Hosted by Hampshire Students Against Mass Incarceration (HSAMI)Here's the breakdown of our costs and financial goals:We can bring in 2 local activist organizations to the conferenceWe can bring in 2-3 more local organizations/speakers to the conference.We can bring in more organizations from the greater northeast! This would be awesome because we would have a diversity of voices, teachers, and activists around the issue of the prison industrial complex.We can bring in renowned national organizations, and provide a free dinner at the conference!HSAMI is proud to present, a day-long conference that will be held here at Hampshire College on April 16. It will feature a series of workshops and panels centering around the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and other social conditions within the prison-industrial complex through an abolitionist lens. Our keynote speakers will beandAyyub Abdul-Alim is a 35 year old Puerto Rican and African American man who was raised as a Muslim. Born in the U.S., Ayyub grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. He later moved to Springfield where he became the building manager of an apartment complex, the store owner of “Nature’s Garden”, and the creator of “Connections Transportation”, providing families with free commuter services to and from local prisons to visit their loved ones.Among other visionary endeavors, Ayyub founded a community center in Springfield that offered mentoring services, housing assistance, tutoring, job leads, and a free food program. Ayyub is a mentor, community member and father. He is part of a legacy of political organizing in the United States, his father a member of the Black Panther Party and his mother a member of the Young Lords Party.Perhaps because of this legacy, or perhaps because of his presence in the Muslim community of Springfield, the FBI had a long-standing interest in having Ayyub work as an informant and spy on his own Muslim community. At 7pm on December 9th, 2011, the Springfield Police worked in cooperation with a local FBI unit. A drug bust was occurring at a gas station when Ayyub approached the convenience store to purchase milk. Under the orders of Officer Ronald Sheehan, Ayyub was detained by Officer Anthony Sowers and Officer Angel Berrios. Officer Sheehan ordered Officers Sowers and Berrios to search Ayyub for weapons. A police radio transcript reveals that two searches of Ayyub produced no weapons of any sort. At this point Officers Sheehan and Berrios turned off their official police scanners and switched to private communication lines. After this undocumented conversation, Officer Berrios searched Ayyub for a third time. Officer Sowers approached Berrios with a handgun, which Berrios then held up as though he found it in Ayyub’s possession.Ayyub has been held for 2 years at Hampden County Correctional Facility in Ludlow, MA due to police misconduct, falsified evidence, and perjury. The current charges against Ayyub are unlawful possession of ammunition without an ID card, unlawful possession of a firearm, and unlawful possession of a loaded firearm – all felonies carrying significant sentences. Neither the Springfield Police Department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation has produced any physical evidence linking Ayyub to the gun. No other charges have been filed.learn more about Ayyub's case here: https://web.archive.org/web/20150219141124/http://justiceforayyub.org/who-is-ayyub/





Fred Hampton, Jr. (born December 29, 1969) is an African-American political activist and the son of Fred Hampton, Sr. His father was a Black Panther who was killed by the Chicago Police in 1969. Hampton's mother Deborah Johnson, was eight-and-a-half months pregnant with him when Hampton Sr. was killed in her presence during the pre-dawn police raid. Hampton Sr. was 21 at the time of his death; Johnson was 19.Hampton is the chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (P.O.C.C.). On July 3, 2013, Hampton and three others filed a false arrest and excessive force lawsuit against Oakland and Emeryville, claiming that they were held for almost three hours on January 21, 2013 in retaliation for their well-known activism.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------We are currently living in a moment where prison and criminal justice reform are being discussed at unprecedented levels among politicians and in the public. Despite the increasing visibility of issues related to incarceration, formal spaces to discuss these issues are few and far between.We want to create a formal space for learning and dialogue while centering the voices of people who have been most affected by the prison-industrial complex, specifically Black Trans people. Because it is likely that there will be many changes to the criminal justice system in the near future, it is absolutely imperative that we fully understand the multiple ways prisons affect people from all walks of life, which we can do by engaging in dialogue through an abolitionist framework. Additionally, it is important to entertain and explore the idea that we must abolish prisons as they function to reify a capitalist, white supremacist judicial system.Our long-term goal is to grow the conference over the next several years and make it a nationally-known event in order to further amplify the visibility of incarceration issues.Though we have received some funding from within Hampshire College, we are still currently about $8,000 short of being able to fund the conference as planned in its entirety. The remaining $8,000 which we hope to raise through this page would allow us to bring in organizations from the Pioneer Valley area and beyond to host workshops on topics which relate to the intersections of their work and the prison-industrial complex.Not having enough funding would make us unable to pay the organizations and people who have committed to contributing to our conference.We understand not everyone can donate. Even if you are unable to make a financial contribution, you can still support us by sharing this GoFundMe page on all your social media platforms, by email, and by word of mouth.-----------------------------------------------------------------------Registration for the conference isand, though we encourage those attending to donate to this campaign if they are able.You can register for the conference here: http://goo.gl/forms/KxQa5BRVIm Thank you for taking the time to learn about our cause and our conference. We look forward to seeing you in April!