This Wednesday and This Saturday!

1) FRANK LINDH
Wednesday March 29, 2006
12PM – 1PM (Lunch served)

UC Davis School of Law – Martin Luther King Jr. Hall, Rm 1008

Shortly after the U.S. was shaken by the 9/11 attacks, John Walker Lindh, dubbed "The American Taliban" by the U.S. media, was taken into custody by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Come and hear attorney Frank Lindh, John Lindh's father, speak about his son's experiences, constitutional rights, and pending request for clemency.

2) THE MAKING OF A CRIMINAL: A KING HALL PRISON LAW SYMPOSIUM
Saturday, April 01, 2006
9:30AM - 3:30PM (Breakfast and lunch served)
UC Davis School of Law – Martin Luther King Jr. Hall, Rm 1008

9:30am - Breakfast, registration

10:00am - The Making of a Criminal: Welcome Address
Susan Jordan, 3L, UC Davis School of Law

10:45am - Rights of Prisoners
Mona Cadena, Amnesty International
Charles Carbone, California Prison Focus
Holly Cooper, UC Davis School of Law Immigration Clinic
Steven Fama, Prison Law Office

12:00pm- Lunch

12:30pm - Gender Issues in the Prison System
Andrea Bible, Free Battered Women
Ari Wohlfeiler, Justice Now

2:00pm- Reform and Alternatives: What is the Real Purpose of Incarceration?
Rhodessa Jones, Medea Project
Beth Waitkus, Insight Garden Project at San Quentin

Funders and Co-Sponsors
Office of the Dean
King Hall Annual Fund
Law Students' Association
Agricultural Law Society

*Both events, FREE and open to the public, are located at:
UC Davis School of Law -
Martin Luther King Jr. Hall

Directions to King Hall (Law School), UC Davis

From San Francisco:
80 East
Take Exit 71 (UC Davis) towards the Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center
Turn left at the stop sign (Old Davis Road).
Pass the parking structure.
Turn left at the stoplight.
Go past the stop sign, left at the roundabout, and park in front of King Hall.

From Sacramento:
80 West
Take Exit 71 (UC Davis) towards the Robert & Margrit Mondavi Center
Turn right at the stop sign (Old Davis Road).
Pass the parking structure.
Turn left at the stoplight.
Go past the stop sign, left at the roundabout, and park in front of King Hall.

Questions? Email prisonsymposium@gmail.com

Official Press Release -- The Making of a Criminal: A King Hall Prison Law Symposium

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: prisonsymposium@gmail.com

“THE MAKING OF A CRIMINAL: A KING HALL PRISON LAW SYMPOSIUM”

AT UC DAVIS

Davis, CA -- On Saturday, April 1, 2006, the UC Davis School of Law at Martin Luther King Jr. Hall will present “The Making of a Criminal: A King Hall Prison Law Symposium.” King Hall 3L and second-time prison law symposium co-organizer Kyanna Williams explains, “We chose this theme because we want to explore how society ‘creates’ criminals by criminalizing certain people, communities, and behaviors. As a society, we have gendered, racialized, and classist perceptions of how criminals behave and look.” Taking place in King Hall Room 1008 from 10:00am until 3:30pm, this second annual prison law symposium is free and open to the public.

Speakers from a diversity of backgrounds and expertise have been invited to present on three panels: prisoners’ rights, gender issues in the criminal justice system, and reform of the criminal justice system. The first panel will include Holly Cooper, a King Hall graduate and supervising attorney for the Immigration Law Clinic on campus, and Mona Cadena from Amnesty International, who will discuss prisoners’ rights from an international perspective. Charles Carbone of California Prison Focus and Steve Fama of the Prison Law Office will also speak on the panel. Ari Wohlfeiler will be presenting on the second panel on behalf of Justice Now, an organization that works with women prisoners and local communities to build a safe, compassionate world without prisons. The second panel will also feature Andrea Bible from Free Battered Women, which seeks to end the re-victimization of incarcerated survivors of domestic violence as part of the movement for racial justice and the struggle to resist all forms of intimate partner violence against women and transgender people. The final panel will feature Beth Waitkus from San Quentin’s Insight Garden Project -- which has involved a team of local landscapers, gardeners and community members, as well as prison inmates and staff have to build and maintain an organic, native California garden on San Quentin's medium-security prison yard -- as well as Rhodessa Jones, founder and director of the award winning Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, is a performance workshop that is designed to achieve personal and social transformation with incarcerated women.

As a supplement to the symposium on Saturday, the organizers have also scheduled a noontime event on the preceding Wednesday. On Wednesday, March 29, attorney Frank Lindh will speak about the experiences of his son, John Walker Lindh, who had been dubbed “The American Taliban” by the U.S. media and taken into custody by U.S. forces in Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001.

The idea for the first prison law symposium last April (“The Truth Unlocked: A California Prison Law Symposium”) originated in a Judicial Process seminar taught by King Hall Professor Bill Hing. Always seeking to supplement coursework regarding the judicial system with other issues of legal significance, last fall Hing sought the assistance of Susan Jordan, a 2L at the time, to present to the class regarding her expertise in the criminal justice system. A group of students in that class became inspired to create a symposium exploring the very timely and provocative issues and gathered support and funding to realize their vision for two years in a row.

With generous funding provided by the King Hall Annual Fund and the Law Students’ Association, lunch will be provided on Wednesday, and breakfast and lunch will be provided on Saturday. The schedule for the symposium and more information about this effort can be found at the symposium blog: http://makingacriminal.blogspot.com.

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