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A hundred years ago private prisons were a familiar feature
of American life, with disastrous consequences. Prisoners
were farmed out as slave labor. They were routinely beaten
and abused, fed slop and kept in horribly overcrowded cells.
Conditions were so wretched that by the end of the nineteenth
century private prisons were outlawed in most states.
To ratchet up profit margins, private prison companies have
cut corners on drug rehabilitation, counseling and literacy
programs. In 1995, Wackenhut was investigated for diverting
$700,000 intended for drug treatment programs at a Texas prison.
In Florida the US Corrections Corporation was found to be
in violation of a provision in its state contract that requires
prisoners to be placed in meaningful work or educational assignments.
The company had assigned 235 prisoners to be dorm orderlies
when no more than 48 were needed and enrollment in education
programs was well below what the contract called for. Such
incidents led a prisoner at a CCA facility in Tennessee to
conclude, "There is something inherently sinister about making
money from the incarceration of prisoners, and in putting
money before society's bottom line (rehabilitation)".
PERHAPS HOPELESS? Considering our situation as it is now, it is almost unstoppable
in its current situation. When an American shareholder stands
to profit from crime then we really have our interests in
the wrong place. Rehabilitation is not even discussed anymore
in place of mandatory sentencing and "Three strikes, you're
out" insanity. As of 1999, one out of every six federal prisoners is incarcerated as a result of sentences pertaining to pot. These policies have done nothing more than fill
up our prisons with nonviolent offenders - plain and simple. With private corporations vying for a
piece of the profit pie we are working towards a business
model where more prisoners equal more profit. Look at this
website
to see a large listing of businesses which have a financial interest in America's prisoner population.
It's no stretch to assume that the most "hard on crime" one can be is to advocate
the death penalty. With that in mind it's not shocking it hasn't come
up for serious consideration in recent times. Noone wants
to be the first to address the issue and risk their reelection.
Take for instance, Texecutioner George W. Bush. He was prepared
to let an overwhelmingly innocent
man die before bowing to public pressure. Below I
list some statistics that argue against state-sponsored murder:
STATISTICS:
Support for death penalty changes when alternatives are added.
When asked simply whether they favor the death penalty, 80
percent of Floridians said they did. When asked whether they
favor death penalty or life without parole, figure drops to
70 percent, and then to 60 percent when restitution is added
to the equation. Florida spends about $3.2 million on each
death row inmate, compared to about $535,000 for an average
of 40 years for each prisoner sentenced to life.
Innocent persons released from prison spent an average of
seven years between conviction and eventual release on death
row. Yet we continually press for legislation to cut this
time by limiting the window for appeals.
Since 1976, 257 African-Americans have been executed compared
to 411 whites. This statistic takes on meaning considering
that blacks only consitute 12.8 percent of the population
of the United States.
Recent crime figures from abolitionist countries fail to
show that abolition has harmful effects. In Canada, the homicide
rate per 100,000 population fell from a peak of 3.09 in 1975,
the year before the abolition of the death penalty for murder,
to 2.41 in 1980, and since then it has declined further. In
1999, 23 years after abolition, the homicide rate was 1.76
per 100,000 population, 43 per cent lower than in 1975. The
total number of homicides reported in the country fell in
1999 for the third straight year. In 1999, 75 percent of the death-penalty cases brought before the appeals
court in Florida were overturned. Florida has reversed the convictions of 20 Death Row inmates, more than any other state
in the nation.
If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated
1 out of every 20 persons (5.1%) will serve time in a prison
during their lifetime. -U.S. Dept of Justice
In the early 70s, there were about 200,000 people locked
up in the U.S. Today’s prison population of 1.8 million represents
a growth of over 800% in the past 30 years.
America spends approximately 100 billion dollars a year on
the criminal justice system, up from 12 billion in 1972.
Sources and Information on Crime and the Death Penalty:
Books:
The
Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits from Crime
Actual
Innocence
Just
Revenge
Web Links:
America's
Private Gulag
Crime,
Injustice and Genocide Quiz
Death
Penalty Info
Florida
Death Row
Innocence
Project
The Sentencing
Project
Free the West Memphis 3
Truth in Justice
Wrongfully Convicted
Database
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