Captain Ginyu
Member
Incarceration is big business people. That's why the US has the largest prison rate.
WTF! Prison Industry pitches deal to buy out US State prisons & enforce 90% Occupancy
- Thread starter Bi0hazard
- Start date
The land of the free(market only-never people)
Thanks to Hash Zeppelin for this article:
U.S. Prisons: How Crowded Are They? @ http://crime.about.com/od/prison/a/bjs040720.htm
Total Population Rising at Alarming Rates
By Charles Montaldo, About.com Guide
Mandatory sentencing guidelines and a growing number of drug-related convictions are factors in a continued growth of inmates held in federal, state and local prisons and jails in the United States.
Although local jails are generally operating under their stated capacities, all state and federal prisons are overcrowded -- some as much as 33 percent higher than their official capacities.
The total population of prisons and jails in the United States neared the 2.1 million mark in June 2003, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), indicating the largest increase from year to year in four years.
The latest BJS report listed 2,078,570 men and women incarcerated on June 30, 2003, an increase of 57,600 more inmates than state, local and federal officials held on the same date a year earlier. States and the federal prisons held 1,380,776 prisoners while local municipal and county jails housed 691,301 inmates.
From July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003, the number of state and federal prisoners grew by more than 2.9 percent, the largest increase in four years. The federal system increased by 5.4 percent, and state prisoners increased by 2.6 percent. During the same period, the local jail population increased by 3.9 percent.
According to the June 2003 BJS report:
Incarceration rates of state and federal prisoners continued to rise. At midyear 2003, the number of sentenced inmates was 480 per 100,000 U.S. residents, up from 476 per 100,000 on December 31, 2002. There were 238 jail inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents on June 30, 2003. Overall, one out of every 140 U.S. residents was incarcerated in prison or jail.
100,102 Female Inmates
During the year the number of female state and federal inmates grew by 5.0 percent, compared to a 2.7 percent male inmate growth. By June 30, 2003, the female inmate population reached 100,102.
Ten states reported an increase of at least 5 percent in the 12-month period, led by the smaller state prison systems: Vermont (up 12 percent), Minnesota (up 9 percent) and Maine (up 9 percent). The largest state prison systems, Texas and California, rose by 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Nine states reported a decrease in population, led by Rhode Island (down 3 percent) and Arkansas (down 2 percent).
The number of inmates younger than 18 years old continues to decline. On June 30, 2003, there were 3,006 state prisoners under 18, and adult jails held 6,869 youths under 18 years old.
State and federal correctional authorities held 90,700 non-citizens at midyear 2003, 2.3 percent more than a year earlier. The federal system held 34,456 non citizens (38 percent of all noncitizen prisoners).
On June 30, 2003, the federal system had 170,461 prisoners, more than any state prison system. Since 1995, the federal system has grown an average of 8 percent per year, compared to an average annual growth of 2.9 percent for state inmates and 4 percent for jail inmates during the same period.
Minorities Make Up 60 Percent of Prison Population
An estimated 12 percent of all black males in their twenties were in jails or prisons last June 30, as were an estimated 3.7 percent of Hispanic males and 1.6 percent of white males in that age group. Sixty-eight percent of prison and jail inmates were members of racial or ethnic minority groups.
Jails — locally operated correctional facilities typically holding inmates sentenced to a year or less as well as people in various stages of the criminal justice system, such as awaiting trial -- added more inmates than new beds in the 12 months preceding June 30, 2003. Still local jails were operating at a national average of 6 percent below their official rated capacities. State prisons were between 1 and 17 percent above rated capacity, and federal prisons operated at 33 percent over capacity at the end of 2002.
The 50 largest jail systems housed a third of all jail inmates. Nineteen of these operated at or above their rated capacities.
White non-Hispanics made up 43.6 percent of the local jail population, blacks 39.2 percent, Hispanics 15.4 percent, and other races (Asians, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) 1.8 percent.
U.S. Prisons: How Crowded Are They? @ http://crime.about.com/od/prison/a/bjs040720.htm
Total Population Rising at Alarming Rates
By Charles Montaldo, About.com Guide
Mandatory sentencing guidelines and a growing number of drug-related convictions are factors in a continued growth of inmates held in federal, state and local prisons and jails in the United States.
Although local jails are generally operating under their stated capacities, all state and federal prisons are overcrowded -- some as much as 33 percent higher than their official capacities.
The total population of prisons and jails in the United States neared the 2.1 million mark in June 2003, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), indicating the largest increase from year to year in four years.
The latest BJS report listed 2,078,570 men and women incarcerated on June 30, 2003, an increase of 57,600 more inmates than state, local and federal officials held on the same date a year earlier. States and the federal prisons held 1,380,776 prisoners while local municipal and county jails housed 691,301 inmates.
From July 1, 2002, to June 30, 2003, the number of state and federal prisoners grew by more than 2.9 percent, the largest increase in four years. The federal system increased by 5.4 percent, and state prisoners increased by 2.6 percent. During the same period, the local jail population increased by 3.9 percent.
According to the June 2003 BJS report:
Incarceration rates of state and federal prisoners continued to rise. At midyear 2003, the number of sentenced inmates was 480 per 100,000 U.S. residents, up from 476 per 100,000 on December 31, 2002. There were 238 jail inmates for every 100,000 U.S. residents on June 30, 2003. Overall, one out of every 140 U.S. residents was incarcerated in prison or jail.
100,102 Female Inmates
During the year the number of female state and federal inmates grew by 5.0 percent, compared to a 2.7 percent male inmate growth. By June 30, 2003, the female inmate population reached 100,102.
Ten states reported an increase of at least 5 percent in the 12-month period, led by the smaller state prison systems: Vermont (up 12 percent), Minnesota (up 9 percent) and Maine (up 9 percent). The largest state prison systems, Texas and California, rose by 4 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Nine states reported a decrease in population, led by Rhode Island (down 3 percent) and Arkansas (down 2 percent).
The number of inmates younger than 18 years old continues to decline. On June 30, 2003, there were 3,006 state prisoners under 18, and adult jails held 6,869 youths under 18 years old.
State and federal correctional authorities held 90,700 non-citizens at midyear 2003, 2.3 percent more than a year earlier. The federal system held 34,456 non citizens (38 percent of all noncitizen prisoners).
On June 30, 2003, the federal system had 170,461 prisoners, more than any state prison system. Since 1995, the federal system has grown an average of 8 percent per year, compared to an average annual growth of 2.9 percent for state inmates and 4 percent for jail inmates during the same period.
Minorities Make Up 60 Percent of Prison Population
An estimated 12 percent of all black males in their twenties were in jails or prisons last June 30, as were an estimated 3.7 percent of Hispanic males and 1.6 percent of white males in that age group. Sixty-eight percent of prison and jail inmates were members of racial or ethnic minority groups.
Jails — locally operated correctional facilities typically holding inmates sentenced to a year or less as well as people in various stages of the criminal justice system, such as awaiting trial -- added more inmates than new beds in the 12 months preceding June 30, 2003. Still local jails were operating at a national average of 6 percent below their official rated capacities. State prisons were between 1 and 17 percent above rated capacity, and federal prisons operated at 33 percent over capacity at the end of 2002.
The 50 largest jail systems housed a third of all jail inmates. Nineteen of these operated at or above their rated capacities.
White non-Hispanics made up 43.6 percent of the local jail population, blacks 39.2 percent, Hispanics 15.4 percent, and other races (Asians, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) 1.8 percent.
I was talking to a guy this weekend - who happens to work for the prison system, not a guard just a maintenance guy - we had a good chuckle about the 90%, if you look at the facts, the prison system here in cali is packed - way above the 90% the CCA is asking for, now we still think its pretty fucked about a corporation running the system...but if you sit back and think about it, its not that different then what we are facing now...
I ask this, Isn't the prison system now as we face it, nothing more then a "prison for profit" system?
GL
I ask this, Isn't the prison system now as we face it, nothing more then a "prison for profit" system?
GL
this world is so ass backwards fucked!its all about money now and everything else falls by the wayside.and its the poor who will fill these prisons up!the entire legal system is set up for wealthy people!
C
cvk
U.S. prisons are very overcrowded but once CCA lands the deal you can bet new prisons by the 1000's will be springing up overnight.
T
TribalSeeds
What do people expect when they don't want the government spending any money?
Everything gets privatized.
The Correction Corporation of America can't do it all alone. The are in cahoots with the American Legislative Council. aka ALEC they are the groups thats writing the laws, and getting the stupid assholes at the state level to change the laws in their favor. 3 strikes you get life, mandatory sentencing, stiffer parole laws. All these laws are designed to keep people in prison longer, the longer they are in the more money the corporation gets from what is slave labor, they pay pennies and hour and then charge for medical, room and board and anything else they can get away with. Ever get a collect call from a prison its like 5 bucks a minute. So its all about the money for sure.
This is nothing new, its been going on for some time now...
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289
Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.
There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.
What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?
"The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners' work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself," says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."
The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. "This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors."
According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.
CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UP
According to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:
. Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years' imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack. A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams - 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years' imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.
. The passage in 13 states of the "three strikes" laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.
. Longer sentences.
. The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.
. A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.
. More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.
HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES
Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of "hiring out prisoners" was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else's land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery - which were almost never proven - and were then "hired out" for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads. From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of "hired-out" miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.
During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. "Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex," comments the Left Business Observer.
Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call "highly skilled positions." At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.
Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.
[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that "there won't be any transportation costs; we're offering you competitive prison labor (here)."
PRIVATE PRISONS
The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton's program for cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.
Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, "the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners." The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners. In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for "good behavior," but for any infraction, they get 30 days added - which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost "good behavior time" at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.
IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATES
Profits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits. According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state's governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.
After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 - ending court supervision and decisions - caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering "rent-a-cell" services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.
STATISTICS
Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country's 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.
Global Research Articles by Vicky Pelaez
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289
Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.
There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens." The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.
What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?
"The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners' work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself," says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."
The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. "This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors."
According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.
CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UP
According to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:
. Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years' imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack. A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams - 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years' imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.
. The passage in 13 states of the "three strikes" laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.
. Longer sentences.
. The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.
. A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.
. More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.
HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES
Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of "hiring out prisoners" was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else's land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery - which were almost never proven - and were then "hired out" for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads. From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of "hired-out" miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.
During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. "Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex," comments the Left Business Observer.
Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month. The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call "highly skilled positions." At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.
Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.
[Former] Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that "there won't be any transportation costs; we're offering you competitive prison labor (here)."
PRIVATE PRISONS
The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton's program for cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.
Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one. According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, "the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners." The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners. In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for "good behavior," but for any infraction, they get 30 days added - which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost "good behavior time" at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.
IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATES
Profits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits. According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state's governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.
After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 - ending court supervision and decisions - caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering "rent-a-cell" services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.
STATISTICS
Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country's 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.
Global Research Articles by Vicky Pelaez
ROCKEFELLER, Well speak of the devil..... that quote isn't new I know, but rockefeller helps connect the dots in this case. It always does.
Talk corporate police state corruption and such names inevitably come up. Every time. It doesn't talk long at all to see it go full circle, look close enough and you catch them jacking each other off under the conference room table at their BURGERBUILDER meetings.
Again, we have to write our representatives to remind them there are still people privy to this dirty game.
The Egoist
New member
Scary concept that. Surely it would be illegal for a state to be under contract to maintain prison levels at a pre defined % ?
Surely someone (In power) would notice that this will create undue preasure on Judges to hand out prison sentences in order to maintain the 'State Quota' this would create?
Dont get me wrong I dearly love visiting my family in upper CA and various other parts of the states & loved my time spent living/working in a small NC town.
So please don't take this as anti American but sh*t like this makes me glad I left when I did. Not that the UK is much better just now, the Cons we have in power are finding new ways to profit from misery also.
Peace.
Surely someone (In power) would notice that this will create undue preasure on Judges to hand out prison sentences in order to maintain the 'State Quota' this would create?
Dont get me wrong I dearly love visiting my family in upper CA and various other parts of the states & loved my time spent living/working in a small NC town.
So please don't take this as anti American but sh*t like this makes me glad I left when I did. Not that the UK is much better just now, the Cons we have in power are finding new ways to profit from misery also.
Peace.
oldbluedog
Member
I'm not surprised at all. These greedy fucks have made billions in Texas already. Gotta keep those prisons full and more money for the coffers.
wont be long before we see the same happening more and more in europe as well with a whole industry of privatised security firms as well as prisons and mandatory rehab centers for people like us already having its groundwork layed,,
oldbluedog
Member
Sadly it is our local, county, and state judges selling us out. These "do-gooders" are trying to make up for falling real estate and sales tax revenues by increasing penalties for alcohol and drug offenses.
The US judicial system has failed in so many ways.
The US judicial system has failed in so many ways.
They deny every citizen a fair trial every single case no matter what judge because the right of jury nullification has been thrown out the window. it was one of the ways the power of the judicial branch was checked by the people. As the balance goes so does the freedom.
oldbluedog
Member
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:EdenDetCenterEdenTX.JPG
The judges I have seen seem to be in the same business as the prisons. They think they are gods. Just go down to your local courthouse and watch them wheelin' & dealin' to make more money as fast as they can. Asking a poor crippled man how much his SSI is and his expenses are were they can figure out how much to "rob" him of. It is disgusting.
Our courts have failed.
The judges I have seen seem to be in the same business as the prisons. They think they are gods. Just go down to your local courthouse and watch them wheelin' & dealin' to make more money as fast as they can. Asking a poor crippled man how much his SSI is and his expenses are were they can figure out how much to "rob" him of. It is disgusting.
Our courts have failed.
