ALEC writes laws for big oil and for private prison companies.
In the
first LAKE post about the proposed private prison in Lowndes County,
I pointed out that ALEC helped CCA lobby for that Arizona “anti-immigration”
law that actually
is stuffed with new jail, misdemeanor, and felony penalties that
bring more “customers” to CCA private prisons.
Georgia was just the first of
24 states lobbied by ALEC to pass such bogus bills for CCA’s private profit.
Since then other people have dug into ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and found its tentacles everywhere, promoting profits
for big business at taxpayer expense.
Alison Fitzgerald wrote for Bloomberg 21 July 2011,
Koch, Exxon Mobil Among Corporations Helping Write State Laws:
Koch Industries Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) are among companies
that would benefit from almost identical energy legislation introduced
in state capitals from Oregon to New Mexico to New Hampshire — and
that’s by design.
The energy companies helped write the legislation at a meeting organized
by a group they finance, the American Legislative Exchange Council,
a Washington-based policy institute known as ALEC.
The corporations, both ALEC members, took a seat at the legislative
drafting table beside elected officials and policy analysts by paying
a fee between $3,000 and $10,000, according to documents obtained by
Bloomberg News.
The opportunity for corporations to become co-authors of state laws
legally
Continue reading → According to the CRF [Constitutional Rights Foundation], over 25 percent of black males and 16 percent of Hispanic males spend time in prison, while only 4 percent of white males do so. Blacks make up only 12 percent of the United States population.
