There are material deficiencies in the integrity of the republic. These are conditions that if not addressed threaten the very existence of our culture. These are conditions that stand in stark contrast to the “American values” we insist are fundamental and foundational and yet have been with us from day one.
One of those conditions is the state of the “prison-industrial complex.” Imprisoning what Charles Dicken’s character Ebenezer Scrooge termed, “the surplus population” is a tradition of long standing among Euro-Anglos. Consider that what is now the U.S. State of George and also the country of Australia were for England just big low budget, revenue generating prisons. This matters because it is minorities, racial and ethnic who are imprisoned and minorities will soon comprise the majority. Recently we the people paid twice as much to the prison-industrial complex than we pay for homeland security.
Those victimized by the systemic racism perpetuated in a self-sustaining way by the very most basic elements of our culture (the profit generating prison-industrial complex, the door-closing apartheid public education system among others) don’t just include Blacks and Hispanics. The system is equally brutal to poor White men, women and children.
Consider this; in 1970’s America our prison population was roughly 300,000. Fast forward two generations to 2010 and that population has (pardon the expression) shot upwards of 2.3 million---a 700% increase! What happened?
Among other things between 1975 and 1991 there was no military quagmire or draft into which to throw our “surplus population.” So what is an oligarch to do with all of these Black, Brown and poor White people? This is a case study in social engineering aided by far too many factors to detail here in one fell swoop.
We’ll begin with the back story behind Arizona’s SB 1070 a law that, at least on its face, was said to be all about “illegals.” It is in fact about capitalistic and opportunistic oppression through an institutionalized form of racism that is seen in its best light a carry-over from the slave-holding days of the South.
“Glenn Nichols, city manager of Benson, Ariz., says two men came to the city last year talking about building a facility to hold women and children that were illegals."
Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law
NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741
"Enough is enough," Pearce said in his office, sitting under a banner reading "Let Freedom Reign." "People need to focus on the cost of not enforcing our laws and securing our border. It is the Trojan horse destroying our country and a republic cannot survive as a lawless nation."
But instead of taking his idea to the Arizona statehouse floor, Pearce first took it to a hotel conference room.
It was last December at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C. Inside, there was a meeting of a secretive group called the American Legislative Exchange Council. Insiders call it ALEC.
It's a membership organization of state legislators and powerful corporations and associations, such as the tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., ExxonMobil and the National Rifle Association. Another member is the billion-dollar Corrections Corporation of America — the largest private prison company in the country. [emphasis mine]
What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.”
"They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community," Nichols said, "the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate."
But Nichols wasn't buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years — decades even — with illegal immigrants?
"They talked like they didn't have any doubt they could fill it," Nichols said.
The prison company didn't have to file a lobbying report or disclose any gifts to legislators.
State Immigration Measures Show Business Influence
So, for example, last December Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce sat in a hotel conference room with representatives from the Corrections Corporation of America and several dozen others. The group voted on model legislation that was introduced into the Arizona legislature two months later, almost word for word.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130891396
At the state Capitol, campaign donations started to appear.
Thirty of the 36 co-sponsors received donations over the next six months, from prison lobbyists or prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America, Management and Training Corporation and The Geo Group.
By April, the bill was on Gov. Jan Brewer's desk.
Brewer has her own connections to private prison companies. State lobbying records show two of her top advisers — her spokesman Paul Senseman and her campaign manager Chuck Coughlin — are former lobbyists for private prison companies. Brewer signed the bill — with the name of the legislation Pearce, the Corrections Corporation of America and the others in the Hyatt conference room came up with — in four days.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130891396
“It is an amazing fact that America has a disproportionate percentage of its overall population in prison. Senator Jim Webb (VA) tells us that:
“More than 1 in 100 adults in the United States are now behind bars. 1 in 31 are in prison, probation or parole. The U.S. with 5% of the world's population now has 25% of the world's prisoners. Incarceration of drug offenders has risen 1,200% since 1980 from 41,000 to 500,000. The appetite of the American prison machine is voracious. Each year 7 million Americans are jailed and approximately 700,000 go on to serve prison sentences. When a racial prism is added to these numbers the stark reality of racial unfairness is impossible to deny. And now women and girls are the fastest growing group of prisoners.” Can Senator Webb Lead America Out of the Drug War Quagmire? http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Drug_War/SenatorWebb_WarOnDrugs.html
The tricks, ploys and cute euphemisms used to convince “we the people” how important prisons are to our “national security” “security of our borders” are the same Euro Anglo a/k/a White People tricks, ploys and cute eurphemisms used to steal this hemisphere and everything in it from those whom Euro Anglos (White People) now term “illegal aliens.”
Consider “Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce [who] says the bill was his idea. He says it's not about prisons. It's about what's best for the country.” Which country would that be?
There is no nice “polite” ,“diplomatic” way to state the fact that “racism is” as was said long ago by a patriot from another era, “as American as cherry pie.” Doing so would only excuse away the inexcusable cause of oh so many of the endemic issues---root causes of the dilemma people of color have endured and endure in America today.
It is that public policy that has those of us of color in our current station. It is that public policy that only awareness, education and involvement in our participatory governance can change---but that requires turning off “American Idol” and your favorite “reality show” at least long enough to get the facts.
The true “reality show” is happening to us right now. Only we can change it. Elections 2010 matters.
From Texas Red: a cratered landscape of prisons, deplorable apartheid public education, lack of healthcare and politicians and majority population intent on keeping it that way…
Hasta Siempre,
More:
Slavery by Another Name
http://www.amazon.com/Slavery-Another-Name-Re-Enslavement-Americans/dp/0385506252
Slavery by Another Name (blog)
http://www.npr.org/blogs/talk/2008/03/slavery_by_another_name.html
Illusions of Justice
http://www.amazon.com/Illusions-Justice-Rights-Violations-United/dp/0934936005/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282216290&sr=1-1
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rope,_the_Chair,_and_the_Needle:_Capital_Punishment_in_Texas,_1923-1990
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=The+Rope%2C+the+Chair%2C+and+the+Needle%3A+Capital+Punishment+in+Texas%2C+1923-1990&ih=1_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0.2973_1&fsc=-1&x=19&y=17
The Politics of Heroin: and the CIA’s Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Heroin-Complicity-Global-Trade/dp/1556524838
Protecting our Borders
http://www.youtube.com/user/NativismWatchTV?feature=pyv&ad=5506706371&kw=immigration#p/u/0/XvBwuAtetl4
The Green War on Immigrants
http://www.youtube.com/user/NativismWatchTV?ad=5506706371&kw=immigration
Man Cleared After 9 Years in Prison
http://news.aol.com/article/edwin-chandler-cleared-in-slaying/716286?icid=main
htmlws-main dl1 link3http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fedwin-chandler-cleared-in-slaying%2F716286
Dean Cage: Wrongfully Convicted, Moving Forward
And here is the figure that no one should be shocked about: 146 of the 245 people who have been cleared using DNA evidence are African-American.
http://www.bvblackspin.com/2009/10/26/dean-cage/?icid=main
htmlws-main-wdl5link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bvblackspin.com%2F2009%2F10%2F26%2Fdean-cage%2F
Institutionalized racism at the center of public education’s problems (part 2)
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-18764-San-Antonio-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d9-Institutionalized-racism-at-the-center-of-public-educations-problems-part-2
A NEW GENERATION OF NATIVE SONS: Men of Color and the Prison-Industrial Complex
http://www.naacp.org/advocacy/theadvocate/rat_sped/july_07/native_son/index.htm
On Trial: The Prison-Industrial Complex
http://cinema.cornell.edu/series/ontrial.html
The High School Dropout's Economic Ripple Effect
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122455013168452477.html
Texas’ School-to-Prison Pipeline: Dropout to Incarceration
http://www.texasappleseed.net/STPP%20Short.ppt
Tavis Smiley interviews Michelle Alexander
There are more African-American men in prison in America today (2010) than were enslaved in 1860.
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/201003/20100319.html
Elections 2010: a systemic pattern of disenfranchisement, racism and bigotry “American as cherry pie”
http://www.examiner.com/bexar-county-elections-2010-in-san-antonio/a-systemic-pattern-of-disenfranchisement-racism-and-bigotry-american-as-cherry-pie
