Canadian Prison Law Conference: Rights, Remedies and Decarceration

The Canadian Prison Law Association is partnering with the Peter A. Allard School of Law to bring the Canadian Prison Law Conference: Rights, Remedies and Decarceration to the Vancouver campus on October 4-6, 2024.

The conference will bring together lawyers, scholars, students, community advocates, and people with lived experience of incarceration to share knowledge and discuss legal strategies for promoting decarceration and prisoners’ rights. 

The conference will take place on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) territory and will include panels on Indigenous self-determination and Indigenous justice practices, life sentences, solitary confinement in its many forms, enforcing human rights in places of detention, abolitionist legal strategies, constitutional rights and remedial possibilities, prison law and legal education, and more.

We gratefully acknowledge support from the Law Foundation of British Columbia. 

The conference organizing committee consists of Debra Parkes (co-chair), Kate Mitchell (co-chair), Nora Demnati, Nyki Kish, Jennifer Metcalfe and Reakash Walters.

Program

Download Preliminary Program (PDF)

An updated program, with all confirmed speakers, will be posted in late June.

Registration

Registration fees:

• General in-person early bird (by July 19, 2024): $200 + GST = $210
• General in-person (after July 19, 2024): $250 + GST = $262.50
• General online: $50 + GST = $52.50
• Student in-person: $50 + GST = $52.50
• Student online: $25 + GST = $26.25
• People with lived experience of prison: Free. Contact cpla.conference@gmail.com before registering.

Event Registration

Accommodation at the University of British Columbia

A limited number of Signature Studio Suites and West Coast Suites are being set aside on the UBC Vancouver campus for conference participants to book at reduced rates of $219 + tax per night (Signature Studio Suite) and $279 + tax per night (West Coast Suite). The group rate room booking deadline is September 1, 2024 with early booking recommended. Please visit our Room Booking link to take advantage of this offer.