Our $39 Billion Incarceration Epidemic Explained in One Infographic

Started by Tara May 29, 2014. 0 Replies 2 Favorites

If someone asks you what America does better than the rest of the world, a few things may come quickly to mind: high tech, entertainment, energy and fast food, for example. But there's another answer that's less cheery: The U.S. leads the world in imprisoning people. For petty crime, drug offenses or violence, no other nation in the world puts more people per capita behind bars than we do. When you add up federal, state and local prisons, immigration detention centers, juvenile facilities, military prisons, and Native American-run facilities, the U.S. has 2.4 million people locked up, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. For perspective, that's 1.5 times as many people per capita as the Russian Federation imprisons. States take the biggest haul, with 1.4 million prisoners, followed by local jails and, bringing up the rear, the federal government.…Continue

Tags: epidemic, US, incarceration, complex, industrial

The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?

Started by truth. Last reply by Ra Jan 5, 2014. 3 Replies 1 Favorite

By Vicky PelaezHuman 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…Continue

The American prison system is so massive that its estimated turnover of $74 billion eclipses the GDP of 133 nations.

Started by truth Jun 20, 2013. 0 Replies 1 Favorite

The American prison system is so massive that its estimated turnover of $74 billion eclipses the GDP of 133 nations.Thursday, June 20, 2013 4:45 PMThe American prison system is massive. So massive that its estimated turnover of $74 billion eclipses the GDP of 133 nations. What is perhaps most unsettling about this fun fact is that it is the American taxpayer who foots the bill, and is increasingly padding the pockets of publicly traded corporations like Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group. Combined both companies generated over $2.53 billion in revenue in 2012, and represent more than half of the private prison business. So what exactly makes the business of incarcerating Americans so lucrative? http://xrepublic.tv/node/3882Continue

Detained immigrants released; officials cite sequester cuts

Started by Central Scrutinizer Feb 26, 2013. 0 Replies 0 Favorites

'SEQUESTRATION' LIBERATION Detained immigrants released; officials cite sequester cutsImmigration officials announced the release of hundreds of detained immigrants Tuesday. (John Moore / Getty Images / February 26, 2013)By Kathleen HennesseyFebruary 26, 2013, 1:47 p.m.WASHINGTON -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have released “several hundred” immigrants from deportation centers across the country, saying the move is an effort to cut costs ahead of budget cuts due to hit later this week. Announcing the news Tuesday, ICE officials said that the immigrants were released under supervision and continue to face deportation. After reviewing hundreds of cases, those released were considered low-risk and “noncriminal,” officials said. The…Continue

Profiting From Human Misery... 'The United States, from 1970 to 2005, increased its prison population by about 700 percent'

Started by Tara Feb 18, 2013. 0 Replies 3 Favorites

By Chris HedgesMarela, an undocumented immigrant in her 40s, stood outside the Elizabeth Detention Center in Elizabeth, N.J., on a chilly afternoon last week. She was there with a group of protesters who appear at the facility’s gates every year on Ash Wednesday to decry the nation’s immigration policy and conditions inside the center. She was there, she said, because of her friend Evelyn Obey.Obey, 40, a Guatemalan and the single mother of a 12-year-old and a 6-year-old, was picked up in an immigration raid as she and nine other undocumented workers walked out of an office building they cleaned in Newark, N.J. Her two children instantly lost their only parent. She languished in detention. Another family took in the children, who never saw their mother again. Obey died in jail in 2010 from, according to the sign Villar had hung on her neck, “pulmonary thromboembolism, chronic bronchiolitis and emphysema and remote cardiac Ischemic…Continue

Tags: for-profit-prisons, ACLU, population, prisons, prison-industrial-complex

Woman Imprisoned for Life for Minor Drug Offense; Banking Giant Immune to Justice for Massive Drug Laundering

Started by Tara. Last reply by J. Patriot Dec 19, 2012. 1 Reply 2 Favorites

Glenn Greenwald: Woman Imprisoned for Life for Minor Drug Offense; Banking Giant Immune to Justice for Massive Drug LaunderingJustice is dead in America.December 17, 2012  |  Asia-focused bank HSBC said on Tuesday it would pay US authorities a record $1.92 billion to settle allegations of money laundering that were said to have helped Mexican drug cartels, terrorists and Iran.Like this article?Join our email list:Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email.The US is the world's largest prison state, imprisoning more of its citizens than any nation on earth, both in  absolute numbers andproportionally. It imprisons people for longer periods of time, more mercilessly, and for more trivial transgressions …Continue

Tags: laundering, injustice, banks, prohibition, drug

The Prison System Expands at Frightening Pace Following Declaration of War on Drugs

Started by truth Oct 30, 2012. 0 Replies 0 Favorites

Sean Kerrigan, Contributor Activist PostIn the early 1970s, the prison population in the United States was small and was steadily falling relative to the size of the population. Experts imagined that in a few decades, the prison system as we know it could be successfully dismantled, but that began to change after President Nixon began the War on Drugs in 1971, resulting in a huge influx of convicts.The massive increase in prisoners has given rise to what some call the Prison Industrial Complex. Like its cousin, the Military Industrial Complex, government policy and spending continues to make private involvement in the prison system very lucrative. Taxpayer money is transferrehttp://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/the-prison-system-runs-amok-expands-at.htmlContinue

Brad Pitt's New Docu: Prison Industrial Complex (Makers Of Why We Fight)

Started by truth Oct 23, 2012. 0 Replies 1 Favorite

The House I Live In Official Trailer #1 (2012) Drugs Documentary Movie As America remains embroiled in conflict overseas, a less visible war is taking place at home, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. Over forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer, and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Filmed in more than twenty states, The House I Live In captures heart-wrenching stories from individuals at all levels of America’s War on Drugs. From the dealer to the grieving mother, the narcotics officer to the senator, the inmate to the federal judge, the film offers a penetrating look inside America’s longest war, offering a definitive portrait and revealing its profound human rights implications.While recognizing the seriousness of drug abuse as a…Continue

Tags: Of, (Makers, Why, We, Fight)

Amnesty International Denounces Torture in California Prisons --An interview with Tessa Murphy

Started by Justin A Horne Oct 22, 2012. 0 Replies 1 Favorite

“California Department of Corrections/PBSP-SHU policies and practices, have violated our human rights and subjected us to torture – for the purpose of coercing inmates into becoming informants against other inmates, etc., for the state,” writes one prisoner held in solitary at California’s infamous supermax Pelican Bay State Prison. This excerpt of his letter to the internationally renowned human rights organization, Amnesty International, is featured in Amnesty’s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement inside California’s ‘Security Housing Units’ (SHUs), entitled The Edge of Endurance: Conditions in California’s Security Housing Units.Read More HereContinue

Private Prison Management Company Offering To Buy Prisons For 90% Occupancy Rate

Started by Tara. Last reply by Tara Sep 13, 2012. 3 Replies 2 Favorites

Private purchasing of prisons locks in occupancy rates By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAYWASHINGTON – At a time when states are struggling to reduce bloated prison populations and tight budgets, a private prison management company is offering to buy prisons in exchange for various considerations, including a controversial guarantee that the governments maintain a 90% occupancy rate for at least 20 years.The $250 million proposal, circulated by the Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America to prison officials in 48 states, has been blasted by some state officials who suggest such a program could pressure criminal justice officials to seek harsher sentences to maintain the contractually required occupancy rates."You don't want a prison system operating with the goal of maximizing profits," says Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat and advocate for reducing prison populations through less costly diversion programs. "The only thing worse is that this seeks to take…Continue

Tags: NWO, complex, industrial, private, prisons