Vision Without Action Is A Daydream. Action Without Vision A Nightmare.
The National Public Service Council To Abolish Private Prisons made a concerted effort when choosing its name to erase any possibility of ambiguity regarding who we are and our mission statement. It is our unwavering organizational belief that as long as our government permits Private Prisons For Profit to operate as legal businesses, the American Criminal Justice System, in particular, will never have the capacity to develop -in theory or otherwise- a credibility that the people of this great nation can respect and feel morally comfortable with. This is not a complicated matter. In spite of the endless assortment of political debates and the countless number of discussions among independent committees appointed to research and examine the economic pros and cons of privatization, and in spite of all the "other" arguments created by design, to distract, divide, frighten and confuse the citizens of this country and prevent them from using humane common sense, one cannot ignore or pretend not to see the flashing red flag draped around the philosophical question standing at attention in the middle of the room. Arguably, the criminal justice system is not designed to be a "moral compass." However, it cannot ignore or deny the inherent components at the core of its foundation: equality, fairness, and the humane practice of justice. These are more than lofty concepts to be arbitrarily applied when convenience allows. Our justice system must offer unequivocal, resplendent and reliable standards of "right and wrong" ..."just and unjust" because the people cannot respect or pledge an allegiance to a justice system that fails to demonstrate the difference between "right and wrong" in its own application. The inherent and most fundamental responsibility of the criminal justice system cannot be shirked, avoided, taken lightly or "jobbed out." Like it or not, when an institution is the definitive symbol representing authority and judicial proceeding, your function must reflect a fundamental fairness, and above all else, it must be accountable to all of its citizens. If ever there was a reason for second guessing the process or the ability of the United States Government (Federal & State) to perform its duty when addressing the important task of corrections and rehabilitation in the criminal justice system, the cornerstone of that uncertainty sits squarely upon the shoulders that permit private prisons for profit to operate in the United States of America. Clearly, this immoral profit driven system is without parallel in its resemblance to the most heinous institution to ever exist upon American soil. Slavery.
Aristotle wrote, "It is the peculiarity of man, in comparison with the rest of the animal world that he alone possesses a perception of good and evil, of the just and the unjust"
INCARCERATING PEOPLE FOR PROFIT IS IN A WORD WRONG
All law emanates from the people, so that, when the laws thus enacted are not executed, the power returns to the people, and is theirs whenever they may choose to exercise it.
We are mindful that the Supreme Court is the final interpreter of the constitution...we are also mindful that the federal and state correctional facilities originate from government design and, therefore, must be regulated and maintained by the government.
We must restore the principles and the vacated promise of our judicial system. Our government cannot continue to "job-out" its obligation and neglect its duty to the individuals confined in the corrections and rehabilitation facilities throughout this nation, nor can it ignore the will of the people that it was designed to serve and protect.
There is urgent need for the good people of this country to emerge from the shadows of indifference, apathy, cynicism, fear, and those other dark places that we migrate to when we are overwhelmed by frustration and the loss of hope.
My hope is that you will support the NPSCTAPP with a show of solidarity by signing our petition to send one million signatures to congress expressing the will of the people to abolish the private prison for profit industry. Ahma Daeus
--Ahma Daeus
"Practicing Humanity Without A License"
Man In The Mirror
Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/13judge.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Judge Ciavarella was unusually harsh. He sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a state rate of 1 in 10. He also routinely ignored requests for leniency made by prosecutors and probation officers.
“The juvenile system, by design, is intended to be a less punitive system than the adult system, and yet here were scores of children with very minor infractions having their lives ruined,” said Marsha Levick, a lawyer with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center.
“There was a culture of intimidation surrounding this judge and no one was willing to speak up about the sentences he was handing down.”
Private Prison Industry Had Heavy Hand in Drafting and Passing Arizona’s S.B. 1070
The Daily Censored: World News,
An investigative report released this month by In These Times details how Arizona’s anti-immigrant S.B. 1070 law not only promises dramatic financial benefits for the private prison industry, but that lobbyists and administrators working for private prison corporations such as Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group, played substantial parts in drafting and ensuring the passage of the bill.
Freedom Forum CEO Tied to For-Profit Prisons
Charles Overby has a foot planted firmly in two very different worlds. In one, he is a champion of the free press. In the other, he is part of a group at the helm of a corporation that has worked hard to limit freedom of information and the ability of the press to inform the public. In one world, Overby is chief executive officer of the Freedom Forum, a foundation created by former USA Today publisher Al Neuharth, and its Newseum-located on Pennsylvania Avenue, blocks from the Smithsonian and the Capitol, and which literally has the First Amendment etched onto its 75-foot marble edifice. He is a Pulitzer Prize winning editor and reporter, former vice president of news and communications for Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper chain, and former management committee member of both Gannett and its flagshi paper USA Today.
What Overby's Freedom Forum biography does not disclose is that since 20o1, he's been a director of the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) This omission is easy to understand when you juxtapose the Freedom Forum's guiding principles- "free speech, free press and free spirit" -against CCA'S recent actions and attitudes toward the press and freedom of information.
CCA, the nations's largest private jailer (holding more than 70,000 prisoners in over 60 facilities, and taking in $1.6 billion in revenue for 2008) spent millions of dollars from 2007 to 2009 successfully lobbying against two bills: the Public Safety Act of 2007 (which would outlaw private prisons) and the Private Prison Information Act of 2007. As no hearing was ever held on the Public Safety Act, it's likely that the bulk of these resources went to suppress the PPIA.
OUR VIEW: Profit prisons die in recession
Colorado Springs, The Gazette
The economic drain of for-profit cages
The prisoner is to a private prison corporation what a broken window is to a glazier: a source of cash. What’s good for the glazier is not good for society. What’s good for the Corrections Corporation of America, the largest prison business in the country, is not good for society. Anyone involved in the criminal justice system should be in the business of reducing crime, and thus the prison population. We must reward government employees for finding ways to reduce recidivism by reforming those prisoners capable of reform. Private prison investors, however, receive no reward unless crime and recidivism flourish. Prudential Securities acknowledged this in a report to investors in the 1990s, when Corrections Corporation of America was growing aggressively: “It takes time to bring inmate population levels up to where they cover costs,” the report sated. “Low occupancy is a drag on profits... company earnings would be strong if CCA succeeded in ramping up population levels in its new facilities at an acceptable rate.”
Hawaii to Remove Inmates Over Abuse Charges
By Ian Urbina
Hawaii prison officials said Tuesday that all of the state’s 168 female inmates at a privately run Kentucky prison will be removed by the end of September because of charges of sexual abuse by guards. Forty inmates were returned to Hawaii on Aug. 17. This month, officials from the Hawaii Department of Public Safety traveled to Kentucky to investigate accusations that inmates at the prison, the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, including seven from Hawaii, had been sexually assaulted by the prison staff.
Tennessee appeals court rules that public records laws apply to CCA
Prisons run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America perform a government function and must follow public records laws, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled. The prison giant appealed the ruling issued last year by Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, who ruled that the corporation was the functional equivalent of government and that its administrators must turn over all records requested by prison reform advocate Alex Friedmann.
U.S. to Reform Policy on Detention for Immigrants
New York Times
Details are sketchy, and even the first steps will take months or years to complete. They include reviewing the federal government’s contracts with more than 350 local jails and private prisons, with an eye toward consolidating many detainees in places more suitable for noncriminals facing deportation — some possibly in centers built and run by the government.
Private Prisons, Indeed A Laughing Matter
"Prisons used to be a non-profit business, too. And for good reason -- who the hell wants to own a prison? By definition you're going to have trouble with the tenants. But now prisons are big business. A company called the Corrections Corporation of America is on the New York Stock Exchange, which is convenient since that's where all the real crime is happening anyway. The CCA and similar corporations actually lobby Congress for stiffer sentencing laws so they can lock more people up and make more money. That's why America has the world's largest prison population -- because actually rehabilitating people would have a negative impact on the bottom line."
Immigration detention center ready for inmates
GAINESVILLETIMES.COM
Former county jail could house first detainees soon
Officials with the Corrections Corp. of America were purposely vague on when exactly the recently-renamed North Georgia Detention Center would begin taking in federal immigration detainees, citing security concerns.
2 Hawaii Females Allege Sexual Assault at Kentucky Prison
Advertiser Staff Writer
Accusations Are Not The First at Otter Creek Facility In Kentucky
Two female inmates from Hawaii allege they were sexually assaulted by one or more corrections officers at a Kentucky prison, and police are investigating one of the incidents. Honolulu attorney
Myles Breiner said he is representing the two women, who allege the sexuall assaults took place while they were in isolation in a medical unit at the Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright Kentucky.
UNSTRUCTURED FINANCE "The Financing of Detention"
Business Week
The private prison industry has moved its sights, from bread and butter incarceration, to the new gold rush: immigrant detention. You might have thought that a seemingly left-leaning Obama administration would shut off the spigot of government dollars flowing to private prison contractors, especially given the spotty track record many of these firms have. But Obama is actually upping the ante, by funding a newly minted project called “Secure Communities.” This immigration policy started in December is based around databases. It deputizes local law enforcement to run a federal back-ground check on any local arrests. The aim is to target immigrants with serious crimes on their record, and deport them.
Florida Legislature gives OK to ship inmates out of state
Sending criminals to out-of-state prisons is a 'safety valve' for Florida's overpopulated prisons.
TALLAHASSEE -- Florida, famous for shipping orange juice all over the country, may yet be known for a very different kind of export: criminals.
With the inmate population hovering around 100,000 and the state lacking money to build new prisons, the Legislature has given the corrections department the authority to ship inmates to other states for the first time.
''It's a safety valve,'' says the plan's sponsor, Sen. Victor Crist, a Tampa Republican who oversees prison spending. ``This is not a mandate. It's a passive safety net.''
Alabama Moving Inmates
Alabama's prison commissioner says the state will remove about 250 inmates from the private prison where two men recently escaped amid a string of security failures. However, Corrections Commissioner Richard Allen said Monday that money - not the threat of additional escapes - was behind the decision.
Private Prison Companies Happy with Obama
The nation's two biggest private prison management companies are pretty happy with the signs they're seeing from the new President.
A column in The American Prospect this week by Business of Detention co-authors Renee Feltz and Stokely Baksh reviews the massive expansion of immigrant detention under the Bush Administration and questions whether President Obama is committed to changing things.
THE THRIVING FEAR BASED PRISON / INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
While the nation flounders economically a for-profit prison firm, The GEO Group Inc, rakes in millions from the US Government detaining undocumented immigrants and other federal inmates amid increasing charges of negligence, civil rights violations, abuse and even death: Allen L Roland
CCA Faces Scrutiny After Man Dies In Jail
Terry Battle, 55, suffered from hepatitis C, hypertension, gastroenteritis and blindness when he was in the custody of Corrections Corporation of America beginning in March 2007, his autopsy showed. Guards found him unresponsive in his cell June 3, a day after he'd been to see the prison doctor for a bout of diarrhea. The medical examiner said the cause of death was pneumonia.
Guerra Reveals Evidence
Profits Soar for Private Prisons
Private prison companies aren’t worried that the Democratic Party sweep will mean that fewer immigrants are sent their way because of party promises of enacting comprehensive immigration reform. GEO Group’s chairman George Zoley on Nov. 3 assured investors: “These federal initiatives to target, detain and deport criminal aliens throughout the country will continue to drive the need for immigration detention beds over the next several years and these initiatives have been fully funded by Congress on a bipartisan basis.”
The Case for Fraud: our “prison industry”
Officer at Bay County Correctional Facility Arrested
Nye County Tries To Ease CCA Concerns So The Big Payoffs Can Get Bigger
A new 50-page development agreement for the proposed federal detention center specifically defines the type of inmates who will be confined and asks Corrections Corporation of America for more annual instead of one-time contributions.
Click The Cage To Read "Silja Tavi's" Compelling "Women Behind Bars"
Jailed Moms Earn Time To Bond With Their Kids
Strength To Love
BOSTON LEGAL'S "GUARDIANS AND GATEKEEPERS"
CHECK OUT THE CR10 VIDEO
http://vidsearch.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26210031
Ahma Daeus' Favorite Quotes
- "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable" JOHN F. KENNEDY
- "We must be the change we want to see in the world".........GANDHI
- "We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies".... M.L. KING JR.
- "Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty, the obedient must be slaves"
- "The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free"..... HENRY DAVID THOREAU
- "The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear" ................AUNG SAN SUU KYI
- "When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, it becomes less & less important whether I am afraid"................... AUDRE LORDE
- "The function of freedom Is to free someone else".............TONI MORRISON
Links We Recommend
- ARC
- Ella Baker
- Provisions
- Van Jones
- Hard2Hire
- Just Seeds
- Sister Song
- Prison Talk
- Openureyes
- Justice Now
- U.S. Congress
- Injustice Line
- Lee Gaylord
- Prison Activist
- Simple Justice
- Thousand Kites
- The Situationist
- Dissident Voice
- Why I Hate CCA
- All Of Us Or None
- Educate-Yourself
- Prison Legal News
- Critical Resistance
- Grits For Breakfast
- Women And Prison
- Books Through bars
- Women Behind Bars
- United States Senate
- Justice Reinvestment
- Convict Criminology
- Texas Prison Bid'ness
- Prison Policy Institute
- Grass Roots Leadership
- Prisoners With Children
- The Innocence Project
- The Sentencing Project
- People Against Injustice
- The November Coalition
- Slavery By Another Name
- Prison Moratorium Project
- Penal Reform International
- Write Your Representative
- The Justice Policy Institute
- Private Corrections Institute
- Peoples Law Office (Chicago)
- Prison Law Office (California)
- The Real Price of Prisons Site
- The Media Awareness Project
- Citizens Against Recidivism, Inc
- Criminal justice Policy Coalition
- The Real Cost Of Prisons Project
- The Private Corrections Institute
- Death Penalty Information Center
- The Council On Crime And Justice
- Abolish Prisons Social Justice Wiki
- Human Rights Watch Prison Project
- Yeshua's Second Chance Foundation
- iAbolish "American Antislavery Group"
- The Public Eye (Political Research Assoc.)
- Legal Services for Prisoners with Children
- Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition
- The Center On Juvenile And Criminal Justice
- The Coalition For Higher Education Act Reform
- FACTS: Families To Amend California's Three Strikes
- Architects/Designers/Planners For Social Responsibility
- Rights for Imprisoned People with Psychiatric Disabilities
- The Project On Law & Mind Sciences - Harvard Law School
- Informational Resources On The Second Chance Act of 2005
- California Crime Victims for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
