Prison: The New South
Slavery went from the hands of the people to the hands of the government. Milton Meltzer stated that slavery lingers. “Slavery as an institution that degraded man to a thing has never died out. In some periods of history it has flourished: many civilizations have climbed to power and glory on the backs of slaves. In other times slaves have dwindled in number and economic importance. But never has slavery disappeared.”3 Slavery has now emerged in the United States prison system. It is now thriving in the United States economy. In addition, the prison system continues to violate constitutional and human rights.
“The nation’s 2 million inmates and their keepers are the ultimate captive market: a $37 billion economy bulging with business opportunity.”4 Many large corporations are taking advantage of the incarcerated labor force. Companies are outsourcing to the prisons for cheap labor. They agree to pay anywhere from $8 to $25 dollars per hour per inmate and from that, the prison pays the inmate $0.25 cents an hour. In addition, the prison charges the inmate half of his pay for room and board. At the end of the day, these men get a whopping $1 (one dollar) after an eight hour work day. Many corporations are jumping on the bandwagon as they don’t have to worry about paying benefits for health care or retirement plans, moreover, they never have to worry about any employee calling in sick or being late or even asking for a raise. Their employees are always on time and their unwillingness to work is punishable by isolation or an addition of thirty to ninety days of time to their sentence.
“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party.6 Given the profits and economic benefits, the government is working on keeping people in the prison system. Those that benefit from incarceration are not only lobbying to extend sentences but are also making the criteria for incarceration nominal. The passing of the three strikes laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies) for example, were a godsend for those benefiting from it. This passing required and justified the development of twenty new federal prisons. It also opened the door to many unmerited and unwarranted convictions and incarcerations. Under these laws, the following scenario could be plausible:
“An 18-year old high school senior pushes a classmate down to steal
his Michael Jordan $150 sneakers — Strike One; he gets out of jail
and shoplifts a jacket from the Bon Marche, pushing aside the clerk
as he runs out of the store — Strike Two; he gets out of jail,
straightens out, and nine years later gets in a fight in a bar and
intentionally hits someone, breaking his nose — criminal behavior,
to be sure, but hardly the crime of the century, yet it is Strike
Three. He is sent to prison for the rest of his life.”1
Life in prison for stealing a bicycle as a teenager and years later possibly bread and milk to feed hungry children after being laid off followed by getting into a physical altercation and being convicted in all three instances seems like cruel and unusual punishment. It appears that in the spirit of “preventing crime”, the bureaucrats have conveniently found every motive to justify extended and inequitable incarceration in exchange for profits. They have even written passages such as “an inmate’s assignment to a paid position is a privilege…”7 in the Title 15 Prevention and Corrections of the State of California Code of Regulations that governs prisoners’ rights. What isn’t said is that the assignment is forced upon them for pennies a day. The government has found a way to legalize and continue the tradition of slavery hence violating human rights.
Correctional facilities are part of a booming financial system that it is now making its way into youth facilities. These facilities are in the business of making big money and many prisons are now privately owned. From 2002 through 2006 “County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups,”5 run by privately owned institutions. The judges extended sentences and kept these teenagers in youth detention facilities longer than their sentenced time for minor violations. These violations consisted of writing a prank note and making a MySpace webpage anecdote on an Assistant Principle. These judges violated the constitutional and human rights of thousands of kids for a payoff. One child was sentenced to three months and was kept a total of eleven months. This extended confinement was never explained to the family and the teenager never saw the judge during that time to extend her sentence.
How disproportionate is our prison system that the United States has approximately 2 million people incarcerated where China has four times the population and only has 1.6 million people in prison.2 The US benefits from keeping people in jail. It has been in the business of outsourcing labor to prisons since after the Civil War of the 1860s and it hasn’t changed. The only change is that it is now in the hands of the government, not the people. Slavery still exists in our nation. Abraham Lincoln once said, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” The United States has found a way to say that slavery is not wrong by legalizing it and transposing it to “an inmate’s assignment to a paid position is a privilege…”7 and then instilling it in the people’s minds. “Slavery as an institution that degraded man to a thing has never died out … never has slavery disappeared.”3
References:
1. “10 Reasons To Oppose “3 Strikes, You’re Out.” The ‘Lectric Law Library. 28 Mar. 2010 <http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cri01.htm>.
2. “Inmate Count in U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations’.” The New York Times. 2008. 28 Mar. 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html>.
3. Meltzer, Milton., Slavery: A World History. New York. Da Capo Press, Inc., 1993.
4. Myser, Michael. “The Hard Sell.” CNNMoney.com. 2007. 27 Mar. 2010 <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/12/01/8394995/index.htm>.
5. “Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash.” MSNBC. 2009. 28 Mar. 2010 <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29142654/>.
6. Pelaez, Vicky. “The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?”. GlobalResearch.ca. 2008. 13 Mar. 2010 <http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8289>.
7. “Title 15. Crime Prevention and Corrections.” State of California, California Code of Regulations. 2006. 28 Mar. 2010 <http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Regulations/Adult_Operations/docs/Title152006Final.pdf>.
8. “Total Correctional Population” Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2010. 28 Mar. 2010 <http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=11>.
© 2010, Rocio Guerra. All rights reserved.
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