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

Many of the toughest sentencing laws responsible for the explosion of the U.S. prison population were drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, which helps corporations write model legislation. Now a new exposé reveals ALEC has paved the way for states and corporations to replace unionized workers with prison labor. We speak with Mike Elk, contributing labor reporter at The Nation magazine. He says ALEC and private prison companies "put a mass amount of people in jail, and then they created a situation where they could exploit that." Elk notes that in 2005 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.  Read more...

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• How ALEC Shapes States' Legislation Behind The Scenes : NPR
• La. State Rep. Noble Ellington, National Chairman Of ALEC, Responds To Report : NPR
• Secretive Corporate-Legislative Group ALEC Holds Annual Meeting to Rewrite State Laws

Prison Labor: A Right-wing Jobs Program for America

This so-called "work opportunity" is the first tangible product of Gov. Scott Walker's corporate-scripted mugging of the collective bargaining rights of teachers and other civil servants. He and his legislative cohorts rammed a bill into law this year to strip public employees of their democratic rights in the workplace. So, government managers can now replace them willy-nilly with low-wage workers — even with free prison labor.
Jim Ladwig, the executive honcho of Racine County, has leapt on this like a chicken on a juicy June bug. The day the law took effect, he announced that such jobs as landscaping and snow-shoveling would be transferred from unionized county workers to prisoners. The captives will receive no pay, but they could receive compensation in the form of reduced sentences. "We have a win-win when we use the inmates," exulted Ladwig.   | Common Dreams

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• Freedom Rider: Prison Slave Labor

America has long been an incarceration state whose penal system is a direct descendant of Black chattel slavery. The system is swiftly returning to its roots with innovations on extraction of free labor, with probationers put to work on Georgia farms and prisoners substituted for union labor in Wisconsin. “The mania to save government dollars and the American propensity to punish and permanently criminalize vast numbers of black people will combine to make these new policies extremely popular.”

 

(Pelican Bay) Inmates on hunger strike say they would rather die than suffer inhumane treatment

National and international support for California inmates who initiated a hunger strike to protest inhumane treatment has increased with urgency following reports of deteriorating health conditions.  Inmates housed in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at the super maximum Pelican Bay Prison have refused food for 19 days thus far, declaring that they were prepared to die rather than suffer inhumane conditions behind bars. » FULL STORY


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• Marc Lamont Hill: Why we must stand in solidarity with the Pelican Bay prisoners - Philly.com

• Prison Hunger Strikes - Barbarous Confinement - NYTimes.com

 

US prisoners sentenced under strict crack cocaine laws get relief

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Thousands of federal inmates imprisoned under a 1984 law mandating harsh sentences for crack cocaine violations are eligible for shorter sentences, the US Sentencing Commission ruled Thursday.

The ruling affects at least 12,000 federal prisoners – primarily nonviolent drug offenders and most of them African-American – though they still have to go before judicial panels to argue their cases for getting out of prison early. The average sentence is expected to be reduced by 37 months.  - CSMonitor.com



Also read:

• Reducing Unjust Cocaine Sentences - NYTimes.com


• Crack cocaine convicts could serve less prison time | Reuters


• New law could free 12K drug users - Jennifer Epstein - POLITICO.com

Report Exposes Private Prison Lobby

MSNBC host Cenk Uygur on a report from the Justice Policy Institute regarding the disturbing lobbying efforts by the private prison industry.

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Prison industrial complex

• Also read about A.L.E.C.

Few have ever heard of it, but the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is the ultimate smoke filled back room.

On the surface, ALEC’s membership is mostly comprised of thousands of state legislators. Each pays a nominal membership fee in order to attend ALEC retreats and receive model legislation. ALEC’s corporate contributors, on the other hand, pay a king’s ransom to gain access to legislators and distribute their corporate-crafted legislation.

So, while the membership appears to be public sector, the bankroll is almost entirely private sector. In fact, public sector membership dues account for only around one percent of ALEC’s annual revenues. ALEC claims to be nonpartisan, but in fact its free-market, pro-business mission is clear.

• http://alecwatch.org/

In prison for debt

If owing money isn't a criminal offense anymore in America, why are so many debtors being sent to prison? People need to pay the bills, says New Deal 2.0's Bryce Covert, but throwing them in jail won't solve anything. As Americans use credit cards to charge food and clothing as prices go higher and wages only drop, they need to be punished for being fraudulent, says Covert—but not by putting them in prison.

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• SWAT team busts into house over student loan default

• In For a Penny: The Rise of America's New Debtors' Prisons | American Civil Liberties Union

This ACLU report presents the results of a yearlong investigation into modern-day "debtors' prisons," and shows that poor defendants are being jailed at increasingly alarming rates for failing to pay legal debts they can never hope to afford. The report details how across the country, in the face of mounting budget deficits, states are more aggressively going after poor people who have already served their criminal sentences. These modern-day debtors' prisons impose devastating human costs, waste taxpayer money and resources, undermine our criminal justice system, are racially skewed, and create a two-tiered system of justice.

• Debtors' prison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Debtors' Prisons | Southern Center for Human Rights

Contrary to what many people may believe, there are debtors' prisons throughout the United States where people are imprisoned because they are too poor to pay fines and fees.

The United States Supreme Court in Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660 (1983), held that courts cannot imprison a person for failure to pay a criminal fine unless the failure to pay was “willful.” However, this constitutional commandment is often ignored.

• What is Debtor's Prison?

Dr. Gabor Maté: Obama Admin Should Heed Global Panel's Call to End "Failed" U.S.-Led Drug War

A high-level international panel has concluded the so-called "war on drugs" has failed and that governments should consider legalizing substances, including marijuana. The Global Commission on Drug Policy is comprised of 19 members, including several former heads of state. The Office of National Drug Control Policy at the White House has refuted the findings of the commission’s report. We speak to Dr. Gabor Maté, a Canadian physician and bestselling author of four books, including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction. "On any level you care to name, the war on drugs is a failure," Dr. Maté says. Read more...

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• “The Wire” Creator To Eric Holder: End War On Drugs, Get New Season

   

Political Prisoners? Black Lawyers Say Obama Could Free ‘Em All

What can President Obama do to show that he cares, just a little bit, about Black Americans? Since he has done nothing so far in his term, a good a place as any would be to free political prisoners, many of whom have been held for three and four decades. Black lawyers “are calling for the United States to be held to the standards of conduct established by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC) and Convention to End All Forms of Racism and Discrimination (CERD).”  Read more...

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• Over Two Thousand Six Hundred Activists Arrested in US Protests