Stone by stone: Information and discussion on (the privatization of) Prisons in the Netherlands

tumblr_mfzd6byQ6P1r4vpxio4_500When: 27 May

Where: De Klinker, Van Broeckhuysenstraat 46, Nijmegen

Time: 21:00

 

It’s time to share information and ideas about the recent developments in the Dutch prison system en the necessity of abolitionist struggle. Lately news on prisons has been in the media a lot. News like the ridicule idea that inmates are going to have to pay to be incarcerated, but also a call for heavier punishments in general. The prison system is undergoing a process of far reaching privatization. The state intends to make the prisons financially self-sufficient. By outsourcing the building and exploitation to private companies even more parties and people will make profit from locking up people.

Are we heading in the direction of the US with an extensive prison industry, where private companies lobby for more and longer punishments to fill up the jails? And what does all of this has to do with the contemporary social tendencies? Where do we as anarchist position ourselves in this context? And more important, how does it influence the general anti-prison struggle?

Furthermore we would like to talk about the definition of criminality and the concept of punishment. And who is benefiting from the social structure as it exists?