FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CLERGY, ARTISTS, ACTIVISTS TARGET PRISON ORGANIZATION WITH MOCK PRESS CONFERENCE
Contact: acamediarelations@gmail.com
Photos and videos: www.americancorrectionalassociation.org
BOSTON, MA: In a dramatic press conference in Cambridge this morning, the American Correctional Association responded to recent controversy by apologizing to the public and revoking the accreditation of all detention centers operated by ICE.
Except they didn’t.
The elaborate stunt was coordinated by a Boston-based, interfaith group of over thirty clergy, activists, and artists and published to a parody website critical of the ACA’s with ICE’s refugee camps and the for-profit prison industry.
The press conference was accompanied by a press release and directed questions to www.americancorrectionalassociation.org, which contains opportunities to donate to prisoner and refugee advocacy organizations. The site also clarifies that this autonomous action was unaffiliated with any of the groups who organized last week’s protests.
In his remarks, the fictitious communications director, “Nathan Cobb,” argued that the ACA’s core business model creates an irreconcilable conflict of interest. This argument echoes the words of Judge David Bazelon, who resigned from the ACA’s board of directors in 1982 with a blistering 21-page resignation letter. “How can the commission in good conscience represent itself as ‘independent’ and ‘unbiased’ while being financially dependent on the objects of its scrutiny?” Bazelon wrote.
The performance came on the heels of the American Correctional Association’s annual Congress of Correction in Boston, which inspired protests from 19 organizations, hundreds of marchers to fill to the streets, and an anti-ICE banner to be unfurled during a Red Sox game. Activists demanded that the ACA rescind certification of prisons and detention facilities with documented human and environmental abuses, end all involvement with ICE/CBP, and make all aspects of its certification process and results easily available to the public.
Cobb was later revealed to be an Episcopal priest who runs a faith-based housing nonprofit in Boston.
“I doubt anyone was actually fooled, but that wasn’t our goal. In the tradition of Biblical prophets and pranksters like Nathan, Isaiah, and Amos, we wanted to paint a picture of how the world should be.” “Cobb” said. “Our faith compels us to proclaim release for the captives and good news for the poor.”
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CONTACT: Nathan Cobb
Communications Director
ncobb@americancorrectionalassociation.org
+1 703 705 2359