, 2006