"It's been a long time comin"
So, I've wanted to make an entry on prisons/decarceration forever, but never knew where to start. I saw an article on alternet that seems like a fair enough place to begin. For those that don't know (much) about the prison industrial complex, this is a decent place to learn. La Linque
some good excerpts from the article:
"For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment, health or worker's comp insurance, vacation or comp time. All of their workers are full time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if prisoners refuse to work, they are moved to disciplinary housing and lose canteen privileges. Most importantly, they lose "good time" credit that reduces their sentence."
"The nation's prison industry now employees nearly three quarters of a million people, more than any Fortune 500 corporation, other than General Motors."
***"In fact, prison labor has its roots in slavery. Following reconstruction, former Confederate Democrats instituted "convict leasing." Black inmates, mostly freed slaves convicted of petty theft, were rented out to do everything from picking cotton to building railroads. In Mississippi, a huge farm, resembling a slave plantation replaced convict leasing. The infamous Parchman Farm was not closed until 1972, when inmates brought suit against the abusive conditions in federal court."***
"Prisoners now manufacture everything from blue jeans, to auto parts, to electronics and furniture. Honda has paid inmates $2 an hour for doing the same work an auto worker would get paid $20 to $30 an hour to do."
If you're thinking "well they're prisoners, so I don't care," first off, fuck you, second of all, we'll see how little you care when you are replaced by a prison laborer because of that last quote I listed.
One of the greatest gifts I ever got was signed book of Nikki Giovanni "poems and not quite poems." At the end of one of the (I assume) not quite poems where she was talking about a moment before she was going to have surgery for her lung cancer, she says this:
"I don't believe in prisons. I don't like them. I do believe that we, society, have enough information to know that prisons don’t do any good. They don't really punish the wrongdoers; they don't comfort the victims. They do send people back into the streets who are more efficiently vicious than before they left. They do, no matter how this nation puts it, have a class and color component that corresponds in other nations with "political prisoner." In the United States we charge them with drug dealing or sexual imposition. Other nations just say "We don't like you." But I have this problem with capital punishment. Society decides to kill someone who, usually, has shot a 7-Eleven clerk or something like that because if you have shot your parents down in cold blood you can plead poor parenting and get a hung jury and in so doing this very dirty, cynical business we offer a prayer and a last meal. I can see the comfort of prayer because for those who believe or want to believe there is a God this may offer a help but a last meal? Whatever for? Is it some sort of societal recognition that the people we put to death have never had a decent meal in their lives? How cynical of us to think all is well. We feed them and read them a nighttime story... "Now I lay me down to sleep." I was staying at my favorite hotel with its great kitchen and excellent wine cellar. Somehow I really didn't want any food. It seemed too much the condemned person. And I definitely didn't want to tempt the Gods."
some good excerpts from the article:
"For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment, health or worker's comp insurance, vacation or comp time. All of their workers are full time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if prisoners refuse to work, they are moved to disciplinary housing and lose canteen privileges. Most importantly, they lose "good time" credit that reduces their sentence."
"The nation's prison industry now employees nearly three quarters of a million people, more than any Fortune 500 corporation, other than General Motors."
***"In fact, prison labor has its roots in slavery. Following reconstruction, former Confederate Democrats instituted "convict leasing." Black inmates, mostly freed slaves convicted of petty theft, were rented out to do everything from picking cotton to building railroads. In Mississippi, a huge farm, resembling a slave plantation replaced convict leasing. The infamous Parchman Farm was not closed until 1972, when inmates brought suit against the abusive conditions in federal court."***
"Prisoners now manufacture everything from blue jeans, to auto parts, to electronics and furniture. Honda has paid inmates $2 an hour for doing the same work an auto worker would get paid $20 to $30 an hour to do."
If you're thinking "well they're prisoners, so I don't care," first off, fuck you, second of all, we'll see how little you care when you are replaced by a prison laborer because of that last quote I listed.
One of the greatest gifts I ever got was signed book of Nikki Giovanni "poems and not quite poems." At the end of one of the (I assume) not quite poems where she was talking about a moment before she was going to have surgery for her lung cancer, she says this:
"I don't believe in prisons. I don't like them. I do believe that we, society, have enough information to know that prisons don’t do any good. They don't really punish the wrongdoers; they don't comfort the victims. They do send people back into the streets who are more efficiently vicious than before they left. They do, no matter how this nation puts it, have a class and color component that corresponds in other nations with "political prisoner." In the United States we charge them with drug dealing or sexual imposition. Other nations just say "We don't like you." But I have this problem with capital punishment. Society decides to kill someone who, usually, has shot a 7-Eleven clerk or something like that because if you have shot your parents down in cold blood you can plead poor parenting and get a hung jury and in so doing this very dirty, cynical business we offer a prayer and a last meal. I can see the comfort of prayer because for those who believe or want to believe there is a God this may offer a help but a last meal? Whatever for? Is it some sort of societal recognition that the people we put to death have never had a decent meal in their lives? How cynical of us to think all is well. We feed them and read them a nighttime story... "Now I lay me down to sleep." I was staying at my favorite hotel with its great kitchen and excellent wine cellar. Somehow I really didn't want any food. It seemed too much the condemned person. And I definitely didn't want to tempt the Gods."