Tag Archives: ALEC

Private prison profits buying more laws to lock people up

Another report about money and private prisons
(in addition to the ACLU’s Banking on Bondage),
this one
Public Campaign and PICO National Network,

Unholy Alliance: How the Private Prison Industry is
Corrupting Our Democracy and Promoting Mass Incarceration.
It establishes that the
“kids for cash” scandal,
in which two judges accepted kickbacks in exchange for locking up
juveniles, was just the tip of the iceberg.



Yet the reality is that private prison lobbyists regularly buy influence
with state and federal officials, not only to win lucrative contracts,
but also to change or preserve policies that increase the number of
people behind bars. Private companies have made huge profits off the mass
incarceration of non-violent drug offenders, and are now turning their
attention to increasing the detention of Latino immigrants—the newest
profit center for the prison industrial complex. Ultimately there is no
way to reverse the costly trend toward mass incarceration without reducing
the influence of these companies and their money in our democracy.

Here’s another example
David Donnelly wrote for Huffpo 17 Nov 2011,

Private Prisons Industry: Increasing Incarcerations, Maximizing Profits and Corrupting Our Democracy,

Earlier this year in Louisiana, a plan by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) to
privatize prisons narrowly failed in a legislative committee by a vote
of 13 to 12. The 12 members of the House Appropriations Committee who
voted to approve the prison privatization plan have received more than
three times more money from private prison donors than the 13 members
who voted against the plan, according to an analysis of data from the
Louisiana Ethics Administration and the National Institute on Money in
State Politics. Gov. Jindal himself has taken nearly $30,000 from the
private prison industry.

And of course in Georgia there’s HB 87, which isn’t really about
excluding immigrants;

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The private prison game: Banking on Bondage

Rania Khalek wrote for AlterNet 29 November 2011,

The Shocking Ways the Corporate Prison Industry Games the System

Just a decade ago, private prisons were a dying industry awash in
corruption and mired in lawsuits, particularly Corrections Corporation


of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison operator. Today,
these companies are booming once again, yet the lawsuits and scandals
continue to pile up. Meanwhile, more and more evidence shows that
compared to publicly run prisons, private jails are filthier, more
violent, less accountable, and contrary to what privatization advocates
peddle as truth, do not save money. In fact, more recent findings
suggest that private prisons could be more costly.

So why are they still in business?

In a recently published report,

“Banking on Bondage: Mass Incarceration and Private Prisons,”
the American Civil Liberties Union examines the
history of prison privatization and finds that private prison companies
owe their continued and prosperous existence to skyrocketing immigration
detention post September 11 as well as the firm hold they have gained
over elected and appointed officials.

We’d already heard from Bloomberg that

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Fighting gangs by legalizing pot

Just like alcohol prohibition produced gansters such as Al Capone,
drug prohibition doesn’t prevent crime: it causes it.
Legalize, tax, and regulate, end that crime,
reduce drug use,
and fund government services.
While massively reducing the prison population and removing any excuse for private prisons.
Sweden is pioneering the way.

Richard Orange wrote for GlobalPost yesterday,

A win-win on drugs? Fighting gangs by legalizing pot,



Copenhagen’s city municipality voted in recent weeks, 39 votes to 9,
to empower its social affairs committee to draw up a detailed plan to
legalize cannabis.

If that plan is approved by Denmark’s new left-of-centre parliament
next year, the city could become the first to legalize marijuana,
rather than simply tolerate it, as police do in the Netherlands.

“We are thinking of perhaps 30 to 40 public sales houses, where the
people aren’t interested in selling you more, they’re interested
in you,” Mikkel Warming, the mayor in charge of social affairs
at Copenhagen City Council told GlobalPost. “Who is it better for
youngsters to buy marijuana from? A drug pusher, who wants them to use
more, who wants them to buy hard drugs, or a civil servant?”

Not just drug toleration. Legalization:

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CCA really doesn’t like community opposition, so apparently it works

Private prison company CCA, which in conjunction with ALEC promotes laws in dozens of states and nationally that lock up more people for CCA’s private profit at taxpayer expense, really doesn’t like
community opposition to siting private prisons in their communities.
Hm, why would CCA hate community opposition so much, unless it works?

Not quite rolling his eyes when she mentions visiting communities,
CCA’s video pair disparage

community opposition to private prisons
on their own web page,

When Corrections Meets Communities:



Question:
There are Web sites and blogs that are adamantly opposed to your company
and industry, and they provide negative information about you. Why?

Hm, you mean like some of the material on this blog?

Answer:
CCA and all corrections companies recognize the ongoing efforts
of local, loosely formed grassroots groups and national, well-funded
associations that jointly oppose the establishment of partnership
prisons, many for self-serving reasons. Such groups go to great lengths
to attack, criticize and misrepresent the entire industry. They make false
allegations and often rely on hearsay and unreliable sources. Regrettably,
these biased groups often resort to misinformation and inflammatory
rhetoric to turn isolated incidents into broad generalizations about
the corrections industry as a whole.

Well-funded? Har! OK, not this blog.
That plus we provide evidence, like

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Time to divest from private prison companies

It’s time to stop private prison profiteering by refusing to take
their profit: divest private prison company stock from personal,
pension, and church funds.

There’s no need to speculate that private prison companies have
incentive to keep more people locked up: CCA says so.
Kanya D’Almeida wrote for IPS 24 August 2011,

‘Profiteers of Misery’: The U.S. Private Prison Industrial Complex:




CCA’s 2010 annual report states categorically that, “The demand for our
facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation
of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards
and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain
activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws — for
instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances
or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested,
convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for
correctional facilities to house them.”

CCA continues, “Legislation has been proposed in numerous jurisdictions
that could lower minimum sentences for some non-violent crimes and
make more inmates eligible for early release based on good behaviour,
(while) sentencing alternatives under consideration could put some
offenders on probation who would otherwise be incarcerated. Similarly,
reductions in crime rates or resources dedicated to prevent and enforce
crime could lead to reductions in arrests, convictions and sentences
requiring incarceration at correctional facilities.”

What’s this got to do with Georgia?

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Alabama bishops criticize ALEC’s immigration law

Some churches actually speak in public on what they profess to believe.

Campbell Robertson wrote for the New York Times 13 August 2011,

Bishops Criticize Tough Alabama Immigration Law





Josh Anderson for the New York Times

CULLMAN, Ala. —On a sofa in the hallway of his office here,

Mitchell Williams, the pastor of First United Methodist Church,
announced that he was going to
break the law. He is not the only church leader making such a declaration
these days.

Since June, when Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, signed an immigration
enforcement law called the toughest in the country by critics and
supporters alike, the opposition has been vocal and unceasing.

Thousands of protesters have marched. Anxious farmers

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“about as fruitful as trying to squeeze information out of the Kremlin”

Which organization was this judge referring to?



Schuster told the directors that he thought [that organization] was
supplying “vague” information and he directed that henceforth
the sides meet monthly in his office for updates on the liquidation
process. In short, Schuster is learning first hand — just like members,
the media and the public at large have learned — that prying information
out of [that organization] is usually about as fruitful as trying to
squeeze information out of the Kremlin.

No, not that city council!
No, not that county commission!
Not even the state board of corrections.
(Although some of them might want to try that bureaucratic shoe on to see
if it fits.) Here’s who:

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You can’t get rid of the War on Drugs unless you end Prohibition

Video from the NAACP Criminal Justice Summit in Chicago,

thanks to LEAP:



We cannot duck this issue.
I couldn’t duck it any more.
I couldn’t sleep, if I wasn’t out advocating
getting rid of the War on Drugs.
You can’t get to end the War on Drugs
that the whole bureaucratic
institution of the United States of America
has declared, unless you end prohibtion.
They couldn’t do it with alcohol, and you can’t do it with drugs.

—Alice Huffman, President, California NAACP

Here’s the video:

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Prison slave labor infects beef with rat feces

In case you thought prison slave labor
didn’t affect you, watch Mike Elk on Democracy Now today,

New Exposé Tracks ALEC-Private Prison Industry Effort to Replace Unionized Workers with Prison Labor:



“more than 14 million pounds of beef infected with rat feces
processed by inmates were not recalled, in order to avoid drawing
attention to how many products are made by prison labor.”

Is this what you want for yourself and your children?
If not, it’s time to stop
ALEC crafting state laws to lock people up and then exploit them as slave labor.

We can start by not accepting a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.
Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

Update 9:35 AM 6 Aug 2011: Fixed the links to the Democracy Now story. Thanks for catching that, Barbara!

Here’s a bonus link to the story in The Nation.

-jsq

PS: This post owed to Cheryl Ann Fillekes.

ALEC crafts state laws, including for private prisons and big oil

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

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