American Prison Beds
for Sale:
The Sinister Convictions
of Our Golden State
By Jessica Holter
When I first conceived the idea that American citizens with family members
in prison should consider investing in the fast growing industry, to raise
money for legal defense, I fear my friends thought I was just ranting. But just
today, I found out that even church folks are becoming stockholders.
Welcome to the new age plantation.
For those of you who are not aware that the prison system is fast
becoming a privatized, extremely lucrative business, let us take a look at how
this is possible.
On January 31st, 1865, The United States, having exhausted their use
for black slaves, proposed the Thirteenth Amendment in such a way that would
allow the practice to continue today, through our prison system.
In case you have not read the constitution lately, the Thirteenth
Amendment does not actually abolish all slavery. It reads as
follows:
“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.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.”
In the 1980’s someone conceived the great idea to privatize the prison
system, and the US government has been appropriating young men to legislate
ever since. To be exact, there are 2 million prisoners in the United States at
any given time. About 3 quarters of them are African American and Hispanic. In
fact, statistics expose that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison
population, but only 5% of the world's people. We have more prisoners than
China, which has five times more people!
But relax my friends. It’s just business. A business run by a country
that found no fault in slavery, until it was no longer economically viable. So,
while your sons and brothers, cousins and friends are being rehabilitated, let
us talk a little business.
What is a Private Prison?
The privatization of the American prison system involves building new
prisons, and shifting control of existing public prisons to private companies.
The private companies receive money from federal and local governments for
every prison bed that is filled with the body of a prisoner. The prisoners are
then taught a craft and employed at sweat shop labor wages to create product
which will be mass produced and distributed on the international market.
In 1983 Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), a private company
based in Nashville, Tennessee, was founded, revolutionizing the business of
incarceration. Three years ago CCA won contracts in California and has seen the
value of its contracts with our golden state soar from nearly $23 million in
2006 to about $700 million three months ago. Even in a state accustomed to
inflated budgets for contracts, the 31-fold swell over three years is striking.
Companies that are have financial ties to the prison industrial complex
include American Express, General Electric, Goldman Sachs & Co, Merrill
Lynch, Smith Barney, AT&T, 3Com, Microsoft, Motorola, Boeing, Nordstrom,
Compaq, J P Morgan Chase, Vanguard, Nortel Eddie Bauer, Pierre Cardin,
Honeywell, Revlon, IBM, TWA, Jostens, Texas Instruments, Kaiser Steel, Toys R
Us, MCI, McDonald's and even our beloved Victoria's Secret.
The Golden Business
Contemporary slaves don’t pick cotton. They produce 100% of all helmets,
ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and
canteens used by the US Military. They assemble war supplies, body armor,
paints and paintbrushes, stoves, home appliances, office furniture, airplane
parts, cooking supplies, medical supplies, headphones/microphones/speakers and
much more. Prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people. Today,
the trade of prison goods and services in California alone, has grown into a
$234 million annual industry. So, if you think these brown brothers are
just pushing numbers into the metal plate you sport on your car or SUV, you are
mistaken. In fact, more than 20 California prisons operate more than 60
manufacturing, service and agricultural industries. And whether to like it or
not, we all consume, wear or otherwise use prison made products.
Picture the twisted plot of young men, who began in the late 70’s rapping
over synthesized beats about the sinful plight of their neighborhoods, morphing
into the very image the songs depict. Within the lyrics of even the first hood
mantra
Rappers Delight, you can feel the pain and hear the call to
combat against the perils of poverty. But instead of salvation, these young
men, became the catalysts for a hip hop clothing line that that insultingly
boasts the tag line “built on the inside to be worn on the outside”.
Prison Blues has found a market in the
United States, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, where a fascination with hip
hop and “gangsta” lifestyles has elevated the price of these jeans to one
comparable to Levi’s… often reaching more than $80 a pair. In the first year of
business, Prison Blues grossed over $1.2 million in export revenues.
All American Store manager Jessi Purvis sets up a display of Prison
Blues clothing, a line of work clothes made in U.S. prisons, at the
Brookville store. The store sells hardware only American-made (or
assembled in America) – there are no power tools except for two models
of specialty saws because none are made in America any more. Staff photo
by by Jim Witmer
And now, even you, my friend, can invest in this new age slavery that offers
per diem payment for every California prison bed that is filled. The Howard
Jarvis Taxpayers Association study alleges that California spends a $162 per
prisoner per diem, per day; the highest in the nation. A poor man is worth more
in prison that on the outside. Since the mid 90’s there has been public
outcry to criminalize immigrants. Not to send them home, but to incarcerate
them. The number of immigrants imprisoned increased from 256,842 (2006) to
311,169 (2007). The next time your underpants are in a bunch about Hispanics
taking your jobs, think about how many of them are taking your place in jail.
For the tycoons, politicians, businesses and other citizens who have
invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold –
especially in the “Golden State”. Investors don't have to worry about employee
strikes or about paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of
their workers are full-time, and never arrive late. Nor are they absent
because of family problems. They are absent from their families, and available
to work whenever the prison guards say they should. If they don't like the pay
of about .25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation
cells.
The PIA (Prison Industry of America) is a state-operated organization
created by the Legislature in 1982 to provide work and job skills for inmates.
The intent was "to operate a work program for prisoners which will
ultimately be self-supporting by generating sufficient funds from the sale of
products and services to pay all the expenses of the program, and one which
will provide goods and services which are or will be used by the California
Department of Corrections (CDC), thereby reducing the cost of its
operation." The PIA's programs are supposed to help inmates in finding
employment upon parole, reduce prison violence, reimburse crime victims and save
taxpayer dollars. (I am still looking for information on how much money is
being returned to taxpayers by these private corporations.) The PIA has a great
con going, using slave labor to make quality products that are guaranteed to
sell by mandate of California Penal Code Section 2807. The code requires state
agencies to purchase from the Prison Industry Authority (PIA) “all products and
services provided by PIA at a price fixed by the Prison Industry Board.”
Now, grieving mothers, families, friends and young lovers can even
forget about putting money on their loved ones books. We can simply
request a catalog of items that are available for purchase and return it with a
Green Dot card number. We can simply visit
www.jpay.com.
Today, even churches are in on the investment. Inspired by the legacy of the
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., they say, "Strength to Love" is a
movement to re-imagine the incarceration system and end the injustices of
incarceration and re-entry. The Church of Christ, Right Now, says they have
been called to bring about change and hope to the prison system. They bought
shares of stock in the privatized prison industry, and assigned ownership of
those shares to ex-offenders. Now the formers slaves are owners of the
plantations that once held them captive. The church members chronicle their
trip to the annual shareholders' meeting of the Corrections Corporation of
America online
HERE.
Now, you too, can invest and experience the powerful embrace of the
almighty dollar as you accept rewards like those available from
Corrections
Corp of America CoreCivic (
NYSE: CXW),
Cornell Companies
(
NYSE: CRN),
Geo Group (
NYSE: GEO).
by Jessica Holter
All right reserved
Copyright 2010
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