Corporate greed and private prisons

[Joanne98]

National News
Corporate greed and private prisons
By Charlene Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated May 1, 2007, 02:25 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3440.shtml

Using cheap prison labor to build profits

Follow the Prison Money Trail ..to elected officials (In These Times, 09-04-2006)
The Prison Industrial Complex: Crisis and Control (CorpWatch, 1999)
Private Prisons for Dummies (Paul's Justice Page)
LOS ANGELES (FinalCall.com) - The Prison Industrial Complex is a growing industry comprised of a number of American corporations which develop household and business products, but human rights groups condemn them for netting profits which roll off the backs of prison inmates they claim are unjustly paid cents on the dollar.

At issue, they charge, is a criminal justice system which herds primarily Black youth into the hands of private prison enterprises to work illegally under a modern-day slave system called “involuntary servitude,” disguised as prison work release programs.

According to a 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin, approximately 8 percent of Black males between 25 and 29 were incarcerated in 2005, compared to 2.2 percent Latinos and 1.1 percent Whites. Black males in general accounted for nearly 550,000 of the 1.4 million federal and state prison inmate population, and Black females almost 30,000.

Overall, the 2005 prison labor pool derived from the more than 2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S., which included federal, state and territorial prisons; local jails; immigration, customs enforcement and military facilities; Indian Country jails; and juvenile facilities.

Because of this herding, private companies like Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) (New York Stock Exchange symbol: CXW)—one of the nation’s largest prison builders, owners and operators—reaps major benefits. In 2006, CCA earned $1.3 billion and its 2006 Annual Report indicates these numbers will increase based upon the Pew Charitable Trusts’ “Public Safety, Public Spending—Forecasting America’s Prison Population 2007-2011” report, which anticipates that by 2011, federal and state prison populations will climb by more than 192,000 new inmates.

CCA’s 67 facilities are concentrated throughout Texas, Arizona, Florida, Tennessee, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Georgia, Washington, D.C., Montana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Louisiana.

Other companies which utilize prison labor, according to The Mandala Project’s 2001 web posting, “U.S. Prison Labor at Home and Abroad,” include: MicroJet, Nike, Lockhart Technologies, Inc., TWA, Dell Computers, Microsoft, Eddie Bauer, Planet Hollywood, Wilson Sporting Goods, J.C. Penney, Victoria’s Secret, Best Western Hotels, Honda, K-Mart, Target, McDonald’s, Burger King, “Prison Blues” jeans line, New York, New York Hotel/Casino, Imperial Palace Hotel/Casino, “No Fear” Clothing Line, C.M.T. Blues, Konica, Allstate, Merrill Lynch, Shearson Lehman, Louisiana Pacific, Parke-Davis and Upjohn.

In 1934, Congress established the Federal Prison Industries (FPI), trade named UNICOR, to employ and provide job training to inmates within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, requiring those medically able to work for 12 to 40 cents per hour for institution work assignments, and 23 cents to $1.15 for work in UNICOR factories.

In 2005, it generated $765 million in sales from its 106 factories. And as of last September, its highest net sales in electronics at $233.2 million, derived from 3,348 inmate workers throughout Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, New York, Wisconsin, Arizona and Minnesota.

UNICOR’s customers include the Department of Defense, General Services Administration, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Social Security Administration, Department of Justice, United States Postal Service, Department of Transportation, Department of the Treasury, Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Minister Abdullah Muhammad, Nation of Islam National Prison Reform Minister, noted that some companies which use prison labor deny released inmates the very jobs that they hold behind bars due to felony convictions, or stigmas of imprisonment. He said that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s warnings of government conspiracies to herd them there are in the scriptures.

During his Easter Sunday lecture on Apr. 8, entitled “The War of Armageddon: How strong is the Foundation; can we survive?” Min. Farrakhan specifically stated why Blacks must consider separation as the only solution to their problem. “...the Constitution of the United States, the 13th Amendment—it lets us out of chattel slavery, but it says if we are guilty of a criminal offense, we can be put back into involuntary servitude and right now, they are herding our young people into a life of crime,” he stated.

Min. Farrakhan continued that the lack of jobs foster drug selling or other illegal ventures that draw arrests and felony charges, which lead to coerced guilty pleas and felony convictions. “There are 55 jobs that you can’t have with a felony, and the most important thing is you will not be allowed to vote so that your power is diminished and it’s done on purpose,” he said, continuing that separation must be seriously considered. “We must go to the government and say ‘We’ve given you 150 years up from slavery and you have not done right by us. So, in order to preserve or protect a future for us, we have to leave you—but we want a good send off. If we’re united, don’t you think you can’t get what God Himself has already ordered?”

Pratap Chatterjee, Program Director and Managing Editor of CorpWatch, an organization which investigates and exposes corporate violations of human rights, environmental crimes, fraud and corruption around the world, positions that the problem is corporate greed, not prison labor.

“In my opinion, it’s not a bad thing that prisoners get work, whether it’s from government or private corporations; but what is outrageous is that they are paid incredibly poor wages, less than you would in third world countries. These people are doing an honest day’s work and however you may judge them, they should still be paid for their labor’s worth,” he stated.

Mr. Chatterjee said that government permits the menial wages, thereby fostering a negative economic impact to society. “The less jobs there are, the more crime you’re going to have, and the more prisons you’re going to need, but that’s not really solving problems, because prison jobs are pennies on the dollar, which is outrageous; when there are no more jobs in town, one’s only choice is being a prison guard or a prisoner,” he added.

Paul Wright, spokesperson of Prison Legal News, an independent publication which highlights prisoners’ human rights, labeled corporations’ profits from prison workers slavery labor at the hands of a vulnerable population. He insists that a lack of employment, which drives crime, coupled with the formation of private prisons, present a perverse incentive for government to lock people up and would hinder any chance of halting mass imprisonment.

“What if every person was a factory and generating money; what’s the incentive to cut people loose, to not criminalize and to rehabilitate behavior?” he said.

Attorney Elizabeth Alexander, Director of the National Prison Project for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that the corrections system is out of control and its political and economical effects on the country as a whole is tremendous.

“If people in corrections were a city, it would be the fourth largest one in the country,” she said.

This is why the call of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to establish the Nine Ministries at the 10th Anniversary Commemoration of the Million Man March/Millions More Movement on October 15, 2005 was so timely. He urged the Movement to establish a Ministry of Justice (which includes Prison Reform) to see that the Black, poor and Indigenous communities are not deprived of justice. The Prison Industrial Complex, with its emerging privatized prison business that denies inmates a fair wage and protection of their constitutional rights, must be corrected.

We must get busy.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3440.shtml

[Joanne98]

1. Minister Louis Farrakhan to establish the Nine Ministries at the 10th Anniversary Commemoration of

This is why the call of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to establish the Nine Ministries at the 10th Anniversary Commemoration of the Million Man March/Millions More Movement on October 15, 2005 was so timely. He urged the Movement to establish a Ministry of Justice (which includes Prison Reform) to see that the Black, poor and Indigenous communities are not deprived of justice. The Prison Industrial Complex, with its emerging privatized prison business that denies inmates a fair wage and protection of their constitutional rights, must be corrected.

We must get busy.

I think the "ministry of justice" is a good idea.

[stillcool]

3. I came across this article today...

that summed up what I've been reading about this quite nicely...

PAY YOUR MONEY, TAKE YOUR CHANCE
As long as we refuse to protect ourselves and each other, we are
at the mercy of a legal system whose very business is crime, and a
lucrative business it is. By this point in history, all but the
most naive of us have stopped expecting cops, public or private,
to all behave like Boy Scouts. There has been simply too much hard
evidence to the contrary. In that murky gray zone where law
enforcement overlaps with organized crime, an underground empire
has arisen. It is a world where the so-called "War on Drugs" is
often a war on rival drug dealers, and always a war on the poor.
It is a world where "national security," excuses war crimes and
genocide is a commodity. It is a world where justice is for sale
and cops are for rent. Cops, rent-a-cops in particular, vary
widely in quality.

A family business, Wackenhut Corp. was founded in 1954 by a one
time FBI man George R. Wackenhut. His son Richard, a Citadel
graduate, is president and CEO. The immediate family hold over 50%
of the stock The rest is divided among just 1100 stockholders.
Wackenhut stock is traded on the New York Stock exchange. Buy a
share, and you will receive a fascinating brochure. The company's
revenue has grown from just $300,000 in 1958 to nearly half a
billion today. It is one of the largest private security firms in
existence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The growing privatization of the ever expanding prison industry
places ever greater demands on the public for "raw material."
Wackenhut operates 10 detention or correctional facilities in
seven states that house 3,456 inmates. It's first facility, a
federal Immigration and Naturalization Services detention center,
opened in 1987. Within two years the correctional business
generated about $25 million of Wackenhut's $462 million in 1989
revenue This is according to company spokesman, not independent
auditors. Robert Hennelly reported in the Village Voice that
Wackenhut is also developing and marketing electronic systems for
tracking prisoners under house arrest for local, state, and
federal authorities.

Never in my life did I even imagine that one day I would be
sticking up for a screw, but by golly there folks, this Doyle guy
is right, at least as far as he goes. If we the public want to be
perceived as members of a just society we can't buy justice from
any body, least of all the lowest bidder. It makes us look real
bad. It also aint justice. If we want actual justice, and not just
the perception, we have to participate in the process. History has
proven conclusively that prisons are no solution to the problem of
crime. If they were, it would have happened by now. Only a
complete restructuring of society can even begin to address the
problem. The problem of crime is structural. Victimless crimes are
nothing more than a cash cow for the state. Crimes against
property are political offenses, and almost always the result of
drug prohibition. There's also the ever sticky problem of
definition of property. The sanctity of personal property is
respected near universally. Public property and private property
are a little harder to define, at least without sufficient arms.
This leaves violent crime, a tiny minority of all crimes. Violent
criminals should not be imprisoned, per se, but offered asylum, on
a purely voluntary basis of course, where they could seek
treatment for their mental disorders, and protection from the rest
of us. If they decline asylum, kill 'em and be done with it. Don't
hire somebody. That's totally gutless. It doesn't work very well,
either. If it did, violence would have subsided by now. Do it
yourself. If you need help, don't hire; inspire. If you can't
inspire, you're living wrong; change. Don't oppose the death
penalty. The death penalty is good. Oppose its monopolization by
the state. The only truly effective defense against violence is
effective self defense. Collective self defense benefits from the
economy of scale. History has proven conclusively that courts,
prisons, and cops (both public and private), are useless. They
have failed, miserably, to cure the problem. In fact, they made it
worse, much worse. Worse still, they use the power we grant them
against us. Then they have the unmitigated gall to charge us money
for the service. Then they don't even deliver. How much worse does
it have to get before we wise up? It doesn't matter whether we
hire our cops through the private sector or the public sector,
they're still basically mercenaries. Machiavelli was right.
Mercenaries are useless.

We all have a practical as well as a moral duty to protect
ourselves and each other. Most of us still lack the skill. The
time to start learning has come and gone. While the practice of
hiring bumbling thugs to "protect" us has long withstood the test
of time, our freedom has not. It dwindles even as I speak. Neither
are we protected. Do you feel protected by the current system? Or
do you feel, like me, merely used? Can you foresee the situation
getting any better on its own? I sure can't, and I'm an inveterate
optimist. As we approach the increasingly corporate millennium, we
can look forward to life in a private prison that encompasses all
society and subjugates every moment of daily life: work, a prison
of measured time, and play, a supervised activity. For this we
sacrificed our freedom. For this, we even hire our own guards,
guards who work for money, not for us, guards who have their own
agenda. And a lot of them aren't even good at it, which is a mixed
blessing. They, themselves, are a curse.
This URL: http://www.pdxnorml.org/WACKEN.HUT.html

[Joanne98]

5. You know it would be worth it too buy a few shares in all these

prison companies to just get their brocheres. A Citadel graduate. Hmm.
You should record this in your journal!

[stillcool]

7. My mind has been blown by all this shit....

I was taken completely by surprise. I never expected government sanctioned slave labor. Silly me.

[Joanne98]

9. I know. It's a huge story that never gets reported...

[stillcool]

4. It is unfortunate..that in order to see...

what is and has been happening right under my nose, requires so much laborious reading. It is no wonder that so many are tangled up in the morass of 'issues'.

[Joanne98]

6. It gets better!

:grouphug:

[Joanne98]

2. kick

[stillcool]

8. a little add on of info...

The following short essay provides some insight into the activities of Wackenhut Corporation, the Guardians of the famous, restricted Area 51, and many other restricted areas within the US. Wackenhut Corporation has its roots dating back to 1954, when George Wackenhut and three other former special agents of the FBI formed a company in Miami called "Special Agent Investigators," to provide investigative services to business and industry. Success was such that a year later, in 1955, another company was formed to apply the same philosophy and approach to physical security problems. Three years later, in 1958, the two companies merged under the name of Wackenhut Corporation, in Florida. From the outset George Wackenhut was the President and the Chief Executive in the company. He established the headquarters in Coral Gables. By establishing a wholly-owned subsidiary, in the same year, Wackenhut managed to extend the operation of physical security to the United States Government. The "Wackenhut Services, Incorporated" was created to
comply with federal statutes prohibiting the government from contracting with companies which provide investigative or detective services.

In 1962, Wackenhut extended its operations from Florida to California and Hawaii. Four years later, on January 1, 1966, Wackenhut became an international company, with offices in Caracas, Venezuela, through half ownership of an affiliate. In the same year Wackenhut Corporation became public, and in 1967, floated its shares through the American Stock Exchange.vBy then Wackenhut had expanded through its subsidiaries to 20 strong companies, and its contracts expanded into several countries, and various territories. It was then the single, largest security and investigative firm.

In 1978, by acquisition of NUSAC, a Virginia firm providing technical and consulting services to the nuclear industry, Wackenhut launched into energy and environment management fields. A year later, in 1979, Wackenhut acquired Stellar Systems Incorporation. Stellar Systems Inc. specialised in outdoor electronic security. The main business objective of the company is to provide security and investigative services,
first to the US Government, and then to business, industry, and professional clients.

Through Wackenhut Electronics Systems Corporation, it develops and produces sophisticated computerized security systems to add further edge to its security based services. The major clients of the investigative arm of Wackenhut are the insurance industry and financial firms. They include insurance inspections, corporate acquisition surveys, personnel background reports, pre-employment screening, polygraph examinations, fraud and arson investigations.The wide array of services offered by Wackenhut Corporation includes guard and electronic security for banks, office buildings, apartments, and industrial complexes. Training programs in English and foreign languages apply Wackenhut procedures to individual client needs. It offers fire safety and protective patrols, rescue and first aid services, and emergency support programs tailored to labour-management disputes. Its pre-departure programmes are widely in use by airports and airlines.

With about 50,000 armed security guards, and 20,000 employees, plus over 100 offices and facilities spread across the US, extending to Canada, United Kingdom, Western Europe, the Middle East, Indonesia, central and South America and the Caribbean, Wackenhut is a fearsome force, and an implement to please the desires of its clients, especially the US Government.

The darker side of Wackenhut's ambitious enterprise is its direct involvement in illegal and black projects. In the early 1980s, Dr. John Nichols, the Cabazon tribal administrator, obtained a Department of Defense secret facility clearance for the reservation to conduct various research projects, approached Wackenhut, with a detailed joint-venture proposal to manufacture 120mm combustible cartridge cases, 9mm machine guns, laser-sighted assault weapons, snipe rifles, as well as portable rocket-launchers to be built on the Cabazon Indian Reservation, and in Latin America. Amongst these proposals were details to develop biological weapons.-----------------read more:
Some of Wackenhut's directors, past and present are:

John Ammarell - Former FBI Agent
Robert Chasen - Former FBI Agent
Clarence Kelly - Former FBI Director
Willis Hawkins - Former Assistant Secretary of the Army
Paul X. Kelly - Four star General (ret.), US Marine Corps
Seth McKee - Former Commander in Chief, NORAD
Bernard Schriever - Former member, President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board
Frank Carlucci - Former Defense Secretary, and former Deputy Director, CIA
Joseph Carroll - Former Director, Defense Intelligence Agency
James Rawley - Former Director, US Secret Service
Bobby Ray Inman - Former Director, NSA; Deputy Director, CIA; Director Office of Naval

Intelligence
http://www.american-buddha.com/wackenhut.crime.htm
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http://www.american-buddha.com/wackenhut.htm

[Joanne98]

10. Wow. American Buddha. I never heard of them.