The American Nightmare. Slavery by the Back Door

[Oxymoron]

Land of the Free... Appears not! Would any brave person care to debunk or justify this ... or at least comment!

So what is it about American culture that Americans appear to find it acceptable that 2.5 Million Americans should be incarcerated and used as slave labour by private companies?



Why does America incarcerate massively more of it's citizens than any other Nation on Earth? Are Americans more violent and prone to crime than any other culture? Or is the U.S government tyrannically and deliberately providing slave fodder for private companies?

And why has such a steep increase happened since 1980 to date... 500,000 to 2.5 Million in the space of 30 years?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US...-timescale.svg

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In total, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009 – about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population.^[3][4][11]

[Grieves]

There are apparently more African Americans participating in prison-labor programs today than were ever enslaved in the history of the United States. It's a highly unfortunate but relatively deliberate state of affairs, largely sourced in exaggerated punishments around petty drug crimes and brutal 'three strike' state laws that see you locked away for years if three crimes are committed, no matter how minor. It's a statistical fact that those who are imprisoned on petty crimes are likely to commit far more serious offenses on their release, the private prison system, rather than rehabilitating, actually often makes more hardened criminals of the people who pass through it. It's 'class warfare' at its finest, really. The wealthy like to whine about those parasitic poor trying to leech away their hard-earned millions as a form of 'class warfare', while encouraging an economic climate where the poor get poorer, crime rates rise, and cheap American prison-labor abounds as a result.

Still, so far as I know they don't have workers on prison-lines going back to their cells after a shift only to be expected to grind gold on World of Warcraft for eight hours straight, so I suppose the American prison system isn't quite as bad as that of China yet.

[Oxymoron]

There are apparently more African Americans participating in prison-labor programs today than were ever enslaved in the history of the United States. It's a highly unfortunate but relatively deliberate state of affairs, largely sourced in exaggerated punishments around petty drug crimes and brutal 'three strike' state laws that see you locked away for years if three crimes are committed, no matter how minor. It's a statistical fact that those who are imprisoned on petty crimes are likely to commit far more serious offenses on their release, the private prison system, rather than rehabilitating, actually often makes more hardened criminals of the people who pass through it. It's 'class warfare' at its finest, really. The wealthy like to whine about those parasitic poor trying to leech away their hard-earned millions as a form of 'class warfare', while encouraging an economic climate where the poor get poorer, crime rates rise, and cheap American prison-labor abounds as a result.

Still, so far as I know they don't have workers on prison-lines going back to their cells after a shift only to be expected to grind gold on World of Warcraft for eight hours straight, so I suppose the American prison system isn't quite as bad as that of China yet.

Here are the Incarceration rates per 100,000, by Country. Seems an inordinate difference between the lowest at 59 per 100,000 and the highest, 743 per 100,000.

Also seems very suspect that it should climb so steeply from 1980 onwards. Wondered what people felt about it. Seems like government sponsored slavery to me.

http://corrections.oregonafscme.com/...vatization.htm

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In the United States, the concept of prison privatization was first proposed early in the 1980s. By the middle of that decade a number of firms were established, eager to take over prison and jail facilities and to build new prisons to tap into the needs of states that were struggling with rapidly expanding prison populations and deteriorating conditions in their existing facilities.

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China

In 2001 the incarceration rate in China was 111 per 100,000^{[citation needed]} (sentenced prisoners only).

Denmark

Denmark also has a low incarceration rate with a total of 3774 inmates in the country.^[5] Denmark has 59 people in prison for every 100,000 citizens.^[5] 62 violent crimes such as rape, murder, robbery, and aggravated assault were reported.^[when?] There were 322 Property Crimes reported.^[when?]

England and Wales

Main article: Prison population of England and Wales
In 2006 the incarceration rate in England and Wales was 139 persons imprisoned per 100,000.^{[citation needed]}

Norway

In 2006 the incarceration rate in Norway, was 59 inmates per 100,000.^{[citation needed]}

Australia

In 2006 the incarceration rate in Australia, was 163 prisoners per 100,000.^{[citation needed]}

New Zealand

The rate imprisonment in New Zealand in 2011 was 198 per 100,000.^[6]

India

India has one of the lowest incarceration rates with 281,000 prisoners in their jails.^[5] This is a rate of just under 25 per 100,000; given a total population, 1,129,866,154.^[5] India reported 1,764,630 crimes in 2007.^[5] There were 236,313 assaults and 111,296 burglaries. However most of the criminals are easily granted bail after committing crime and most of the cases are verdict pending. It would be number one if verdict is pronounced in all the pending cases.^[7]

United States

Main articles: United States incarceration rate and Incarceration in the United States
The United States' incarceration rate is, according to 2009 figures, 743 persons imprisoned per 100,000 (as of 2009).^[8] The United States has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's incarcerated population.^[9]

[Mick]

It's a combination of factors, the war on drugs, the privatization of prisons for profit leading to lobbying for higher sentencing, and the the "tough on crime" trap that politicians fell into in the 1980's leading to ludicrous sentencing laws like "three strikes".

It disproportionately affects minorities because they are poor.

You could hardly say it's some kind of back-door slavery conspiracy, given that it would be much cheaper to actually hire people to do the work than to keep them in prison.

It is terrible, a stain upon America. I think it's one of the REAL problems in America, and it would be great if people could attack it with the same vigor they attack imaginary problems like chemtrails.

[SR1419]

The wealthy like to whine about those parasitic poor trying to leech away their hard-earned millions as a form of 'class warfare', while encouraging an economic climate where the poor get poorer, crime rates rise, and cheap American prison-labor abounds as a result. .

Actually- the US crime rate has been declining:

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In the past 20 years, for instance, the murder rate in the United States has dropped by almost half, from 9.8 per 100,000 people in 1991 to 5.0 in 2009. Meanwhile, robberies were down 10 percent in 2010 from the year before and 8 percent in 2009.

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice...a-is-safer-now

And prisoners who do participate in labor programs are less likely to go back to prison after release and more likely to find jobs after release.

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inmates who go through the program are 24 percent less likely to return to jail and 14 percent more likely to find employment upon release because of the skills and experience they receive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/15/bu...pagewanted=all

[Oxymoron]

It's a combination of factors, the war on drugs, the privatization of prisons for profit leading to lobbying for higher sentencing, and the the "tough on crime" trap that politicians fell into in the 1980's leading to ludicrous sentencing laws like "three strikes".

It disproportionately affects minorities because they are poor.

It is terrible, a stain upon America. I think it's one of the REAL problems in America, and it would be great if people could attack it with the same vigor they attack imaginary problems like chemtrails.

Yes, very little seems to be heard about it. I don't understand why it isn't a much bigger issue. Do you know of any campaigns with traction on this subject. I would have thought people would be much more vocal on the issue.

You could hardly say it's some kind of back-door slavery conspiracy, given that it would be much cheaper to actually hire people to do the work than to keep them in prison.

I don't understand the rationale of this comment though as, if the penal system is run for profit by private companies, it cannot cost money to keep people in prison... no more than it cost landowners to keep slaves.

[SR1419]

I don't understand the rationale of this comment though as, if the penal system is run for profit by private companies, it cannot cost money to keep people in prison... no more than it cost landowners to keep slaves.

What? of course, it costs money to keep people in prison....

Moreover, "the penal system" is not run for profit by private companies- the vast majority of prisons are still public institutions and the vast majority of prisoners are held in these public institutions- although the rate is changing:

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General Statistics:

1.6 million: Total number of state and federal prisoners in the United States as of December 2010, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics

128,195: Number of state and federal prisoners housed in private facilities as of December 2010

37: percent by which number of prisoners in private facilities increased between 2002 and 2009

217,690: Total federal inmate population as of May 2012, according to the Bureau of Prisons

27,970: Number of federal inmates in privately managed facilities within the Bureau of Prisons

33,330: Estimated size of detained immigrant population as of 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

http://www.propublica.org/article/by...ntion-industry

[Mick]

I don't understand the rationale of this comment though as, if the penal system is run for profit by private companies, it cannot cost money to keep people in prison... no more than it cost landowners to keep slaves.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162...incarceration/

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Nationwide, the numbers are staggering: Nearly 2.4 million people behind bars, even though over the last 20 years the crime rate has actually dropped by more than 40 percent."The United States has about 5 percent of the world's population, but we have 25 percent of the world's prisoners - we incarcerate a greater percentage of our population than any country on Earth," said Michael Jacobson, director of the non-partisan Vera Institute of Justice. He also ran New York City's jail and probation systems in the 1990s.
A report by the organization, "The Price of Prisons," states that the cost of incarcerating one inmate in Fiscal 2010 was $31,307 per year. "In states like Connecticut, Washington state, New York, it's anywhere from $50,000 to $60,000," he said.
Yes - $60,000 a year. That's a teacher's salary, or a firefighter's. Our epidemic of incarceration costs us taxpayers $63.4 billion a year.

The profit comes from the government giving them money to store prisoners. Prison labor schemes are just icing.

And as noted, the entire system is not private prisons, only a proportion. However the introduction of for-profit prisons has led to lobbying to maintain tough sentences to maintain the prison population.

[Mick]

Yes, very little seems to be heard about it. I don't understand why it isn't a much bigger issue. Do you know of any campaigns with traction on this subject. I would have thought people would be much more vocal on the issue.

It's spotty, but there are LOTS of initiatives, just look up "Sentencing reform"

https://www.google.com/search?q=sentencing+reform

Or:

https://www.google.com/search?q=end+the+war+on+drugs

[SR1419]

California's 3 strikes law was revised this past election cycle:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.ph...Law_%282012%29

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Revises three strikes law to impose life sentence only when new felony conviction is serious or violent.

Authorizes re-sentencing for offenders currently serving life sentences if third strike conviction was not serious or violent and judge determines sentence does not pose unreasonable risk to public safety.

Continues to impose life sentence penalty if third strike conviction was for certain nonserious, nonviolent sex or drug offenses or involved firearm possession.

Maintains life sentence penalty for felons with nonserious, non-violent third strike if prior convictions were for rape, murder, or child molestation.

[Oxymoron]

California's 3 strikes law was revised this past election cycle:

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.ph...Law_%282012%29

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Revises three strikes law to impose life sentence only when new felony conviction is serious or violent.

Authorizes re-sentencing for offenders currently serving life sentences if third strike conviction was not serious or violent and judge determines sentence does not pose unreasonable risk to public safety.

Continues to impose life sentence penalty if third strike conviction was for certain nonserious, nonviolent sex or drug offenses or involved firearm possession.

Maintains life sentence penalty for felons with nonserious, non-violent third strike if prior convictions were for rape, murder, or child molestation.

I do not understand the mindset of the people who voted against proposition 66, back in 2004, any ideas? Or how the 3 strikes sentencing originated in the first place. IMO each crime should be judged on it's own merit, (unmerit).

http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.ph...Law_%282004%29

[SR1419]

I do not understand the mindset of the people who voted against proposition 66, back in 2004, any ideas?

Not sure...you would have to ask someone who voted against it. but if you look at the yes/no map- I think it closely parallels how CA divides out on the "red/blue" party lines...

[Oxymoron]

There does appear to be some similarity in the California voting demographic



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_strikes_law
Application

The exact application of the three strikes laws varies considerably from state to state.
Some states require one or more of the three felony convictions to be for violent crimes in order for the mandatory sentence to be pronounced. California mandates the enhanced sentence for any third felony conviction so long as the first two felonies were deemed to be either "violent" or "serious," or both. Texas does not require any of the felony convictions to be violent.

http://www.alternet.org/story/155199..._slave_traders

Private Prison Corporations Are Modern Day Slave Traders

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The Corrections Corporation of America believes the economic crisis has created an opportunity to become landlord, as well as manager, of a chunk of the American prison gulag.




April 29, 2012
The nation’s largest private prison company, the Corrections Corporation of America, is on a buying spree. With a war chest of $250 million, the corporation, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, earlier this year sent letters to 48 states, offering to buy their prisons outright. To ensure their profitability, the corporation insists that it be guaranteed that the prisons be kept at least 90 percent full. Plus, the corporate jailers demand a 20-year management contract, on top of the profits they expect to extract by spending less money per prisoner.

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If private companies are allowed to own the deeds to prisons, they are a big step closer to owning the people inside them. Many of the same politicians that created the system of mass Black incarceration over the past 40 years, would gladly hand over to private parties all responsibility for the human rights of inmates. The question of inmates' rights is hardly raised in the debate over prison privatization. This is a dialogue steeped in slavery and racial oppression. Just as the old slave markets were abolished, so must the Black American Gulag be dismantled – with no compensation to those who traffic in human beings.

Another link to population rise and private corporation lobbying

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...rison-business

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Early in August, the Associated Press reported that America's three largest private prison companies, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), GEO Group, Inc and Management and Training Corp spent in the region of $45m over the past 10 years in lobbying state and federal governments. During the same period, these companies saw their profits soar as they scored more government contracts.

Guess 180 year prison sentences don't really help... But good for corporations!

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Why is the rate of incarceration so high in the United States? Is the crime rate so much higher in the United States? No. According to criminologists Alfred Blumstein and Allen Beck, the rise in crime can only account for less than 12% of the rise in the prison population since 1980. It is the extremely harsh and long prison sentences being given out in this country that accounts much of the other 88% of the prison population explosion.

[Mick]

The "Law and Order" movement was predominantly (but not exclusively) Republican, and is at the root of these extreme sentencing laws.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_order_(politics)

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"Law and order" was a powerful conservative theme in the U.S. in the 1960s. The leading exponents in the late 1960s were Republicans Ronald Reagan (as governor of California) and Richard Nixon (as presidential candidate in 1968). They used it to dissolve a liberal consensus about crime that involved federal court decisions and a pushback against illegal drugs and violent gang activity. White ethnics in northern cities turned against the Democratic party, blaming it for being soft on crime and rioters^[1]

[Oxymoron]

Tip of the iceberg?

No mention of any action against the prison owners?

http://blog.blacknews.com/2013/05/ju...l#.UYQjM8oROe8

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Mark Ciavarella Jr, a 61-year old former judge in Pennsylvania, has been sentenced to nearly 30 years in prison for literally selling young juveniles for cash. He was convicted of accepting money in exchange for incarcerating thousands of adults and children into a prison facility owned by a developer who was paying him under the table. The kickbacks amounted to more than $1 million.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned some 4,000 convictions issued by him between 2003 and 2008, claiming he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles – including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Some of the juveniles he sentenced were as young as 10-years old.

Ciavarella was convicted of 12 counts, including racketeering, money laundering, mail fraud and tax evasion. He was also ordered to repay $1.2 million in restitution.

His "kids for cash" program has revealed that corruption is indeed within the prison system, mostly driven by the growth in private prisons seeking profits by any means necessary.

[Grieves]

What a total scumbag. Slavery alive and well again in America.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/feds-...money-1.967126
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/...structure.html
and not long off here... mega-prisons, privatization, and all in spite of this.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/...ts-canada.html

Statistics compiled by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS) and released Tuesday by Statistics Canada showed that the crime rate in 2011 was at its lowest level in 39 years.

[Grieves]

http://www.timesleader.com/apps/pbcs...1279998&Ref=AR

The changes, which must be approved by a judge, increase the sentencing guideline range from four to 10 months in prison, to 12 to 18 months.

http://citizensvoice.com/18-month-se...ness-1.1227829

Powell, the federal judge said, must serve 18 months in federal prison and pay $60,200 in fines. He must report to prison by Nov. 30.

Uggggggggh. Time for some fresh air.

[lotek]

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I think it's one of the REAL problems in America, and it would be great if people could attack it with the same vigor they attack imaginary problems like chemtrails.

QFT!

[Grieves]

The thing that really sickens me about those sentences is that the only excuse I can see for not laying down the harshest possible punishment on these guys in a court of law is the precedent it would set in regard to how the rest of the industry is penalized for such crimes. It can only be about protecting larger examples. Law is very much about precedent, and setting the bar so laughably low facilitates future punishments for larger-scale instances of this sort of behavior being only slightly, incrementally more harsh. Atrocious stuff.

[OddFuture]

Florida inmates convicted of non-violent drug crimes spent 194 percent more time behind bars in 2009 than they did in 1990, costing the state billions of dollars but providing little public safety benefit, a new study found. The study, by the Pew Center on the States, examined trends in 35 states that provided data on incarceration for inmates convicted of violent crimes, property crimes and drug offenses. It found that nationally, state inmates across all categories of offenses served an average of nine additional months in custody, a rise of 36 percent since 1990. Florida led all states with an increase of 166 percent in time served for all prisoners. The rise in time served costs states an estimated $10 billion per year, the study found



"A private company that operates Idaho's largest prison acknowledged Thursday that its employees falsified nearly 4,800 hours of staffing records over seven months last year in violation of its contract with the state.

The admission by Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America is the latest in a string of staffing problems alleged or being investigated at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise."*

For-profit, private prisons are marketed as a way for states to save money, but what about when they often go out of their way to support unnecessary imprisonment? What about when they're [often] proven to be corrupt? Now, Corrections Corporation of America has admitted to falsifying employee records to get more taxpayer money from states.

[Oxymoron]

People thrown into poverty by banksters actions are now fodder for making huge profits for private prisons by repeatedly being thrown into prison because they cannot afford to pay small fines.

I have to ask, what kind of system do you call that... what justice is there... what humanity is there?

If someone cannot afford to pay a fine... make them do community service instead or if they are put in prison, that should be the punishment in lieu of the fine.

It is ridiculous to fine someone who has not the means to pay. To incarcerate them and still expect them to pay on release is beyond comprehension. To add costs etc and increase the fine which they cannot pay due to poverty is simply perpetuating a vicious circle.

Who benefits... Well we all know that do we not.

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For Ohio’s poor and working poor, an unaffordable traffic ticket or fine is just the beginning of a protracted process that may involve contempt charges, mounting fees, arrest warrants, and even jail time. The stark reality is that, in 2013, Ohioans are being repeatedly jailed simply for being too poor to pay fines.
The U.S. Constitution, the Ohio Constitution, and Ohio Revised Code all prohibit debtors’ prisons. The law requires that, before jailing anyone for unpaid fines, courts must determine whether an individual is too poor to pay.
Despite clear constitutional and legislative prohibitions, debtors’ prison practices are alive
and well throughout Ohio. An investigation by the ACLU of Ohio uncovered conclusive evidence
of these practices in 7 of the 11 Ohio counties examined. Courts in Huron, Cuyahoga, and Erie counties are among the worst offenders. In the second half of 2012, over 20% of all bookings in the Huron County Jail were related to failure to pay fines. There is no evidence that any of these people were given hearings to determine whether or not they were financially able to pay their fines, as required by the law.
- See more at: http://disinfo.com/2013/04/aclu-unco....p8L92xFK.dpuf

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/201...son/?mobile=nc

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ACLU shines a light on a harrowing “debtors’ prison” system in Ohio — one that violates both the United States’ and the Ohio constitution. Ohioans are being jailed for “as small as a few hundred dollars,” despite the constitutional violation, and the economic evidence that it costs the state more to pay for their jail sentence than the amount of the debt. In its report, the ACLU details the stories of several people sent to debtors’ prison. Jack Dawley owed $1,500 in “fines and costs in the Norwalk Municipal Court,” and was behind on child support payments, leading the Ohio courts to send him to prison in Wisconsin for 3 and a half years. He still struggles with trying to repay the fines. Another victim of the system, single mother Tricia Metcalf, was taken to jail each and every time she wasn’t able to make her $50-a-month payments on fines for writing bad checks. Megan Sharp, whose husband is currently in jail on overdue fines, was unable to pay $300 in fines for driving on a suspended license and went to jail for 10 days. When she got out, she owed $200 more on top of the original amount. Both she and her husband are unemployed.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...n_3019636.html

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Several courts in Ohio are illegally jailing people because they are too poor to pay their debts and often deny defendants a hearing to determine if they're financially capable of paying what they owe, according to an investigation released Thursday by the Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU likens the problem to modern-day debtors' prisons. Jailing people for debt pushes poor defendants farther into poverty and costs counties more than the actual debt because of the cost of arresting and incarcerating individuals, the report said.
"The use of debtors' prison is an outdated and destructive practice that has wreaked havoc upon the lives of those profiled in this report and thousands of others throughout Ohio," the report said.
Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor of the Ohio Supreme Court, responding to the ACLU's request to take action, promised to review the findings. O'Connor told the group in a letter Wednesday: "you do cite a matter that can and must receive further attention."
The report says courts in Huron, Cuyahoga, and Erie counties are among the worst offenders.
Among the report's findings:
_ In the second half of last year, more than one in every five of all bookings in the Huron County jail – originating from Norwalk Municipal Court cases – involved a failure to pay fines.