The Prison System Is Becoming Big Business in America - The American Gulags

reply to post by VoidHawk


It's going global................it's free or cheap labor like the Russian Gulags.

People in one country don't care about what is happening elsewhere because they don't think the brown stuff is ever going to hit their fan.

The bullies never stop bullying that is the problem and they are getting smart.

Now they don't openly assassinate people, they give them fatal "accidents or suicides".

Divide and conquer - works every time and we've been through this all before but humanity never seems to learn.

A slave that has no idea they are enslaved will never rebel.

A prisoner that has no idea they are imprisoned will never try to escape.

And yes some cages are coated with golden paint but they are cages never the less.

Humanity has allowed this tyranny to descend upon us...................we have been warned but chose to either laugh at the messengers or deny altogether what was happening.

We all have nobody else to blame but ourselves.

Love is the answer, everything else is an illusion - David Icke

1997 - 15 years ago

Prison without the bars



Prisons with bars / and the companies that benefit from your enslavement.

The U.S. has more people in jail than any other country. The General Accounting Office says the number of inmates has tripled since 1980. In this program, recorded in Colorado Springs, Angela Davis discusses how race, class and gender issues intersect with the drug war and the fast-growing prison industry.

reply to post by Ladysophiaofsandoz


Starred and I wish I could physically hug you because we lost our grand daughter the same way and we already spent $28,000.

Her mother now calls her "stupid and retarded" instead of by her name................what is this doing to her psyche BUT THE SYSTEM DOESN'T CARE because they see another "cheap laborer" in the making.

I've gotten to know lawyers and judges and most of them SUCK. They are in it for money.

Go back and watch the video I provided by Angela Davis...........she talks about slavery we are permitting (now we call it incarceration).

Very good video, she brings up many valid points and the video below expands upon the first video I provided.



Description of video above:

UC Santa Cruz professor Angela Davis explores the range of social problems associated with incarceration and the generalized criminalization of those communities that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination. She urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement. [2/2008] [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 13826]

While this is a long video, I encourage everyone that finds this thread interesting to view it, in it's entirety because this is a multiple and complex problem. We, the common man are slowly being locked down - the slaughter house and prison trucks are already here............if everyone does not band together and fight this tyranny, our many unjust and stupid laws - all of us will eventually be affected.

Listen closely to the information on Ronald Reagan.

This is a issue about human rights..............don't care, well this if not stopped will eventually affect every single one of you IF you are not one of the elite 1%.

There are two sets of law: One for the common man and none for the elite.

People need to put aside their distractions and refuse to remain compliant to "the system" because our current "system" is now so corrupt we really need to revolutionize it.

It is time for real change and that change must take place with all of us united together for the betterment of all, not just the few, the elite, the haves and have mores.

The only reason the USA has more people in prison than the Chinese is because China murders it citizens.

If we actually executed the murder's we would probably be tied...

reply to post by ofhumandescent


Guaranteed 90% full? Unbelievable. Profit rules.

With those terms, states and the Feds are way better off going back to the government run systems.



S&F&

reply to post by Witness2008


Perhaps when it affects (comes home to roost) on your doorstep you will realize the true depth of this tyranny.

Watch, wait, it will eventually affect someone close to you...............cheap labor, slavery.

Steal a loaf of bread, sell a couple ounces of a green weed plant we cannot name and you may find yourself in jail.

Steal a group of old worker's pensions, steal a house from a couple that have paid faithfully and regularly for 28 years and have one medical issue or a job outsourced and you are promoted to bank president.

Steal big (but within the "law") and you become rich.

Steal small (but stupid enough to get caught) and you go to jail.

George W. Bush Jr. openly and knowingly lied about 911 (His administration may have even arranged it) yet he is now retired on a 100,000 acre ranch in Paraguay. He is responsible for the mass murder / called war that destroyed millions of lives. Yet he goes free.

Bradley Manning, who whistle blew to the public on atrocities being committed has now been imprisoned without trial for over 522 days with 250+ days in solitary confinement as well as being beaten up (google his image).

We are all being enslaved and the bulk of you are so mucking stupid you don't even see the train coming yet remain on the tracks....................hurry, get off the mucking tracks the train is coming.

"Slavery has not been completely abolished, only renamed". - Angela Davis.

(I use to think this woman was a radical nut, like David Icke)................yet decades later I now have myself come up with the opinion that many people I use to think were conspiracy nuts, now maybe were justhad more fore sight than the majority of us.

If you don't have time to view this whole video, send the link to yourself at home, download it and watch it in pieces.

This video was made in 2003 - over a 8 years ago, our prison population has more than doubled.

Don't care - again, once this tyranny begins to affect you, you will than care and by then it may be too late if it isn't already.

Get this.................rich people usually don't go to prison, only "the commoner".

We have two lawyers in the family. You have enough money, power, fame and or connections - you can pretty much get away with murder.

reply to post by ofhumandescent


I had a look round the web to see if there was anything to back up the OP's claim, and good God there is a lot of stuff out there, I would like to put this up to see if this makes anyone else's blood boil:

Much of the recent prison upsurge has been attributed to the Three Strikes Law, a sentencing law originally intended to put murderers, rapists and hard-core violent criminals in prison for a long time. Since its universal incorporation in 1994, the three strikes law through its abuse and popularity has expanded to include individuals with minor offenses, virtually locking up tens of thousands of individuals for life for crimes such as drug possession or shoplifting.

During the Prison Industrial Complex workshop held Feb. 15 at the World Saviours’ Day 2002 convention, panelists concluded that the growing trend in usage of the law is not an accident.

"We have to educate the public in order to pass an initiative," said Dennis Duncan, of Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes (FACTS) Los Angeles chapter. "You may be able to get it on the ballot, but you have people vote for it. So you have to educate people and let them know what the situation is and how the three strikes law has been abused over these years."

No one denies that prisons are big business in America. Like the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex is an interlacing of private business and government interests. Its dual intention is one of profit and social control. In public, the rationale is the fight against crime, but the bottom line, the presenters said, is dollars and cents.

"We have to provide a moral solution for our children and our households," said Imam Antar Jannah, who told attendees that sometimes the approach to the problem has to be more than political. "We have to let our children know that they essentially are setting themselves up to go to jail for the rest of their lives. They are setting themselves up to destroy their own communities, lives, and family life. And if they want to take that course, they are going to have to suffer the consequences," he said.

"We have to build coalitions and attack those things that effect our community," said facilitator and the Nation of Islam West Coast Prison Minister Charles Muhammad. "There are a whole lot of innocent people being stretched out with these long sentences for crimes that don’t fit the punishment."

"What we need is to create our own philanthropic network that will fund any project that we want to keep our organizations working for us in this way operable," said Nation of Islam National Prison Min. Abdullah Muhammad. "This is why the Million Family March Economic Development Fund, created by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, is necessary. Because then we can go to our organizations, inquire about their budget and then put the money in place and make sure they work for us."

Presenters on the panel also included Dr. Donald Evans of NABSIO, Sis. Arisah Muhammad and Sis. Victoria Aguilera.

"Prison labor is what this is really about," said Sis. Sabah Muhammad. "There are so many people in prison for petty crimes, just so that private industry can have labor from 9 cents an hour." "Labor unions can get involved," said Mr. Evans. "Prison labor infringes upon those labor unions and the jobs they used to provide," he told the audience and cited precedence from an Arizona prison where inmates unionized, held a strike, and won their fight for standard minimum wage earnings.

Private correction companies also benefit strongly from the prison growth. Investment firm Smith Barney is part owner of a prison in Florida. American Express and General Electric have invested in private prison construction in Oklahoma and Tennessee. Correctional Corporation of America (CCA), one of the largest private prison owners, already operates internationally, with more than 48 facilities in 11 states, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

Under contract by government to run jails and prisons, and paid a fixed sum per prisoner, the profit motive mandates that these firms operate as cheaply and efficiently as possible. This results in lower wages for staff, no unions, and fewer services for prisoners. Private contracts also means less public scrutiny.

"If I own a prison, it’s like a plantation. The state gives me the slaves (prisoners) and I can make them work for me," said Imam Jannah. "This is the fastest growth industry in America. And multiple industries are involved in predicting the future of inmates entering the penal institutions

reply to post by boncho


Don't legalize holding someone up at gun point or beating someone up.

But, do legalize non hard drugs and make sure that everyone that wants a job can get a job.

Don't pay someone billions of dollars to act in a movie and the people that do the real work not even enough to live a half way decent life.

The system is so unfair, so corrupt that it's getting to be (not there yet) that only those engaged in black market or "gray areas" are going to be able to survive.

And again, this is going global.

Our "prison system" is being marketed as big business and we have all seen when businesses are not regulated and allowed to run amok.....................they ALWAYS put profit $$$$ before people.

The few reap the labors of the many and that is not right.

It is time the majority of people stood up, united and rebelled against this tyranny.

But most either don't choose to see it or in such a state of denial it's not funny.

Once the take over is complete there will be no turning back, we will, as Alex Jones put it be caught within a "prison planet".

We have nobody but ourselves to blame.............we ridicule and laugh the messengers all the while allowing this injustice to prevail.

reply to post by windsorblue


Starred and wish I could transfer some of my stars over to you. You are seeing what is going on.

Under contract by government to run jails and prisons, and paid a fixed sum per prisoner, the profit motive mandates that these firms operate as cheaply and efficiently as possible. This results in lower wages for staff, no unions, and fewer services for prisoners. Private contracts also means less public scrutiny.

"If I own a prison, it’s like a plantation. The state gives me the slaves (prisoners) and I can make them work for me," said Imam Jannah. "This is the fastest growth industry in America. And multiple industries are involved in predicting the future of inmates entering the penal institutions

It's still slavery but they just now call it by a different name and justify it with their propaganda.

Many people are in prison for years for minor crimes, they just had a cruddy lawyer.

While the rich that can afford "justice" get away with real serious crimes (war, murder, mass killing, drug cartel, arms sales, etc) and go free, even profit handsomely.

It's all insane, the system we have now MUST CHANGE or all of us "commoners" will eventually be affected.

This is such an important topic and I'm happy to see that this thread is getting the attention it deserves. I've written a few threads about Florida wanting to privatize its prisons, but they never garner much attention. People need to be concerned with this. It's going to lead to some horrible activities that we may or may not hear about. The privitization of juvenile facilities is truly frightening.

One thing that I recently became aware of is that FCAT and other standardized tests enable more prison cells to be built. For every child that doesn't score high enough on the reading portion, one prison cell is scheduled to be built. This isn't just in Florida, but Florida recently made the FCAT even more difficult.

Again, please note that this is not just happening in Florida.
tryingtofollow.com...

Indiana’s former governor has stated that determining the number of new prisons to build is based, in part, on the number of second graders not reading at second-grade level.

In California they plan how many jail cells they will build in the future by how many children are not reading on grade level by third grade.

“Based on this year’s fourth-grade reading scores,” observes Paul Schwartz, a Coalition principal in residence at the U. S. Department of Education, “California is already planning the number of new prison cells it will need in the next century.”

David Boulton: We were interviewing Lesley Morrow, the Past-President of the International Reading Association, and she made a statement which flabbergasted me. She said this was a fact: that there are some states that determine how many prison cells to build based on reading scores.

Dr. Grover (Russ) Whitehurst: Yes. Again, the predictability of reading for life success is so strong, that if you look at the proportion of middle schoolers who are not at the basic level, who are really behind in reading, it is a very strong predictor of problems with the law and the need for jails down the line.

Literacy for societies, literacy for states, literacy for individuals is a powerful determinate of success. The opposite of success is failure and clearly, being in jail is a sign of failure.

People who don’t read well have trouble earning a living. It becomes attractive to, in some cases the only alternative in terms of gaining funds, to violate the law and steal, to do things that get you in trouble. Few options in some cases other than to pursue that life. Of course reading opens doors.

You will read articles that say this is a fallacy, but I promise you it's true. I wasn't aware of the FCAT/prison cell connection until a former social worker and friend pointed this out to me.

Now, we know the real agenda behind Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program.

reply to post by doobydoll


I possibly am not voting....................my vote doesn't count anyway.

See "the Hacking of Democracy" video.

TPTB have already decided who will be the next puppet.

Now, how to stop it - it would take EVERYONE or such a large number of people the "system" would grind to a halt and that ain't gonna happen.

Any other ideas out there?

We need change, real change, drastic and fair change and fast.

Originally posted by VoidHawk
Those stats about your prisons are terrible!!!

The same is happening in the uk, Touch the weed and go to prison. Steal an old ladys house and expect promotion.

S&F

FLAG THIS THREAD.

edit on 8-3-2012 by VoidHawk because: (no reason given)

51st state, nuff said.

reply to post by TKDRL


Very short, sweet and to the point.................you see what's going on clearly.

We have two lawyers in the family and you're 110% correct.

Money, power and connections buy you "justice" or a free ticket to do what you want.

Think if your kid pulled all the frap Lindsey Lohan did she would be out free?

reply to post by liejunkie01


Do more research.

If a factory worker made the helmets he/she would be paid at least minimum wage.............in a jail they are paid what $5.00 a week?

Can you spell s.l.a.v.e.r.y. _ l.a.b.o.r.

It's corporations new way of getting free or dirt cheap labor.

WTFU

The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery? by Vicky Pelaez link here: www.globalresearch.ca...

Do you read or research?????

I am so tired of having to spoon feed people that simply are too lazy to either care or research.

reply to post by lostbook


Short, sweet, awake and aware..................you got it and expressed it better than me in fewer words.

reply to post by Flavian


Then things need to change..............slavery is slavery and I myself am against slave labor.

reply to post by ofhumandescent


people have a choice if they will end up in jail or not. they can choose to break the law and face the consequences or they can follow the rules and not have any problems. i am 45 yrs old and i have never even gotten a ticket. on the rare occasion that i see police, i don't really pay attention to them because i know it has nothing to do with me. i don't drink, i don't touch drugs and i don't get into trouble. yes, my life may sound a little dull, but i'll take dull over jail and day of the week.

reply to post by ofhumandescent


Most crime rates are falling across the US , so to keep the 90% quota , people will be held for lesser crimes now.

All crimes are bad, but Justice wont be served when a specific number has to be maintained.

I've been saying for a long time that this is a class warfare issue!! A rich person hires an expensive lawyer for said crime and gets a slap on the hand. A poor person without access to an expensive lawyer for the same crime gets the shaft and winds up sucked into the sytem. They wind up sitting in jail and losing what little money they would have made and then if they get out they end up paying hefty fines for 10 years!

reply to post by chopperswolf


Tell us more about your ordeal, come forth..........like what was your crime?

Interesting to hear from a insider.

Any other inmates out there care to whistle blow?

If not now, when it's safe, (if ever).

Again for all you folks out there that say "who cares, doesn't affect me".

Keep letting the bullies bully and yes eventually your turn will come.

We need to change the system................it's corrupt, rotten to the core.

Chopper, sorry you had to go through that torture and that is exactly what it was torture which is supposedly against your rights as an American Citizen.............but than do we really have rights anymore?

Originally posted by jrod
It is getting worse no doubt. I knew the justice system was broken but did not how bad until I got "in the system."

Many police officers love to arrest people in a perverted way, to the point where they find excuses to make arrest and are rewarded for their 'crime fighting' efforts. The court system is anything but fair and money will buy your way out of trouble, prosecutors want to get convictions. The probation system is a racketeering scheme and rigged to keep people in the system. Prisons get very cheap labor out of the prisoners and there are rules in prison that if broken will lengthen one's sentence without a trial or due process. If one manages one to finish their jail/probation sentence they will have a difficult time finding a job with decent wages, even if one is highly qualified they will get paid less than someone with the same qualifications and no record.

The reason there is little outcry is because the majority of the population are good sheep and never been in any sort of legal trouble. They have no sympathy because they've been conditioned to dehumanize anyone convicted of a crime, no matter how small. They buy the tough on crime propaganda and believe they are safer with more laws are more people being incarcerated.

Now with the Prison Industry becoming more powerful they can lobby more successfully, which leads to more laws and more prisoners. It is a vicious cycle.

For the United States to become a free country again we will need a revolution. I used to think an intellectual revolution would be sufficient and we could vote out the scumbags and take back our country peacefully. Sadly I think it will take a lot more than that to restore the United States.

People really need to re-read your post a couple times...........you are so right.

What was your crime?

Keep in mind folks, Bush Jr. and his Father both instigated wars that left millions dead and orphaned and a war torn country(ies).

Again, we need change, we really need to round up all the thugs in Washington and lock them up - they are the real thieves.