Banking On Bondage Private Prisons & Mass Incarceration

This report has been a project of the ACLU National Prison Project and Center for Justice and was authored by David Shapiro (Staff Attorney, National Prison Project). First and foremost, the author would like to thank Mike Tartaglia (Paralegal, National Prison Project) for his many contributions to the report, and David Fathi (Director, National Prison Project) and Vanita Gupta (ACLU Deputy Legal Director) for their support of the project. Numerous individuals generously reviewed drafts or otherwise contributed their wisdom and insight, including Anjali Abraham, Rachel Bloom, Mike Brickner, Inimai Chettiar, Scott Crichton, Shakyra Diaz, Terence Dougherty, Marjorie Esman, Alex Friedmann, Jennifer Giuttari, Lisa Graybill, Judy Greene, Rachel Jordan, Bob Libal, Victoria Lopez, Will Matthews, Rachel Myers, Nila Natarajan, Stephen Pevar, Daniel Pochoda, Judy Rabinovitz, Chris Rickerd, Tom Stenson, Willa Tracosas, Jennifer Wedekind, Margaret Winter, and Paul Wright.

Judge Stops Florida’s Plan to Privatize 29 State Prisons

By: Lizette Alvarez
New York Times
The ruling by the judge, Jackie L. Fulford, stops the state’s plan to privatize the prisons, which was expected to begin early next year. Nearly 4,000 correction workers were expected to lose their jobs or be transferred.

Cesar Chavez Shows His Papers; So Does Jan Brewer

By: Robert Illes
Valley Dems United News Letter
I was going to talk about Cesar Chavez had he lived to see the advent of Arizona’s AB 1070, and its not so thinly veiled demonization of “illegal immigrants”, or those among us who might be, walking around brown like some people do. I would imagine Chavez would have felt compelled to mobilize Latinos in Arizona: rousing them to get out and protest en masse (along with civil liberties allies of all colors, and whoever are the Bobby Kennedys of today), and, just as important, rousing them to vote – also en masse.

What's Costlier Than A Government Run Prison? A Private One

By: D.M. Levine
FORTUNE
In recent years, the trend toward privatization, both among state governments and at the federal level has been part of an attempt to address serious budget troubles and crisis-level prison overcrowding by outsourcing more and more corrections operations to private companies.
The move has translated into big business for industry leaders like Corrections Corporation of America (CXW), The Geo Group (GEO) and Cornell Companies, Inc. (CRN) (just last week, The Geo Group and Cornell finalized a merger valued at $730 million).

Is Slavery Legal In America?

Clint Richardson
(realitybloger.wordpress.com)
While one might be shocked at the presentation of such a question about such a historically controversial subject, one might also not be worse off to simply read their Constitution of the United States…

Let’s have a look at the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Private Prison Industry Had Heavy Hand in Drafting and Passing Arizona’s S.B. 1070

Peter Phillips
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.

Schwarzenegger's budget plan puts unions in the cross-hairs

Los Angeles Times
By Shane Goldmacher
Reporting From Sacramento
His proposal to privatize prisons, curtail teachers' seniority protections and reduce the number of in home care workers would be major blows to powerful labor interests. They're girding for a fight.

No Escape From Debt by Selling Jails

guardian.co.uk
By: Sasha Abramsky
Arizona's plan to sell prisons to the highest bidder is a leap back in time for correctional thinking, and a recipe for fiscal disaster.
Here's an idea: sell off our prisons to the highest bidders, reap a pile of short term cash to inflate near-emoty state coffers, then lease back the prisons for 20 years at a cost to the state that far exceeds the original purchase price paid by the companies.

Former Willacy DA Guerra files lawsuit

Valley Central.Com
By: Sergio Chapa
Former Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra has filed a federal law suit against Texas State Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. and 28 others. The former district attorney alleges that Lucio and the others used their positions to derail investigation into private prisons in Willacy County.

Crowley County prison operator to pay $1.3 million in settling sex-harassment lawsuit

The Denver Post
By: Felisa Cardona

Private prison reaches $1.3M settlement with EEOC

Denver
Associated Press

Private prisons wrong answer for budget woes

East Valley Tribune
Commentary By: Bill Richardson
Two weeks ago, Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law House Bill 2010, which starts the bidding process to turn over Arizona Department of Corrections prisons, including maximum security facilities, to a private corporation in the name of cutting costs and generating revenue. Brewer previously vetoed the private prison bill in July. The private prison industry stands to make lots of money while the state gets some quick cash, but at what cost to us?
The pitch for private prisons is they save money. But according to a Dec. 6, 2007, Tribune commentary titled "Private jails not the answer," by Gerald Sheridan, the sheriff's office's chief of custody, "The National Council on Crime and Delinquency conducted a review of privatization and found the average cost savings was about 1 percent, usually through lower labor costs. Cost benefits of privatization have not materialized to the extent promised. Government bears the burden of administering punishment and this responsibility should not be delegated to a for-profit company."

Private Prisons keep On Growing

By: Matt kelley
Change.Org /Criminal Justice
The GEO Group, America’s second-largest private prison operator, announced yesterday that it had acquired a smaller prison operator, Just Care Inc., and raised its expected profits for the year ahead. It’s good to see that at least somebody likes the way our criminal justice is going. GEO incarcerates 60,000 people around the world, and it's showing no signs of slowing. And GEO’s not the only one expanding as quickly as possible to profit off our crowded prisons. An analyst at Seeking Alpha recently looked at the stock of Corrections Corporation of America (the biggest in the U.S.), and found the company growing like gangbusters and its financial outlook extremely strong, writing (apparently with a straight face) that CCA is “uniquely positioned to offer governments an efficient incarceration solution.” I was glad to see some commentors on the site let the author have it. The comments come from both sides, however, and they’re worth a read for a glimpse at how both sides (at an investment website) view the morality of private prisons.

Corrections Budget Cuts Take Effect In Colorado

P. SOLOMON BANDA, Associated Press Writer
Colorado & Denver News
The cuts that took effect Tuesday call for the release of 3,500 of the 23,000 inmates over two years, saving the state about $45 million, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said. An additional 2,600 parolees, or 21 percent of those currently on parole, will be released from intense supervision. Prisoners eligible for early release are those within six months of their mandatory release date. Those eligible for early parole release must have served at least half of their supervised term. "Predominantly, it's nonviolent offenders," Adams County Attorney Don Quick, a member of the commission, said about the types of inmates considered for early release. No staff members are being cut. Money will be saved by reducing the number of inmates sent to private prisons, Sanguinetti said.

Private Prison Concerns

NEWS OK.COM
By: State Representative Richard Morrissette
POINT OF VIEW: PREVENTION SHOULD BE PRIORITY
I have several concerns with private prisons. First, they are in the business of profiting from other people’s misery and their motive is not to find alternatives to incarceration but to lock up more people. But the fundamental problem I have with privatization is based in the law.

Legislators ask Beshear to end private prison contract

Courier-Journal.Com
By: Stephenie Steitzer
FRANKFORT, Ky. — House Speaker Greg Stumbo and eight other legislators sent letters Friday to Gov. Steve Beshear asking him to end the state's contract at a private women's prison in Eastern Kentucky that has been plagued by allegations of sexual assaults by corrections officers.

Private Prisons, Indeed A Laughing Matter

By: Bill Maher
"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."

Sanctions Against The GEO Group Sought

By: Emma Perez-Trevino
The Brownsville Herald
An appellate court is weighing claims against The GEO Group, formerly known as Wackenhut Corrections Corp., to determine if the private prison business lied when it claimed to have been exonerated of any responsibility in the beating death of an inmate and if it should be sanctioned.

Operator Of Private New Mexico Prison Sued By 7 Inmates

• Deborah Baker, Associated Press Writer

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the operator of New Mexico's newest private prison on behalf of seven inmates. The inmates claim their constitutional rights were violated during a December incident at the prison in Clayton run by Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO Group Inc.

A NATION OF JAILERS

ROGER HOLLANDER
this article presents us with the shameful data on imprisonment in the US and points to the racism and social dimension that gives context to the problem. For that reason alone it is worth reading. What the author omits, however, is too important to ignore: the prison-industrial complex. Among other things, privatization of incarceration centers has led to massive use of solitary confinement and other forms of human rights abuses that have further contaminated a penal system that was already overwhelmingly skewed towards punishment and vengeance over rehabilitation. The inherent justice between capital and labor that is the very essence of capitalist democracy (or state capitalism calling itself socialism) is magnified to the nth degree in our prisons, where the use of human beings literally as slave labor for the benefit of private capital is endemic. Capitalist relationships are by nature anti-human (things treated like people, people treated like things); and this is no more better demonstrated in the appaling and disgraceful penal system which makes the phrase “criminal justice” nothing more than an oxymoron)