As I mentioned yesterday, I am attending the 140th Congress of Correction sponsored by the American Correctional Association. I spent all day Sunday hopping from one workshop to another waiting for the main event as far as I was concerned which is the Exhibitors’ Open House. None of the workshops that I attended were particularly informative or revelatory. I suspect that most people who attend professional conferences could say the same. Even if I had been attending the workshops wearing a social service hat rather than a community organizer one, I still don’t think that I would have gotten much out of them.  

Anyway, I waited until 4 p.m. when the Exhibitors’ Open House began. The room was huge and there were at least 300 businesses and non-profits hawking their wares. Participants ranged from CCA, The Geo Group, Western Union, and Aaramark to the Salvation Army, Gateway Foundation and Prison Fellowship.

Earlier in the day, during a presentation about Disproportionate Minority Contact, a speaker remarked that he was shocked to see the level of commercialization that existed at the conference. He remarked that this was his first time attending the ACA conference and that he was troubled by the fact that businesses were trying to “pimp” the misery of others. He got a round of applause in the room. Yet I wonder how many in the room would be willing to boycott the products of those same exhibiting businesses.  Are people boycotting Western Union profiteering off the PIC?  I don’t think so.

OK back to the Exhibitors’ Open House, as I made my way through the booths, I picked up materials for an upcoming project that I will share more about in the near future. I was struck by the number of small nicknacks that were available to prospective buyers including pens, stress balls, snacks, etc… From the Geo Group, I was offered a handcuff key chain and from ICS Jail Supplies, I was handed a small clear bag complete with a mini comb, a mini toothbrush, a small packet of shampoo and toothpaste. Presumably these very same packets are handed to prisoners who are incarcerated in institutions supplied by ICS. The very nice woman at the ICS Jail Supplies booth also told me that if I left my business card, I could be entered in a contest to win ‘real handcuffs.’ She was laughing as she informed me of this opportunity; gallows humor, I guess.  I told her that I had no need for handcuffs but thanks just the same.

Next came the most surreal moment of the day, I saw Bob Barker. Well actually not THAT Bob Barker it turns out, though at first I did think that it was him.  People were milling around him.   I had to look closely because I could swear that he was Bob Barker of the Price is Right fame, same orange tan and brown hair.  I was preparing to be deeply crushed and emotionally scarred since I used to watch the Price is Right with my babysitter as a kid.   It turns out that this Bob Barker was actually the owner of Bob Barker’s detention supplies which included riot gear complete with military style helmets.  I tried to take a photograph of the riot gear but my digital camera seems to have died.  I still have one more day to get the shot though.  Hopefully, I will be successful in that quest.

So yesterday was a day to remember, mostly because I can report to you that Bob Barker from the Price is Right is not currently actively supporting the prison industrial complex.  Good times…