Tag Archives: Economy

How do anti-amnesty directives equate to available prison labor for private prisons?

Somebody recently asked:
I have seen no verification that the private prisons intend to make money from inmate labor & the recent article claiming prison labor would displace more citizen jobs if illegals were jailed as a positive for amnesty was ridiculous. All anti-amnesty directives I have seen call for the illegals being deported back to their country of origin ASAP. How does this equate to available prison labor for private prisons?
OK, let’s go look at the anti-immigrant law passed by Arizona. It’s littered with “federal custody” and “imprisoned not more than thirty days” and “imprisoned not more than six months” and “A person who is sentenced pursuant to this section is not eligible for suspension or commutation of sentence or release on any basis until the sentence imposed is served.” and “class 1 misdemeanor” and “class 3 felony” and “class 4 felony” and “twenty days in jail” and “thirty days in jail”.

Arizona Revised Statutes Section 11-1051

D. Notwithstanding any other law, a law enforcement agency may securely transport an alien who the agency has received verification is unlawfully present in the united states and who is in the agency’s custody to a federal facility in this state or to any other point of transfer into federal custody that is outside the jurisdiction of the law enforcement agency. a law enforcement agency shall obtain judicial authorization before securely transporting an alien who is unlawfully present in the United States to a point of transfer that is outside of this state.

13-1509. Trespassing by illegal aliens; assessment; exception; classification Continue reading →

Private prisons and AZ-style anti-immigrant bills in Georgia

While a private prison is top of the news, you’d probably never know what it has to do with this if you didn’t have the Internet, 8,000 Rally against Georgia Anti-Immigrant Bills, by Gloria Tatum in Georgia Progressive News:
Over 8,000 activists rallied outside the State Capitol on Thursday, March 24, 2011, to show their outrage and disgust over Georgia’s Arizona-type immigration bills.

As previously reported by Atlanta Progressive News, legislation, HB 87, has already passed the State House. A similar bill, SB 40, has also passed the State Senate.

While the vast majority of protesters at the Capitol were Hispanic, opposition to the bills came from a wide spectrum of constituents including immigrants, students, religious groups, peace groups, veterans of the Civil Rights Movement, Asian groups, GLBTQI activists, labor, artists, musicians, business owners, elected officials, and others.

What’s this got to do with private prisons? Continue reading →

Scotland planning more offshore wind power than needed for all its homes

Aaron Colter wrote 23 March 2011: 5 GW Of Offshore Scottish Wind Power By 2020?
The Scottish Government has released a plan for offshore wind that highlights six areas for potential development. The original plan had selected ten regions for offshore renewable energy, however, four were ultimately abandoned due to predicted negative environmental and economic impact.

The six sites still in the running have an estimated energy potential of nearly five gigawatts by 2020, or enough to power 3 million homes. Richard Lochhead, Rural Affairs and Environment Secretary, said that Scotland’s commitment to offshore wind production could generate over $11 billion for the country’s economy and support up to 28,000 jobs over the next ten years.

For comparison, Scotland has about 370,000 households. According to the General Record Office for Scotland, Estimates of Households and Dwellings in Scotland, 2009:
In mid-2009, there were 2.34 million households in Scotland
That’s right, they’re talking eight 1.28 times as much power as all of Scotland’s homes could use. I would guess this means they plan to export some of that power, perhaps to England.

It seems renewable energy planning has spread beyond the Highlands to the rest of Scotland.

-jsq

Update 6:45 PM 3 Apr 2011: Fixed total household number; thanks to Malcom Smith for catching this typo.

Private Prisons failing in Texas, leaving locals in lurch

John Burnett writes for NPR that Private Prison Promises Leave Texas Towns In Trouble:
It seemed like a good idea at the time when the west Texas farming town of Littlefield borrowed $10 million and built the Bill Clayton Detention Center in a cotton field south of town in 2000. The charmless steel-and-cement-block buildings ringed with razor wire would provide jobs to keep young people from moving to Lubbock or Dallas.

For eight years, the prison was a good employer. Idaho and Wyoming paid for prisoners to serve time there. But two years ago, Idaho pulled out all of its contract inmates because of a budget crunch at home. There was also a scandal surrounding the suicide of an inmate.

Shortly afterward, the for-profit operator, GEO Group, gave notice that it was leaving, too. One hundred prison jobs disappeared. The facility has been empty ever since.

The pullquote: Continue reading →

Greening Of America –James R. Wright

In a long-running email discussion that started with a post by Valdosta City Council member James R. Wright about switchgrass for biomass, Councilmember Wright wrote two messages on Saturday, 26 March 2011, each asking questions of Dr. Michael Noll. The first one contained this paragraph:
Economic development is a high priority on the mind of many people. If you read the local paper you will see page after page of foreclosures, failing businesses, and unemployment at a all time high. Please explain to me how we can address these problems through energy needs?
Councilmember Wright elaborated later that same day: Continue reading →

Organic food market booming

What continued to grow right through the recession? Local and organic foods, especially sold through farmers’ markets and traditional supermarkets.

Carol Hazard wrote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 21, 2011, Organic, natural food catching on:

U.S. sales of organic foods and beverages grew from $1 billion in 1990 to $24.8 billion in 2009, according to the Organic Trade Association.

The sector saw double-digit growth — often more than 20 percent — every year over the past decade except 2009, at the tail-end of the recession. Even then, organic sales rose 5.9 percent from the previous year while total food sales increased only 1.6 percent.

The article didn’t link to the study, but here it is: Industry Statistics and Projected Growth.

Further from the Times-Dispatch article:

National grocers are pumping up their organic and natural food selections. Even Wal-Mart and its Sam’s Club warehouse division are paying attention.
Continue reading →

Ecological value of Georgia Forests –Georgia Farm Monitor

Georgia Farm Monitor posts its TV episodes on YouTube, including this one, Forestry Adds Huge Amount To Georgia’s Economy, starring Wesley Langdale of The Langdale Company and Chuck Leavell of the Rolling Stones (both tree farmers) announcing $37 billion economic value of Georgia forest ecology: Continue reading →

Biomass or carbon trading or something else?

To get an idea of why big timber growers might find biomass attractive, here’s an article by Terry Dickson in the Florida Times-Union from 20 June 2005, State’s forestry industry in an ‘alarming decline’
People have long debated whether there is a sound if a tree falls in a forest but nobody is there to hear it.

The fall of revenue from Georgia’s forestry industry, however, has attracted a lot of attention — but $10 billion is hard to ignore.

Continue reading →

Particulate matter is a killer. –Lisa Jackson, EPA, 17 March 2011

Listening to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson about EPA’s proposed new mercury rules, for me, the live feed on facebook did not work, but the one on whitehouse.gov did. A few quotes:
Particulate matter is a killer. We know it results in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

That matches some local concerns in Lowndes County.

How much of a killer? Continue reading →

Vernon, California: they only cared about jobs

What can happen to a town that really doesn’t care about anything but jobs.

Adam Nagourney writes in the NY Times 1 March 2011: Plan Would Erase All-Business Town

VERNON, Calif. — Vernon is a bleak, 5.2-square-mile sprawl of warehouses, factories, toxic chemical plants and meat processors that looks like the backdrop for “Eraserhead,” the David Lynch movie set in an industrial wasteland. It has a population of 95 — and 1,800 businesses, drawn by low taxes, lax regulations and cheap municipal power.

It also has a history of corruption and public malfeasance going back nearly 50 years.

The rest of the story is mostly about how it’s gotten so bad Continue reading →