The Caging of America

[kallend 2,027]

I thought this an interesting article:

www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik?mbid=gnep&google_editors_picks=true

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Andrewwhyte 1]

It seems there is a change of course occurring. Unfortunately we in Canada are heading in the wrong direction.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/17/pol-vp-milewski-texas-crime.html

[masterblaster72 0]

Wow.

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Northern impersonality and Southern revenge converge on a common American theme: a growing number of American prisons are now contracted out as for-profit businesses to for-profit companies. The companies are paid by the state, and their profit depends on spending as little as possible on the prisoners and the prisons. It’s hard to imagine any greater disconnect between public good and private profit: the interest of private prisons lies not in the obvious social good of having the minimum necessary number of inmates but in having as many as possible, housed as cheaply as possible. No more chilling document exists in recent American life than the 2005 annual report of the biggest of these firms, the Corrections Corporation of America. Here the company (which spends millions lobbying legislators) is obliged to caution its investors about the risk that somehow, somewhere, someone might turn off the spigot of convicted men:


"Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities. . . . The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them."

Brecht could hardly have imagined such a document: a capitalist enterprise that feeds on the misery of man trying as hard as it can to be sure that nothing is done to decrease that misery.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[mnealtx 0]

"Northern impersonality and Southern revenge"

Yeah, there's an unbiased comment for you.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[tkhayes 348]

http://www.amazon.com/New-Jim-Crow-Incarceration-Colorblindness/dp/1595581030

I just started reading this - good interview with the author on NPR Fresh Air and it is all pretty disturbing, but totally expected in this society.....

[jclalor 12]

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No more chilling document exists in recent American life than the 2005 annual report of the biggest of these firms, the Corrections Corporation of America. Here the company (which spends millions lobbying legislators) is obliged to caution its investors about the risk that somehow, somewhere, someone might turn off the spigot of convicted men:


Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities. . . . The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.

It's nice to know we live in a country, where there are corperations that are financialy committed to incarcerating people for the weakest of offenses.

[tkhayes 348]

privatizing any facet of the criminal justice system is fundamentally corrupt and wrong and should be addressed with a federal Constitutional amendment.

dangerous, doomed to fail (at the expenses f American citizen's freedoms and lives), doomed to corruption and no one who makes the decisions see anything wrong with it.

[masterrig 1]

I' the American way! Someone will figure-out a way to make money from anything. That's what it's all about in this country... money.


Chuck

[Bertt 0]

That pretty well sums it up.

You don't have to outrun the bear.

[Skyrad 0]

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'Six million people are under correctional supervision in the U.S.—more than were in Stalin’s gulags'

Wow. So much for the land of the free.

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More than half of all black men without a high-school diploma go to prison at some time in their lives....there are more black men in the grip of the criminal-justice system—in prison, on probation, or on parole—than were in slavery then.

So are black men inherently more inclined to criminality or is the USA an institutionally racist nation? Its an uncomfortable question but one which requires an answer.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[lawrocket 3]

But yet the prisons in California are so overcrowded that the US Supreme Court ordered the prisons to decrease their population by 30k in two years because the overcrowding is preventing adequate care.

The California prison population is at 200% of the design capacity. Three strikes is a big one! And changes in law that increase sanctions for parole violations also have occurred. The prisons – state run – are swollen because the laws are stricter and give greater sentences.

Note that the CCPOA is regarded as perhaps the single most powerful union in the state – if not the single most politically powerful organization in California. Even more powerful than the teachers union. The corrections union, like private prisons, makes its money by keeping the spigot of prisoners flowing. The CCPOA has fought tooth and nail any effort to ease overcrowding and prevent the absolutely fucking DESPICABLE medical treatment provided to prisoners because of the MASSIVE overcrowding, but hey, since it’s the state doing it and a union cash cow, then that makes it okay. The CCPOA makes money while people suffer. The more people are caged, the more dues it collects. Gray Davis did a real sweetheart deal back in the beginning of 2002.

Trust me – there would be much less fighting of private prisons in California if they were closed union shops. The CCPOA opposes anything that could ease the overcrowding, unless they are more state prisons with more tax money.

It’s a travesty what money making is doing to personal liberty and freedom. And note – it is money making being doled out by the state. Police unions? They benefit from more laws restricting our rights. Prison guards? They benefit. The $10.7 billion prison budget in California isn’t even close to getting the prisons on a Constitutional footing.

But private prisons are bad? No. Prisons – private or state run – are cash cows for the chosen.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[masterblaster72 0]

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"Northern impersonality and Southern revenge"

Yeah, there's an unbiased comment for you.

Did you read past that? What do you think of for-profit prison corporations?

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[mnealtx 0]

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"Northern impersonality and Southern revenge"

Yeah, there's an unbiased comment for you.

Did you read past that?

Sure did. Didn't see any improvement in the rest of 'article'.

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What do you think of for-profit prison corporations?

That they're a business. Show me where they're influencing sentencing in actual court cases and I'll take another look at it.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[lawrocket 3]

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Show me where they're influencing sentencing in actual court cases and I'll take another look at it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-crime-kidsforcash-idUSTRE77A6KG20110811

Of course, there has to be a willing and corrupt government official for this. But I also see little difference between this and the million buck the CCPOA gave to Pete Wilson for supporting the Three Strikes Law.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[mnealtx 0]

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Show me where they're influencing sentencing in actual court cases and I'll take another look at it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/11/us-crime-kidsforcash-idUSTRE77A6KG20110811

Of course, there has to be a willing and corrupt government official for this. But I also see little difference between this and the million buck the CCPOA gave to Pete Wilson for supporting the Three Strikes Law.

Appreciate the link, Jerry - and yes, that's bad. Thankfully, it only seems to have been one judge.

This was a private facility and not a prisoncorp one, right?

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[lawrocket 3]

It’s only one judge that we know about. For now. And the issue is a private facility and NOT one private facility.

I’m still wondering why nobody says much about the corrections officer unions. Or the police unions. Talk about two types of entities that really benefit by draconian law enforcement. It’s so odd to me that the discussion of civil liberties is coming down to whether private corporations will make money off of the governments imprisoning people.

The act of imprisoning people? Go for it – as long as a corporation isn’t overseeing them, eh? I mean, what the???

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[SpeedRacer 1]

Our Glorious War on Drugs feeds right into this bs.

Speed Racer
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[jakee 1,500]

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It’s so odd to me that the discussion of civil liberties is coming down to whether private corporations will make money off of the governments imprisoning people.

The act of imprisoning people? Go for it – as long as a corporation isn’t overseeing them, eh? I mean, what the???

You don't have to talk about everything, all the time, in order to make a valid point. Discussion of one aspect of a wider issue doesn't mean dismissing or ignoring other aspects, it just means you're not talking about them right now.

One non-communist-conspiracy reason for why you're hearing about for profit corporations rather than unions is that the profit motive is easier and simpler to see and comprehend, and therefore is more helpful in illustrating the general problem to a wider audience.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[mnealtx 0]

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It’s only one judge that we know about. For now. And the issue is a private facility and NOT one private facility.

I’m still wondering why nobody says much about the corrections officer unions. Or the police unions. Talk about two types of entities that really benefit by draconian law enforcement. It’s so odd to me that the discussion of civil liberties is coming down to whether private corporations will make money off of the governments imprisoning people.

The act of imprisoning people? Go for it – as long as a corporation isn’t overseeing them, eh? I mean, what the???

Good points.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[lawrocket 3]

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ou're hearing about for profit corporations rather than unions is that the profit motive is easier and simpler to see and comprehend

Absolutely. Obvious risks are also more easily pointed out than pernicious but obscure actualities. Hence, a zit gets noticed far more quickly than kidney failure.

My wife is hotter than your wife.