EDUCATION NOT INCARCERATION

Rosita Johnson, Philadelphia Black Radical Congress

Photo: AFSC

Education Not Incarceration Conference 2002

In April 27, 2002, over 200 people from the Philadelphia area attended the second Education Not Incarceration conference, sponsored by AFSC's Criminal Justice Program and the Philadelphia Black Radical Congress (BRC). The conference examined the interconnection between the declining quality of public education and the growth of the prison industrial complex as both a civil rights and a human rights issue.

Fred Pinguel, a public school student and one of the speakers at the opening plenary, stated, "We are being educated to be consumers and/or prison inmates," showing very clearly how prisons are affecting youth, especially youth of color. Ewuare Osayande, chairperson for the BRC and also on the plenary, discussed the current situation in Philadelphia, where the city has privatized a large number of public schools. Osayande demanded officials "take our children off the auction block and desegregate school dollars."

Participants attended workshops that addressed everything from military in the schools to privatization of schools and prisons to resistance to school reform.

The conference called not just for an exchange of ideas, but for sustained action and mobilization. To this end, there was time during the day for participants to break off into action groups of educators, students, parents, and community activists to discuss concrete future steps. This year's Education Not Incarceration Conference will be held Saturday, May 17 at the Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19102. For more information contact the Criminal Justice/Anti-Death Penalty Program at 215-241-7137.

Education Not Incarceration Conference 2002, sponsored by the AFSC's Criminal Justice Program and the Black Radical Congress

African Americans make up 15 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 50 percent of those behind prison bars.
80 percent of the 205,000 Philadelphia School District students are children of color.
There are approximately 800,000 women incarcerated in the U.S., and 75 percent are African American.
A large majority of inmates do not have a high school diploma.
Philadelphia public schools spend $7,000 per student each year.
Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections budgeted $33,000 per inmate for 2001-2.
Statewide over the past 20 years, spending for prisons has increased 452 percent, while spending for education has increased only 86 percent.

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