The United States “Prison Industrial Complex”
Regarding my second book "The Real Promised Land" (This book was published in January 2000) - I made only about 50 copies of that book and sent a copy to a very select number of people including Louis Farrakhan, and other influential people.
It is a very controversial book in many ways. I have a chapter about 80 pages long with a full detail of the American prison system. I talk about the US government paying reparation to the black population in relation to slavery, and much more.
When I was working on that book I had to do a lot of research about various subjects including slavery, and the United States “Prison Industrial Complex.”
Over the years I also had many discussions on these subjects at Brazzil magazine, and the Elite Trader Economics Forum. Here is some of the postings regarding these subject:
By the way, my screen name at the Elite Trader forums is: SouthAmerica.
Elite Trader Economics Forum
Part 1 of 2
January 4, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
I am against slave labor, and I have been writing on that subject for many years, as a matter of fact I had a long chapter on that subject in one of my published books.
Quoting from my book published in 1999:
“The hospitality business of the United States government includes 125 Federal Prisons, 1375 State Prisons and 3300 municipal, county and local jails as of the end of 1997. In the 1980s they expend 37 Billion dollars in new prison space. In the 1990s the U.S. is expending over 45 billion dollars in new prison space.
..."The money spent on building and running prison systems now exceeds that allocated to higher education in many states."
The Federal government and most states are presently engaged in a building program that will add a large amount of new prisons to their current inventory, and the budgetary allocations for incarceration will only increase.
"... the United States incarcerates its citizens at a higher rate than any other country in the world." In 1993, before the Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa (he was elected on April 29, 1994), and before South Africans gave amnesty to many black prisoners, the rate of incarceration for African-American men in the United States was 3,109 black inmates per 100,000 black men population, a rate that was four times that of black men in South Africa (729 inmates per 100,000 black men)." In 1997, the incarceration of black men in the United States still 3,013 black inmates per 100,000 black men population a rate that was seven times that of white men (427 white inmates per 100,000 white men population).
...During the period between 1990 and 1995 the government built 213 new prison facilities. They built 168 State prisons and 45 Federal prison facilities. Their hospitality business created 283,000 new beds for an average of 1328 beds per prison.
...Generally, it takes between two and three years to site and build a prison (maximum-security prisons may take five years).
"In 1992, taxpayer spend between $ 30,000 to $ 50,000 per inmate per year to maintain the federal and state correctional systems. That includes not only operating costs but also the cost of new construction.
Depending on the level of security and the region of the United States, it costs anywhere from $ 30,000 to $ 130,000 to build each new bed space. The average cost was somewhere around $ 56,000 for each new bed space.
Construction costs are only the down payment of a prison's cost to society. The Federal Bureau of Prisons explains that operating a prison over its practical lifespan costs about fifteen to twenty times the original construction costs."
We can estimate that the average cost in 1998 should be around $ 61,000 for each new bed.
Incarceration, as punishment, is here to stay and there is a lot of public support for construction of new prison space. Just as one example if a state decides to build a new 1,000 bed prison at an average cost of $ 50,000 per bed space. The prison would be built at a price of $ 50 million dollars and represents a state investment of $ 1 billion dollars for its useful lifespan.
"In 1988, approximately 35 percent of prisoners were living in institutions built more than fifty years ago, and 12 percent were in facilities built before 1888." The more we continue to build the more we will continue to fill up any space that is created. The availability alone drives up incarceration rates. Just remember the government's wallet it is open. It is a blank check an you can right up any figure you want.
In 1991, when the U.S. had only 1.2 million people in prison and jail, (since then that number has increased by 50.0 %) the global rates of incarceration was as follows per 100,000 population:
1) United States (450 inmates per 100,000 population)
2) South Africa (300 inmates per 100,000 population)
3) Venezuela (170 inmates per 100,000 population)
4) Canada (110 inmates per 100,000 population)
5) China (100 inmates per 100,000 population)
6) Australia (75 inmates per 100,000 population)
7) Denmark (70 inmates per 100,000 population)
8) Ireland (60 inmates per 100,000 population)
9) Japan (50 inmates per 100,000 population)
10) India (40 inmates per 100,000 population)
Source: FBI, Bureau of Justice Statistics
The rate of incarceration for the United States has increased to 690 inmates per 100,000 population for the year 1998. Currently, the U.S. incarcerates by far the highest number of people per capita in the world.
In the past Americans found all kind of excuses to justify slavery. "Today, we see cruelty, indifference, self-interest and self-delusion in such arguments. Yet they were couched in resolutely moral terms__ in high-flown rhetoric, biblical injunctions and appeals to Right. ...Americans have always resorted to such moralizing."
Reality:
The United States has the largest prison system in the world with an estimated 1.8 million people in jail, and State and Federal prison system in 1997. By the year 2000 the United States will have over 2 million people in prison in the United States.
In Brazil there were only an estimated 150 thousand people incarcerated in their State and Federal prison system in 1997.
The United States population is 60.0 % higher than the Brazilian population and at the same time the number of people in prison in the United States is 12 times higher than the number of people in prison in Brazil.
Brazil vs. New Jersey (USA)
The total population of Brazil is estimated at 165 million people and the total population in New Jersey (USA) is estimated at 8 million people at the end of 1997.
In 1997, the prison system in New Jersey, cost New Jersey tax payers the amount of $ 627 million dollars for the cost of State of New Jersey Prisons only.
In 1997, the entire prison system in Brazil including all State and Federal Prisons in the country cost Brazilian tax payers the amount of $ 600 million dollars.
An article published by "The Jackson Sun" shows the benefits and the economic boom which a new prison can provide to any town. The economic benefits are like a dream coming true. A great source to revive the economy of any small town with recession proof jobs.
The article mentioned as an example, the town of Whiteville, a small, rural town in northwest Hardeman County in West Tennessee, they got awarded a new prison in 1996 by the State of Tennessee.
This $ 45 million project is the 22nd prison in that state, the facility will eventually house 2,016 inmates and employ 443 workers, most locally.
The town had thrived at one time with the business from sharecroppers in the 1950s and 1960s, before farm industrialization caused the number of farmers to dwindle.
The article continues, "Because of the prison, the city will be getting its first subdivision. And other developments are popping up. They include the first hotel residents have seen in 30 years and a new bank. ... Small towns with one grocery store end up with four grocery stores once the prison is located there.
Could the change be too much for this town of 1,174 people to handle? Probably not most said. ... It's going to wake this sleepy little town. ... Now, with potential businesses moving in, some shopkeepers expect customers to return to town, bring the business full circle.
Homes in the subdivision likely will be bought by employees of Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that will run the prison. The company has estimated its annual payroll will be $ 8 million dollars".
The article also tell us; "Model prisoners will work on road crews, making 17 to 55 cents an hour, saving the city manpower and money."
Lets analyze some of the other information on the "Corrections Corporation of America" investment package. Lets start with the Form 10-K for the period ending December 31, 1997.
"The Company believes the United States private corrections industry is in a period of significant growth. In the United States, there is a growing trend toward privatization of government services and functions, including corrections and detention, as governments of all types face continuing pressure to control costs and improve the quality of service. ...Further, as a result of the number of crimes committed each year and corresponding number of arrests, incarceration costs generally grow faster than any other part of a government's budget.
...At December 31,1997, the Company managed 46 of the 97 privatized United States adult facilities and 36,589 of the 59,464 private United States adult beds according to preliminary estimates prepared for the 1997 Private Adult Correction Facility Census (the 1997 Census)."
The 97 privatized prisons in the United States represents only 6.5 % of the total number of 1,500 facilities in the Federal and State prison system.
The 97 privatized facilities represents only 2% of the total number of facilities when we also include the 3,300 municipal, county and local jail system.
January 4, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
I am against slave labor, and I have been writing on that subject for many years, as a matter of fact I had a long chapter on that subject in one of my published books.
Quoting from my book published in 1999:
“The hospitality business of the United States government includes 125 Federal Prisons, 1375 State Prisons and 3300 municipal, county and local jails as of the end of 1997. In the 1980s they expend 37 Billion dollars in new prison space. In the 1990s the U.S. is expending over 45 billion dollars in new prison space.
..."The money spent on building and running prison systems now exceeds that allocated to higher education in many states."
The Federal government and most states are presently engaged in a building program that will add a large amount of new prisons to their current inventory, and the budgetary allocations for incarceration will only increase.
"... the United States incarcerates its citizens at a higher rate than any other country in the world." In 1993, before the Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa (he was elected on April 29, 1994), and before South Africans gave amnesty to many black prisoners, the rate of incarceration for African-American men in the United States was 3,109 black inmates per 100,000 black men population, a rate that was four times that of black men in South Africa (729 inmates per 100,000 black men)." In 1997, the incarceration of black men in the United States still 3,013 black inmates per 100,000 black men population a rate that was seven times that of white men (427 white inmates per 100,000 white men population).
...During the period between 1990 and 1995 the government built 213 new prison facilities. They built 168 State prisons and 45 Federal prison facilities. Their hospitality business created 283,000 new beds for an average of 1328 beds per prison.
...Generally, it takes between two and three years to site and build a prison (maximum-security prisons may take five years).
"In 1992, taxpayer spend between $ 30,000 to $ 50,000 per inmate per year to maintain the federal and state correctional systems. That includes not only operating costs but also the cost of new construction.
Depending on the level of security and the region of the United States, it costs anywhere from $ 30,000 to $ 130,000 to build each new bed space. The average cost was somewhere around $ 56,000 for each new bed space.
Construction costs are only the down payment of a prison's cost to society. The Federal Bureau of Prisons explains that operating a prison over its practical lifespan costs about fifteen to twenty times the original construction costs."
We can estimate that the average cost in 1998 should be around $ 61,000 for each new bed.
Incarceration, as punishment, is here to stay and there is a lot of public support for construction of new prison space. Just as one example if a state decides to build a new 1,000 bed prison at an average cost of $ 50,000 per bed space. The prison would be built at a price of $ 50 million dollars and represents a state investment of $ 1 billion dollars for its useful lifespan.
"In 1988, approximately 35 percent of prisoners were living in institutions built more than fifty years ago, and 12 percent were in facilities built before 1888." The more we continue to build the more we will continue to fill up any space that is created. The availability alone drives up incarceration rates. Just remember the government's wallet it is open. It is a blank check an you can right up any figure you want.
In 1991, when the U.S. had only 1.2 million people in prison and jail, (since then that number has increased by 50.0 %) the global rates of incarceration was as follows per 100,000 population:
1) United States (450 inmates per 100,000 population)
2) South Africa (300 inmates per 100,000 population)
3) Venezuela (170 inmates per 100,000 population)
4) Canada (110 inmates per 100,000 population)
5) China (100 inmates per 100,000 population)
6) Australia (75 inmates per 100,000 population)
7) Denmark (70 inmates per 100,000 population)
8) Ireland (60 inmates per 100,000 population)
9) Japan (50 inmates per 100,000 population)
10) India (40 inmates per 100,000 population)
Source: FBI, Bureau of Justice Statistics
The rate of incarceration for the United States has increased to 690 inmates per 100,000 population for the year 1998. Currently, the U.S. incarcerates by far the highest number of people per capita in the world.
In the past Americans found all kind of excuses to justify slavery. "Today, we see cruelty, indifference, self-interest and self-delusion in such arguments. Yet they were couched in resolutely moral terms__ in high-flown rhetoric, biblical injunctions and appeals to Right. ...Americans have always resorted to such moralizing."
Reality:
The United States has the largest prison system in the world with an estimated 1.8 million people in jail, and State and Federal prison system in 1997. By the year 2000 the United States will have over 2 million people in prison in the United States.
In Brazil there were only an estimated 150 thousand people incarcerated in their State and Federal prison system in 1997.
The United States population is 60.0 % higher than the Brazilian population and at the same time the number of people in prison in the United States is 12 times higher than the number of people in prison in Brazil.
Brazil vs. New Jersey (USA)
The total population of Brazil is estimated at 165 million people and the total population in New Jersey (USA) is estimated at 8 million people at the end of 1997.
In 1997, the prison system in New Jersey, cost New Jersey tax payers the amount of $ 627 million dollars for the cost of State of New Jersey Prisons only.
In 1997, the entire prison system in Brazil including all State and Federal Prisons in the country cost Brazilian tax payers the amount of $ 600 million dollars.
An article published by "The Jackson Sun" shows the benefits and the economic boom which a new prison can provide to any town. The economic benefits are like a dream coming true. A great source to revive the economy of any small town with recession proof jobs.
The article mentioned as an example, the town of Whiteville, a small, rural town in northwest Hardeman County in West Tennessee, they got awarded a new prison in 1996 by the State of Tennessee.
This $ 45 million project is the 22nd prison in that state, the facility will eventually house 2,016 inmates and employ 443 workers, most locally.
The town had thrived at one time with the business from sharecroppers in the 1950s and 1960s, before farm industrialization caused the number of farmers to dwindle.
The article continues, "Because of the prison, the city will be getting its first subdivision. And other developments are popping up. They include the first hotel residents have seen in 30 years and a new bank. ... Small towns with one grocery store end up with four grocery stores once the prison is located there.
Could the change be too much for this town of 1,174 people to handle? Probably not most said. ... It's going to wake this sleepy little town. ... Now, with potential businesses moving in, some shopkeepers expect customers to return to town, bring the business full circle.
Homes in the subdivision likely will be bought by employees of Corrections Corporation of America, a private company that will run the prison. The company has estimated its annual payroll will be $ 8 million dollars".
The article also tell us; "Model prisoners will work on road crews, making 17 to 55 cents an hour, saving the city manpower and money."
Lets analyze some of the other information on the "Corrections Corporation of America" investment package. Lets start with the Form 10-K for the period ending December 31, 1997.
"The Company believes the United States private corrections industry is in a period of significant growth. In the United States, there is a growing trend toward privatization of government services and functions, including corrections and detention, as governments of all types face continuing pressure to control costs and improve the quality of service. ...Further, as a result of the number of crimes committed each year and corresponding number of arrests, incarceration costs generally grow faster than any other part of a government's budget.
...At December 31,1997, the Company managed 46 of the 97 privatized United States adult facilities and 36,589 of the 59,464 private United States adult beds according to preliminary estimates prepared for the 1997 Private Adult Correction Facility Census (the 1997 Census)."
The 97 privatized prisons in the United States represents only 6.5 % of the total number of 1,500 facilities in the Federal and State prison system.
The 97 privatized facilities represents only 2% of the total number of facilities when we also include the 3,300 municipal, county and local jail system.
*****
Part 2 of 2
January 4, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
...Prison labor, a modern form of slavery, works well under capitalism.
Let me quote from the New Jersey State official government website in the internet at the following address:
http://www.state.nj.us/deptcor/index
"Inmate labor in New Jersey and around the country is a significant and growing resource. We manufacture over 1,500 products for sale to any tax-supported institution or agency inside and outside the state.
To find out more about what we make in New Jersey's correctional facilities, click on any of the major product category listings.
1) Furniture
2) Signs
3) Janitorial Equipment
4) Clothing
5) Printing
6) License Plates
7) Baked Goods
8) Services"
"Society is now witnessing a resurgence of interest in prison industries. The expansion of prison industries is appealing to elected officials and policy makers partly because of the rising costs of incarceration and declining state and federal budgets.
Currently there are more than twenty-six prison-based industries in over ten states across a variety of institutions from community-based to maximum-security facilities.
...These small businesses sell their products and services on the open market to private sector customers. The types of products and services include cloth bags, data processing, vinyl products,
and ceramics. ...Large companies are not generally found in this model, but the Howard Johnson and Best Western motel chains are exceptions. They hire prisoners to serve as reservation clerks and in other service positions. ...During prime tourist season, especially on holidays and weekends, inmate labor is useful to these types of business establishments."
Americans are using inmate labor in New Jersey and around the country. Remember the newspaper article of The Jackson Sun, which I mentioned before, which was included with the investment materials sent by Corrections Corporation of America. I quote again from that article; "Some prisoners will help the community, said Allen Burgery, warden at the new prison. Model prisoners will work on road crews, making 17 to 55 cents an hour, saving the city manpower and money."
Note: (do not forget in the United States you have to be politically correct and do not refer to this type of labor as "Slave Labor". Use instead the more palatable, and acceptable term "Inmate Labor")
January 4, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
...Prison labor, a modern form of slavery, works well under capitalism.
Let me quote from the New Jersey State official government website in the internet at the following address:
http://www.state.nj.us/deptcor/index
"Inmate labor in New Jersey and around the country is a significant and growing resource. We manufacture over 1,500 products for sale to any tax-supported institution or agency inside and outside the state.
To find out more about what we make in New Jersey's correctional facilities, click on any of the major product category listings.
1) Furniture
2) Signs
3) Janitorial Equipment
4) Clothing
5) Printing
6) License Plates
7) Baked Goods
8) Services"
"Society is now witnessing a resurgence of interest in prison industries. The expansion of prison industries is appealing to elected officials and policy makers partly because of the rising costs of incarceration and declining state and federal budgets.
Currently there are more than twenty-six prison-based industries in over ten states across a variety of institutions from community-based to maximum-security facilities.
...These small businesses sell their products and services on the open market to private sector customers. The types of products and services include cloth bags, data processing, vinyl products,
and ceramics. ...Large companies are not generally found in this model, but the Howard Johnson and Best Western motel chains are exceptions. They hire prisoners to serve as reservation clerks and in other service positions. ...During prime tourist season, especially on holidays and weekends, inmate labor is useful to these types of business establishments."
Americans are using inmate labor in New Jersey and around the country. Remember the newspaper article of The Jackson Sun, which I mentioned before, which was included with the investment materials sent by Corrections Corporation of America. I quote again from that article; "Some prisoners will help the community, said Allen Burgery, warden at the new prison. Model prisoners will work on road crews, making 17 to 55 cents an hour, saving the city manpower and money."
Note: (do not forget in the United States you have to be politically correct and do not refer to this type of labor as "Slave Labor". Use instead the more palatable, and acceptable term "Inmate Labor")
*****
January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: The prison system is a very complex subject with many social and financial implications.
In most countries around the world they have better solutions that makes more sense socially and economically than the system that we have in the United States.
The American prison system is so screwed up that today many states spend more money with its prison system than with education.
I wrote on my book that the US prison system is not about crime and punishment – it's about using poor uneducated people that the US government had no idea how to use them to create a system to lock them up and create a new industry to provide jobs here in the United States.
I just found a video where Noam Chomsky says the same thing about the US prison system.
The prison industrial complex in the United States is very large and an important source of job creation in the United States.
As usual most Americans are clueless about the implications and massive costs associated with their simplistic solutions: in this case related to crime and punishment.
If anything with the new law that the US government just passed the prison system in the United States is going to grow by leaps and bounds.
The mainstream media in the United States is completely worthless and they are not allowed to talk about this subject just like many others.
SouthAmerica: The prison system is a very complex subject with many social and financial implications.
In most countries around the world they have better solutions that makes more sense socially and economically than the system that we have in the United States.
The American prison system is so screwed up that today many states spend more money with its prison system than with education.
I wrote on my book that the US prison system is not about crime and punishment – it's about using poor uneducated people that the US government had no idea how to use them to create a system to lock them up and create a new industry to provide jobs here in the United States.
I just found a video where Noam Chomsky says the same thing about the US prison system.
The prison industrial complex in the United States is very large and an important source of job creation in the United States.
As usual most Americans are clueless about the implications and massive costs associated with their simplistic solutions: in this case related to crime and punishment.
If anything with the new law that the US government just passed the prison system in the United States is going to grow by leaps and bounds.
The mainstream media in the United States is completely worthless and they are not allowed to talk about this subject just like many others.
*****
January 9, 2012
SouthAmerica: Here Noam Chomsky talks about the black population in the USA and its connection to the US prison system.
Regarding Latin America he mentions how the United States is losing control of South America.
Noam Chomsky Pt. 2: Slavery by Another Name – October 5, 2011
SouthAmerica: Here Noam Chomsky talks about the black population in the USA and its connection to the US prison system.
Regarding Latin America he mentions how the United States is losing control of South America.
Noam Chomsky Pt. 2: Slavery by Another Name – October 5, 2011
***
Noam Chomsky Pt. 3: Latin America
*****
January 10, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
The law about prison labor changed in 1979.
The prison industrial complex became a big business in the US since the 1970's and a source of job creation, which includes the construction of all these prisons, and the large amount of people necessary to keep the prison system operating 7/24 365 days per year.
It takes a lot of people and money to warehouse 2.3 million people in the United States prison system.
US Prison Labor
http://www1.american.edu/ted/jail.htm
...The United States has seen a recent increase in the number of private firm/correctional facility partnerships that uses prison labor to manufacture goods and provide services. On the rise since the creation of the Prison Industries Enhancement (PIE) program in 1979, prison-industry partnerships have risen 200 percent.
Described by some as a program designed to fill the boring days of an inmates’ life and a way to prepare them for life after release by giving them marketable skills, PIE fills a need for cheap labor.
However, many others have begun to notice the fundamental flaws with the program, among them low wages, the increased number of inmates, and the refusal by correctional facilities to allow inspectors into plants.
...In 1979 the Justice System Improvement Act allowed for privatization of prisons and for the transport of their goods across state boundaries. After this change in law, prison industry profits jumped from $392 million to $1.31 billion. However, the Depression legislation still holds true for state and federally run prisons.
...Many companies use prison labor, so it is likely that most Americans have bought goods or used services provided or created by inmates. Items ranging from clothing, such as Victoria’s Secret and blue jeans, and computers to services such as data entry and telemarketing are all made and performed by prison labor. As another bonus, prison made goods do not have to be labeled as such and often are appealing to companies who wish to be able to put "made in the USA" on their products.
Companies that Use Prison Labor In the USA
MicroJet, Nike, Lockhart Technologies, Inc., United Vision Group, Chatleff Controls, TWA, Dell Computers, Microsoft, Eddie Bauer, Planet Hollywood, Redwood Outdoors, Wilson Sporting Goods, Union Bay, Elliot Bay, A&I Manufacturing, Washington Marketing Group, Omega Pacific, J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, Best Western Hotels, Honda, K-Mart, Target, Kwalu, Inc., McDonald's, Hawaiian Tropical Products, Burger King, "Prison Blues" jeans line, New York, New York Hotel/Casino, Impereal Palace Hotel/Casino, Crisp Country Solid Waste Management Authority, "No Fear" Clothing Line, C.M.T. Blues, Konica, Allstate, Merrill Lynch, Shearson Lehman, Louisiana Pacific, Parke-Davis, Upjohn
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
The law about prison labor changed in 1979.
The prison industrial complex became a big business in the US since the 1970's and a source of job creation, which includes the construction of all these prisons, and the large amount of people necessary to keep the prison system operating 7/24 365 days per year.
It takes a lot of people and money to warehouse 2.3 million people in the United States prison system.
US Prison Labor
http://www1.american.edu/ted/jail.htm
...The United States has seen a recent increase in the number of private firm/correctional facility partnerships that uses prison labor to manufacture goods and provide services. On the rise since the creation of the Prison Industries Enhancement (PIE) program in 1979, prison-industry partnerships have risen 200 percent.
Described by some as a program designed to fill the boring days of an inmates’ life and a way to prepare them for life after release by giving them marketable skills, PIE fills a need for cheap labor.
However, many others have begun to notice the fundamental flaws with the program, among them low wages, the increased number of inmates, and the refusal by correctional facilities to allow inspectors into plants.
...In 1979 the Justice System Improvement Act allowed for privatization of prisons and for the transport of their goods across state boundaries. After this change in law, prison industry profits jumped from $392 million to $1.31 billion. However, the Depression legislation still holds true for state and federally run prisons.
...Many companies use prison labor, so it is likely that most Americans have bought goods or used services provided or created by inmates. Items ranging from clothing, such as Victoria’s Secret and blue jeans, and computers to services such as data entry and telemarketing are all made and performed by prison labor. As another bonus, prison made goods do not have to be labeled as such and often are appealing to companies who wish to be able to put "made in the USA" on their products.
Companies that Use Prison Labor In the USA
MicroJet, Nike, Lockhart Technologies, Inc., United Vision Group, Chatleff Controls, TWA, Dell Computers, Microsoft, Eddie Bauer, Planet Hollywood, Redwood Outdoors, Wilson Sporting Goods, Union Bay, Elliot Bay, A&I Manufacturing, Washington Marketing Group, Omega Pacific, J.C. Penney, Victoria's Secret, Best Western Hotels, Honda, K-Mart, Target, Kwalu, Inc., McDonald's, Hawaiian Tropical Products, Burger King, "Prison Blues" jeans line, New York, New York Hotel/Casino, Impereal Palace Hotel/Casino, Crisp Country Solid Waste Management Authority, "No Fear" Clothing Line, C.M.T. Blues, Konica, Allstate, Merrill Lynch, Shearson Lehman, Louisiana Pacific, Parke-Davis, Upjohn
*****
January 10, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
Here I am quoting from my book as follows:
Even though the United States had about 2 million people in prison when I wrote my book, "only 150,000 people in prison, of all these inmates are there for what Americans consider as violent crimes.
The hospitality business of the United States government includes 125 Federal Prisons, 1375 State Prisons and 3300 municipal, county and local jails as of the end of 1997. In the 1980s they expent 37 Billion dollars in new prison space. In the 1990s the U.S. is expending over 45 billion dollars in new prison space.
In the decade 2000 to 2010 the U.S. government should expend a minimum of 88 billion dollars, (1998 dollar value) to accommodate their new guests in the prison system.
..."The money spent on building and running prison systems now exceeds that allocated to higher education in many states."
The Federal government and most states are presently engaged in a building program that will add a large amount of new prisons to their current inventory, and the budgetary allocations for incarceration will only increase.
...Depending on the level of security and the region of the United States, it costs anywhere from $ 30,000 to $ 130,000 to build each new bed space. The average cost was somewhere around
$ 56,000 for each new bed space.
Construction costs are only the down payment of a prison's cost to society. The Federal Bureau of Prisons explains that operating a prison over its practical lifespan costs about fifteen to twenty times the original construction costs".
We can estimate that the average cost in 1998 should be around $ 61,000 for each new bed.
Incarceration, as punishment, is here to stay and there is a lot of public support for construction of new prison space. Just as one example if a state decides to build a new 1,000 bed prison at an average cost of $ 50,000 per bed space. The prison would be built at a price of $ 50 million dollars and represents a state investment of $ 1 billion dollars for its useful lifespan.
"In 1988, approximately 35 percent of prisoners were living in institutions built more than fifty years ago, and 12 percent were in facilities built before 1888". The more we continue to build the more we will continue to fill up any space that is created. The availability alone drives up incarceration rates. Just remember the government's wallet it is open. It is a blank check an you can right up any figure you want.
Info from the annual report from CCA for the year ending 1997
...But, the annual report provides some interesting information which most people never think about. And I will quote: " The necessities for living 24 hours a day within secure walls__from beds to books, soap to soup, radios to restraints__all represent thousands of opportunities for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to provide the best service at the best cost". They need a lot of goods: "It's like running a small town when you put it all together. ...988,000 toothbrushes, 16,620 pairs of socks, 296,400 cans of corn, 3,5000,000 pairs of latex gloves, 2,300 handcuffs".... "Doing all that requires assimilating about $ 2 million dollars of items for a typical 1,500-bed prison that must be on hand the first day of operations".
***
Social costs
When you go in the road of the prison system national policy, remember you are starting a cycle which usually takes 7 generations of people to break it. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you do not treat this people reasonable well when they are in prison, the harsh you treat them when they are incarcerated the more violent they are when they are finally released. There is no free lunch or simplistic solutions here.
Every time society decides to send a person to prison, society is making a very large investment of its scarce resources.”
*****
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
Here I am quoting from my book as follows:
Even though the United States had about 2 million people in prison when I wrote my book, "only 150,000 people in prison, of all these inmates are there for what Americans consider as violent crimes.
The hospitality business of the United States government includes 125 Federal Prisons, 1375 State Prisons and 3300 municipal, county and local jails as of the end of 1997. In the 1980s they expent 37 Billion dollars in new prison space. In the 1990s the U.S. is expending over 45 billion dollars in new prison space.
In the decade 2000 to 2010 the U.S. government should expend a minimum of 88 billion dollars, (1998 dollar value) to accommodate their new guests in the prison system.
..."The money spent on building and running prison systems now exceeds that allocated to higher education in many states."
The Federal government and most states are presently engaged in a building program that will add a large amount of new prisons to their current inventory, and the budgetary allocations for incarceration will only increase.
...Depending on the level of security and the region of the United States, it costs anywhere from $ 30,000 to $ 130,000 to build each new bed space. The average cost was somewhere around
$ 56,000 for each new bed space.
Construction costs are only the down payment of a prison's cost to society. The Federal Bureau of Prisons explains that operating a prison over its practical lifespan costs about fifteen to twenty times the original construction costs".
We can estimate that the average cost in 1998 should be around $ 61,000 for each new bed.
Incarceration, as punishment, is here to stay and there is a lot of public support for construction of new prison space. Just as one example if a state decides to build a new 1,000 bed prison at an average cost of $ 50,000 per bed space. The prison would be built at a price of $ 50 million dollars and represents a state investment of $ 1 billion dollars for its useful lifespan.
"In 1988, approximately 35 percent of prisoners were living in institutions built more than fifty years ago, and 12 percent were in facilities built before 1888". The more we continue to build the more we will continue to fill up any space that is created. The availability alone drives up incarceration rates. Just remember the government's wallet it is open. It is a blank check an you can right up any figure you want.
Info from the annual report from CCA for the year ending 1997
...But, the annual report provides some interesting information which most people never think about. And I will quote: " The necessities for living 24 hours a day within secure walls__from beds to books, soap to soup, radios to restraints__all represent thousands of opportunities for Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to provide the best service at the best cost". They need a lot of goods: "It's like running a small town when you put it all together. ...988,000 toothbrushes, 16,620 pairs of socks, 296,400 cans of corn, 3,5000,000 pairs of latex gloves, 2,300 handcuffs".... "Doing all that requires assimilating about $ 2 million dollars of items for a typical 1,500-bed prison that must be on hand the first day of operations".
***
Social costs
When you go in the road of the prison system national policy, remember you are starting a cycle which usually takes 7 generations of people to break it. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you do not treat this people reasonable well when they are in prison, the harsh you treat them when they are incarcerated the more violent they are when they are finally released. There is no free lunch or simplistic solutions here.
Every time society decides to send a person to prison, society is making a very large investment of its scarce resources.”
*****
September 6, 2012
SouthAmerica: Here is one of the major success stories of the US economy in the last 40 years that most Americans don't like to talk about:
The New United States Retirement System
********************
Here are some other web links regarding this subject:
Prison Labor as the Past -- and Future -- of American “Free-Market” Capitalism (April 2012) - By: Steven Fraser and Joshua Freeman
...All told, nearly a million
prisoners are now making office furniture, working in call
centers, fabricating body armor, taking hotel reservations, working
in slaughterhouses, or manufacturing textiles, shoes, and clothing,
while getting paid somewhere between 93 cents and $4.73 per day.
Slavery, the Prison/Industrial Complex, and American Hypocrisy - Fri, 08/24/2007
http://www.greencommons.org/node/770
...In today’s America, drug laws have become the new Jim Crow laws, the prison/industrial complex has become the new plantation, and the warden has become the new overseer. America’s newest slaves aren’t picking cotton. They’re assembling computers, making women’s lingerie, booking airline flights over the phone, telemarketing for major corporations, and doing all kinds of tasks that free Americans used to be employed at doing. What appeared to be a normal plant closing by U.S. Technologies when it sold its electronics plant in Austin, was actually the company relocating its operations to a nearby Austin prison. One hundred and fifty “free” employees lost their jobs to the new slaves.
If you book a flight on TWA over the phone, a prisoner may be taking your order. If you buy yourself or your loved one something from Victoria Secret, it may have come from a prison in South Carolina. Corporations like Chevron, Boeing, IBM, Motorola, Honda, Toys R Us, Compaq, Dell, Texas Instruments, Honeywell, Hewett-Packard, Microsoft, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and AT&T are a few of the ever-growing list of companies that are, or have at one time, used this kind of slave labor. Federal prisons operate under the trade name Unicor and use their prisoners to make everything from lawn furniture to congressional desks. Federal safety and health standards do not protect prison labor, nor do the National Labor Relations Board policies nor does the minimum wage apply. Corporations that use slave labor don’t pay overtime, sick days, pensions, and don’t have to deal with unions for this work. Prison/slaves are paid about 25 cents an hour.
Who are these new slaves?
...During the past two decades roughly a thousand new prisons and jails have been built in the United States. Nevertheless, America's prisons are more overcrowded now than when the building spree began, and the inmate population continues to increase by 50,000 to 80,000 people a year In 1977 the inmate population of California was 19,600. Today it’s over 170,000, which amounts to more inmates in its jails and prisons than do France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Singapore, and the Netherlands combined. After spending $5.2 billion on prison construction over the past fifteen years, California now has not only the largest but also the most overcrowded prison system in the United States, and for the first time among large states, California will spend more on its prisons than on its public universities.
Profiting from slavery
Prisons are rising all over America. It’s a fast rising growth industry with investors on Wall Street and corporations we all know are paying peanuts to prisoner/slaves so they don’t have to employ those who buy their products. Even when crime goes down, jail population still goes up. Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the Civil War ended, blacks were imprisoned on a variety of trumped up reasons and were then loaned or hired out to plantations and farms and all would share in the profit, except the prisoner/slave of course. That same “hiring out” of prisoners is still practiced in the United States today.
The prison/industrial complex is a multi-billion dollar industry complete with lobbyists, trade shows, and conventions. It profits from an evil in the US that neither democrats nor republicans will seek to remedy.
*****
Prison–industrial complex
*****
Solitary Confinement: The Invisible Torture
...However, another form of torture was not just used on detainees, but is being used on at least 25,000 Americans right now.
That’s the number of people currently held in long-term solitary confinement in the United States, living for years in 80-square-foot concrete cubes lit by round-the-clock fluorescent light, with little or no human contact. The U.S. is alone among developed countries in using long-term solitary confinement on a regular basis.
*****
January 11, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
I am not in favor of any type of slavery, including prison slave labor.
In the United States slave labor is all over the place, but in Brazil a large part of this slave labor is happening in areas that are far away and hidden from the population areas.
I had to do a lot of research regarding the subject of slavery and its relation to Brazilian history when I was writing my book about Brazilian history.
Here is an article that I wrote in 2003 that gives some information about slavery in Brazil:
Brazzil Magazine - June 2003
“Brazil and the Angolan Connection”
Written by Ricardo C. Amaral
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
I am not in favor of any type of slavery, including prison slave labor.
In the United States slave labor is all over the place, but in Brazil a large part of this slave labor is happening in areas that are far away and hidden from the population areas.
I had to do a lot of research regarding the subject of slavery and its relation to Brazilian history when I was writing my book about Brazilian history.
Here is an article that I wrote in 2003 that gives some information about slavery in Brazil:
Brazzil Magazine - June 2003
“Brazil and the Angolan Connection”
Written by Ricardo C. Amaral
...From 1600 to 1836, when Portugal abolished slave trade, Angola may have been the source of as many as 2 million slaves who came to the New World. More than half of these slaves went to Brazil. Considering the number of slaves who actually arrived, and taking into account those who died crossing the Atlantic or during transport from the interior to the coast for shipping, the Angolan area may have lost as many as 4 million people as a result of the slave trade."
...Angola has a strong connection to Brazil and to the United States because these countries were the main places were Angolan slaves landed in the New World. Brazil was the largest recipient of these Angolan slaves, but the United States wasn't far behind.
*****
Slavery in the United States was a much nasty experience for the slaves than slavery was in Brazil, and much of that difference had to do with the influence of the Catholic Church in Brazil.
Slavery in the United States
Year 1860 total population in the USA = 31,443,321 people
Year 1860 number of slave in the USA = 3,953,760 black slaves
*****
Slave labour that shames America – December 2007
...Migrant workers chained beaten and forced into debt, exposing the human cost of producing cheap food
*****
Here is a detailed study by University of California about the slave labor in the United States.
Hidden Slaves Forced Labor in the United States
Human
Rights Center of the University of California, Berkeley (2005)
**********
Forced Labor in the United States: A Contemporary Problem in Need of a Contemporary Solution
... Legal slavery ended in the United States in 1865, yet the practice of forcing individuals to work against their will, oftentimes in inhumane conditions, continues today. Currently there are around 50,000 people working in forced labor situations in the United States. Although this number is smaller than it was during the 18th century, finding and freeing these individuals is difficult because they are hidden away and exploited.
**********
January 12, 2012
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
A few years ago everybody had some copies of my book in stock such as Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. Here is the link to Barnes and Noble:
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, The Greatest Man in Brazilian History
SouthAmerica: Reply to gwb-trading
A few years ago everybody had some copies of my book in stock such as Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. Here is the link to Barnes and Noble:
Jose Bonifacio de Andrada e Silva, The Greatest Man in Brazilian History
**********
The economic impact of the current Exodus from the United States
...May 14, 2008
SouthAmerica: Reply to Derrick 1983
...My second book "The Real Promised Land" - I made only about 50 copies of that book and sent a copy to a very select number of people including Louis Farrakhan. (This book was published in Jan. or Feb of 2000).
It is a very controversial book in many ways. I have a chapter about 80 pages long with a full detail of the American prison system. I talk about the US government paying reparation to the black population in relation to slavery, and much more.
The book had a complete plan regarding the black population on the United States - I mentioned in the book that the window of opportunity for that plan to work was very small because of the baby boom generation and the state of the finances of the US government.
By the way, that window of opportunity already has been closed and the black population in the US are out of luck.
It is a very interesting plan and the plan made a lot of sense to me when I wrote that book in 1999.
I gave the amount of reparation for each person, and the strategy to follow the plan. I also mentioned all the groups of people who would be against such a plan and the reasons why?
Some other people who got a copy of this book includes:
Charlie Rose ( http://www.charlierose.com/ )
Robert L. Johnson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Johnson )
Toni Morrison ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison )
Cornel West ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West ) and
Louis Farrakhan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Farrakhan )
Robert L. Johnson ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_L._Johnson )
Toni Morrison ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toni_Morrison )
Cornel West ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West ) and
Louis Farrakhan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Farrakhan )
**********
The Decaying of America
June 18, 2007
SouthAmerica: The story reported by The Associated Press is a little incomplete.
The Brazilian legal system is based on “Roman Law” and the “Napoleonic Code” systems.
The article said: “There are 172,000 prisoners awaiting trial in Brazil alone, its government said.”
What the article it has not mentioned is that the current total prison population in Brazil is estimated to be 260,000 prisoners.
In 2007, the total population in Brazil it is estimated to be 190 million people including an estimated 260,000 people in prison.
In 2007, the total population in the United States it is estimated to be 301 million people including an estimated 2,200,000 people in prison.
The United States population is 57 percent larger than the Brazilian population. But the United States prison population is 850 percent larger than the Brazilian prison population.
In Brazil they don’t have a “Statue of Liberty.”
In Brazil they have “Liberty.”
If the court system in Brazil clean up their act and catch up with their workload – even if they still keep 100,000 prisoners out of the 172,000 who are waiting for a trial – after that the prison population in Brazil would decline to less than 190,000 total people in prison in Brazil.
**********
SouthAmerica: The story reported by The Associated Press is a little incomplete.
The Brazilian legal system is based on “Roman Law” and the “Napoleonic Code” systems.
The article said: “There are 172,000 prisoners awaiting trial in Brazil alone, its government said.”
What the article it has not mentioned is that the current total prison population in Brazil is estimated to be 260,000 prisoners.
In 2007, the total population in Brazil it is estimated to be 190 million people including an estimated 260,000 people in prison.
In 2007, the total population in the United States it is estimated to be 301 million people including an estimated 2,200,000 people in prison.
The United States population is 57 percent larger than the Brazilian population. But the United States prison population is 850 percent larger than the Brazilian prison population.
In Brazil they don’t have a “Statue of Liberty.”
In Brazil they have “Liberty.”
If the court system in Brazil clean up their act and catch up with their workload – even if they still keep 100,000 prisoners out of the 172,000 who are waiting for a trial – after that the prison population in Brazil would decline to less than 190,000 total people in prison in Brazil.
**********
The New United States Retirement System
May 21, 2006
SouthAmerica: Frontline on PBS just had a program showing how American retirement system is in real bad shape for most people.
But there is a group of people that the US government doesn’t care how much money the US government spend for each retiree.
The US government and also of the states in the USA don’t spare any expenses regarding this group of Americans and illegal immigrants. And they cost a ton of money to the government on an annual basis.
The New American Dream...
*****
AP – Associated Press – May 21, 2006
“1 in 136 U.S. Residents Behind Bars”
By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.
The total on June 30, 2005, was 56,428 more than at the same time in 2004, the government reported Sunday. That 2.6 percent increase from mid-2004 to mid-2005 translates into a weekly rise of 1,085 inmates.
Of particular note was the gain of 33,539 inmates in jails, the largest increase since 1997, researcher Allen J. Beck said. That was a 4.7 percent growth rate, compared with a 1.6 percent increase in people held in state and federal prisons.
Prisons accounted for about two-thirds of all inmates, or 1.4 million, while the other third, nearly 750,000, were in local jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Beck, the bureau's chief of corrections statistics, said the increase in the number of people in the 3,365 local jails is due partly to their changing role. Jails often hold inmates for state or federal systems, as well as people who have yet to begin serving a sentence.
"The jail population is increasingly unconvicted," Beck said. "Judges are perhaps more reluctant to release people pretrial."
The report by the Justice Department agency found that 62 percent of people in jails have not been convicted, meaning many of them are awaiting trial.
Overall, 738 people were locked up for every 100,000 residents, compared with a rate of 725 at mid-2004. The states with the highest rates were Louisiana and Georgia, with more than 1 percent of their populations in prison or jail. Rounding out the top five were Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
The states with the lowest rates were Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Men were 10 times to 11 times more likely than women to be in prison or jail, but the number of women behind bars was growing at a faster rate, said Paige M. Harrison, the report's other author.
The racial makeup of inmates changed little in recent years, Beck said. In the 25-29 age group, an estimated 11.9 percent of black men were in prison or jails, compared with 3.9 percent of Hispanic males and 1.7 percent of white males.
Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, which supports alternatives to prison, said the incarceration rates for blacks were troubling.
"It's not a sign of a healthy community when we've come to use incarceration at such rates," he said.
Mauer also criticized sentencing guidelines, which he said remove judges' discretion, and said arrests for drug and parole violations swell prisons.
"If we want to see the prison population reduced, we need a much more comprehensive approach to sentencing and drug policy," he said.
*****
SouthAmerica: Frontline on PBS just had a program showing how American retirement system is in real bad shape for most people.
But there is a group of people that the US government doesn’t care how much money the US government spend for each retiree.
The US government and also of the states in the USA don’t spare any expenses regarding this group of Americans and illegal immigrants. And they cost a ton of money to the government on an annual basis.
The New American Dream...
*****
AP – Associated Press – May 21, 2006
“1 in 136 U.S. Residents Behind Bars”
By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Prisons and jails added more than 1,000 inmates each week for a year, putting almost 2.2 million people, or one in every 136 U.S. residents, behind bars by last summer.
The total on June 30, 2005, was 56,428 more than at the same time in 2004, the government reported Sunday. That 2.6 percent increase from mid-2004 to mid-2005 translates into a weekly rise of 1,085 inmates.
Of particular note was the gain of 33,539 inmates in jails, the largest increase since 1997, researcher Allen J. Beck said. That was a 4.7 percent growth rate, compared with a 1.6 percent increase in people held in state and federal prisons.
Prisons accounted for about two-thirds of all inmates, or 1.4 million, while the other third, nearly 750,000, were in local jails, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Beck, the bureau's chief of corrections statistics, said the increase in the number of people in the 3,365 local jails is due partly to their changing role. Jails often hold inmates for state or federal systems, as well as people who have yet to begin serving a sentence.
"The jail population is increasingly unconvicted," Beck said. "Judges are perhaps more reluctant to release people pretrial."
The report by the Justice Department agency found that 62 percent of people in jails have not been convicted, meaning many of them are awaiting trial.
Overall, 738 people were locked up for every 100,000 residents, compared with a rate of 725 at mid-2004. The states with the highest rates were Louisiana and Georgia, with more than 1 percent of their populations in prison or jail. Rounding out the top five were Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma.
The states with the lowest rates were Maine, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Men were 10 times to 11 times more likely than women to be in prison or jail, but the number of women behind bars was growing at a faster rate, said Paige M. Harrison, the report's other author.
The racial makeup of inmates changed little in recent years, Beck said. In the 25-29 age group, an estimated 11.9 percent of black men were in prison or jails, compared with 3.9 percent of Hispanic males and 1.7 percent of white males.
Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project, which supports alternatives to prison, said the incarceration rates for blacks were troubling.
"It's not a sign of a healthy community when we've come to use incarceration at such rates," he said.
Mauer also criticized sentencing guidelines, which he said remove judges' discretion, and said arrests for drug and parole violations swell prisons.
"If we want to see the prison population reduced, we need a much more comprehensive approach to sentencing and drug policy," he said.
*****
May 23, 2006
SouthAmerica: I was trying to give you the big picture without having to spell out in plain English.
As Americans cut as much as they can all kinds of US government programs designed to help the poor people – Americans don’t care about how much money they spend with one major program - the United States prison system. In reality the US prison system is a disguised retirement system for blacks and other minorities.
Regarding the high incarceration rate no other country in the world got more stupid than the United States on that issue and on my book I have an entire chapter (about 90 pages) with all the details of the American prison system program and I refer to it on the book as the “Brain Dead” strategy.
When many states in the US are spending more money with their prison system than with their educational system it can’t get more stupid than that.
What is the US government goal?
Be the first country to lock up 5 million people in prisons and in jails?
When Americans are going to reach that goal?
I understand that this must be an important US government strategy on their effort to creating jobs for Americans that can’t be outsourced to other countries – lock up the poor bastards and in the way create a job to millions of Americans and in the process also help bring back communities that were in the brink of complete collapse by placing these prisons in strategic locations to generate local cash flows and business.
Since Americans are losing an edge in how to create new businesses and they are losing their advantage on R&D to other parts of the world – Americans had to do something about it – and for many years one of the industries with the highest rates of growth in the United States has been in the area of building an extensive prison network system throughout the Unites States and in the way making the laws and setting up a system that believes that this is the way to go as a society.
The beauty of all is that they are doing that with the blessings of the American people and the American mainstream media - as usual - is missing in action as the United States is building this “Pathetic” system that wastes billions and billions of American tax payers year after year – and this is a system that can’t be cut overnight because of fluctuations of the business cycles – the governments federal, state and local just can’t go to the prisons and say sorry guys we don’t have the money and we need to let you guys go.
It does not work that way.
When the hard times comes back these are expenses that can’t be cut very easily – mainly when the entire system is designed to just keep building more prisons and filling them up as fast as possible when they are completed.
In the early 1970’s California had one of the best educational systems in the country – from the early 1970’s to the middle 1990’s a period covering over 25 years – California did not build a single new university, but during the same time they built 25 new prisons to incarcerate their poor population – By the year 2000 California was in the bottom of the states in the rankings related to education – that decline in quality was a direct result of the “Brain Dead” strategy being used by most states in the US in the last 30 years.
Today we have a global economy and you don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist to figure out that the “Brain Dead” strategy will have a massive impact in the US in future years – This time will not be California alone that will be going to the bottom – it will be the US as a country.
I have been aware of this trend for at least 10 years (when I spent months and months studying that subject for a chapter of my book) and at the same time this is going on there is no debate happening on in the United States on this subject - if this is the right way to go and continue investing heavily federal and states resources in that area of the US economy.*****
Nick Leeson Jr: …Regarding the high incarceration rates, so what? What is your solution? Did you know that you can't have a society without laws that have a consequence if you break them? That was very apparent in cities in Brazil last week.
*****
SouthAmerica: Today, the US criminal system it is in a Pathetic shape and it is in shambles - and it does not matter which way you analyze it.
Regarding the incarceration rates most advanced cultures around the world have better solutions than spending a fortune in tax payers’ money in a system that will just make things worse in the future for the entire country – you can’t lock up this people up forever and when they come out they are not a bunch of happy campers – it is payback time against a society that treated them like animals during a long period of time.
You said: “Did you know that you can't have a society without laws that have a consequence if you break them?”
But in the United States it is estimated that around 20 percent of the people behind bars are there because they can’t afford good lawyers or they just fall thru the cracks of a very obsolete and inefficient American judicial system - we are talking about 500,000 thousand people at least that should not be in prison in the US, but they are.
The United States is incarcerating today at least 500,000 thousand people who should not be in prison and that number is twice as much people than the total number of people who are in federal, state and local prisons in Brazil today. That is a disgrace right there.
Today, for each person who is in prison in Brazil – the United States is incarcerating ten people.
And for each person that Brazil is incarcerating the United States is incarcerating two people who should not even be in prison at all.
The crisis in Brazil has to do with drug dealers and gangs getting so powerful because there is so much money being generated by the illegal drug trade. The last thing Brazil needs is to adopt the “Brain Dead” strategy and start building thousands of prisons as in the United States.
The Brazilian problem can be solved only by making the illegal drugs legal and by the Brazilian government flooding the market with these drugs at below cost to drive everybody who participates in that business – out of business.
If there is no way to make money from the illegal drug trade – then everybody has to close shop and find a new line of business to make money.
*****
SouthAmerica: I was trying to give you the big picture without having to spell out in plain English.
As Americans cut as much as they can all kinds of US government programs designed to help the poor people – Americans don’t care about how much money they spend with one major program - the United States prison system. In reality the US prison system is a disguised retirement system for blacks and other minorities.
Regarding the high incarceration rate no other country in the world got more stupid than the United States on that issue and on my book I have an entire chapter (about 90 pages) with all the details of the American prison system program and I refer to it on the book as the “Brain Dead” strategy.
When many states in the US are spending more money with their prison system than with their educational system it can’t get more stupid than that.
What is the US government goal?
Be the first country to lock up 5 million people in prisons and in jails?
When Americans are going to reach that goal?
I understand that this must be an important US government strategy on their effort to creating jobs for Americans that can’t be outsourced to other countries – lock up the poor bastards and in the way create a job to millions of Americans and in the process also help bring back communities that were in the brink of complete collapse by placing these prisons in strategic locations to generate local cash flows and business.
Since Americans are losing an edge in how to create new businesses and they are losing their advantage on R&D to other parts of the world – Americans had to do something about it – and for many years one of the industries with the highest rates of growth in the United States has been in the area of building an extensive prison network system throughout the Unites States and in the way making the laws and setting up a system that believes that this is the way to go as a society.
The beauty of all is that they are doing that with the blessings of the American people and the American mainstream media - as usual - is missing in action as the United States is building this “Pathetic” system that wastes billions and billions of American tax payers year after year – and this is a system that can’t be cut overnight because of fluctuations of the business cycles – the governments federal, state and local just can’t go to the prisons and say sorry guys we don’t have the money and we need to let you guys go.
It does not work that way.
When the hard times comes back these are expenses that can’t be cut very easily – mainly when the entire system is designed to just keep building more prisons and filling them up as fast as possible when they are completed.
In the early 1970’s California had one of the best educational systems in the country – from the early 1970’s to the middle 1990’s a period covering over 25 years – California did not build a single new university, but during the same time they built 25 new prisons to incarcerate their poor population – By the year 2000 California was in the bottom of the states in the rankings related to education – that decline in quality was a direct result of the “Brain Dead” strategy being used by most states in the US in the last 30 years.
Today we have a global economy and you don’t have to be a Rocket Scientist to figure out that the “Brain Dead” strategy will have a massive impact in the US in future years – This time will not be California alone that will be going to the bottom – it will be the US as a country.
I have been aware of this trend for at least 10 years (when I spent months and months studying that subject for a chapter of my book) and at the same time this is going on there is no debate happening on in the United States on this subject - if this is the right way to go and continue investing heavily federal and states resources in that area of the US economy.*****
Nick Leeson Jr: …Regarding the high incarceration rates, so what? What is your solution? Did you know that you can't have a society without laws that have a consequence if you break them? That was very apparent in cities in Brazil last week.
*****
SouthAmerica: Today, the US criminal system it is in a Pathetic shape and it is in shambles - and it does not matter which way you analyze it.
Regarding the incarceration rates most advanced cultures around the world have better solutions than spending a fortune in tax payers’ money in a system that will just make things worse in the future for the entire country – you can’t lock up this people up forever and when they come out they are not a bunch of happy campers – it is payback time against a society that treated them like animals during a long period of time.
You said: “Did you know that you can't have a society without laws that have a consequence if you break them?”
But in the United States it is estimated that around 20 percent of the people behind bars are there because they can’t afford good lawyers or they just fall thru the cracks of a very obsolete and inefficient American judicial system - we are talking about 500,000 thousand people at least that should not be in prison in the US, but they are.
The United States is incarcerating today at least 500,000 thousand people who should not be in prison and that number is twice as much people than the total number of people who are in federal, state and local prisons in Brazil today. That is a disgrace right there.
Today, for each person who is in prison in Brazil – the United States is incarcerating ten people.
And for each person that Brazil is incarcerating the United States is incarcerating two people who should not even be in prison at all.
The crisis in Brazil has to do with drug dealers and gangs getting so powerful because there is so much money being generated by the illegal drug trade. The last thing Brazil needs is to adopt the “Brain Dead” strategy and start building thousands of prisons as in the United States.
The Brazilian problem can be solved only by making the illegal drugs legal and by the Brazilian government flooding the market with these drugs at below cost to drive everybody who participates in that business – out of business.
If there is no way to make money from the illegal drug trade – then everybody has to close shop and find a new line of business to make money.
*****
May 23, 2006
SouthAmerica: Reply to Jem
I know that it must be embarrassing for you as a lawyer and as an American for the United States to have so many people locked up on its massive prison system network – mainly when we consider that the United States market its country around the world as the “Land of the Free”.
It is the land of the free if you don’t take in consideration the 2.2 million people who are locked up in American prisons in the United States – and just God knows how many more people are locked up and being mistreated in American prisons around the world.
I did read a lot of material from multiple sources regarding the United States prison system when I was doing full time research on that subject for my book a few years ago – I did spend months reading newspaper articles, magazine articles, university and think thank research groups, and all kinds of federal and state material on that subject – and I saw the 20 percent figure for innocent people incarcerated in US prisons pop up time and time again.
It does not matter how many sources I can produce to you regarding that subject – you will challenge all of them because you don’t want to believe that the US prison system is so screwed up – mainly when you are a lawyer and a part of that system.
Over the years I have seen various television programs on PBS about the US prison system and in these programs they claim that an estimated 20 percent of the people in US prisons are there because of wrongful convictions, or they had incompetent legal help, or these people just fall thru the cracks of an obsolete system. (In many cases these are people who nobody cares about and a large number of these people are retarded or semi-retarded and they can't fight for their freedom for themselves.)
The US prison system has been turned into a dumping ground for mental patients all over the United States and many of these people are crazy and not criminals.
There are now pro bono defense clinics like the Innocence Project throughout the country, working to win innocent people their freedom. In 2004, the University of Michigan published a study of 328 criminal cases over the last 15 years in which the convicted person was exonerated, and concluded that there were thousands of innocent people in prison.
*****
“Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions”
April 19, 2004, Monday
By ADAM LIPTAK (NYT); National Desk
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 15, Column 4, 1077 words
A comprehensive study of 328 criminal cases over the last 15 years in which the convicted person was exonerated suggests that there are thousands of innocent people in prison today. Almost all the exonerations were in murder and rape cases, and that implies, according to the study, that many...
*****
“In America; How Many Innocent Prisoners?”
July 18, 1999, Sunday
By BOB HERBERT (NYT); Editorial Desk
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final, Section 4, Page 17, Column 6, 818 words
One way or another Vincent Jenkins will be freed from the Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate Dutchess County, where he has served nearly 17 years of a life sentence for a rape he didn't commit. The question now is when. DNA tests have ruled out Mr. Jenkins as...
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SouthAmerica: Reply to Jem
I know that it must be embarrassing for you as a lawyer and as an American for the United States to have so many people locked up on its massive prison system network – mainly when we consider that the United States market its country around the world as the “Land of the Free”.
It is the land of the free if you don’t take in consideration the 2.2 million people who are locked up in American prisons in the United States – and just God knows how many more people are locked up and being mistreated in American prisons around the world.
I did read a lot of material from multiple sources regarding the United States prison system when I was doing full time research on that subject for my book a few years ago – I did spend months reading newspaper articles, magazine articles, university and think thank research groups, and all kinds of federal and state material on that subject – and I saw the 20 percent figure for innocent people incarcerated in US prisons pop up time and time again.
It does not matter how many sources I can produce to you regarding that subject – you will challenge all of them because you don’t want to believe that the US prison system is so screwed up – mainly when you are a lawyer and a part of that system.
Over the years I have seen various television programs on PBS about the US prison system and in these programs they claim that an estimated 20 percent of the people in US prisons are there because of wrongful convictions, or they had incompetent legal help, or these people just fall thru the cracks of an obsolete system. (In many cases these are people who nobody cares about and a large number of these people are retarded or semi-retarded and they can't fight for their freedom for themselves.)
The US prison system has been turned into a dumping ground for mental patients all over the United States and many of these people are crazy and not criminals.
There are now pro bono defense clinics like the Innocence Project throughout the country, working to win innocent people their freedom. In 2004, the University of Michigan published a study of 328 criminal cases over the last 15 years in which the convicted person was exonerated, and concluded that there were thousands of innocent people in prison.
*****
“Study Suspects Thousands of False Convictions”
April 19, 2004, Monday
By ADAM LIPTAK (NYT); National Desk
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final, Section A, Page 15, Column 4, 1077 words
A comprehensive study of 328 criminal cases over the last 15 years in which the convicted person was exonerated suggests that there are thousands of innocent people in prison today. Almost all the exonerations were in murder and rape cases, and that implies, according to the study, that many...
*****
“In America; How Many Innocent Prisoners?”
July 18, 1999, Sunday
By BOB HERBERT (NYT); Editorial Desk
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final, Section 4, Page 17, Column 6, 818 words
One way or another Vincent Jenkins will be freed from the Green Haven Correctional Facility in upstate Dutchess County, where he has served nearly 17 years of a life sentence for a rape he didn't commit. The question now is when. DNA tests have ruled out Mr. Jenkins as...
****************
Copyright © 1999 by Ricardo C. Amaral - All rights reserved.
Ricardo C. Amaral - Author and economistHe can be reached at:
brazilamaral@yahoo.com
.
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