Quantcast
Channel: for-profit prisons – The Good Men Project
Viewing all 10 articles
Browse latest View live

Louisiana: First In The World For Prisons

0
0

Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate of anywhere in the US, which means that it has the highest incarceration rate of anywhere in the world. (Exception: North Korea does not technically report its incarceration rate.) One out of every eighty-six Louisianans is currently in prison. A random Louisianan is five times more likely to be incarcerated than a random Iranian and thirteen times more likely than the average Chinese person.

…So, uh, who’s the police state now?

Why? The proximate cause is multifaceted. Louisiana has the harshest sentencing laws in the nation; for instance, all life sentences in Louisiana are without parole. 82% of Louisianians in prison are in prison for nonviolent offenses, mostly drugs, which suggests that Louisiana is more likely to put nonviolent offenders in prison than other states are.

The ultimate cause, however, is simplicity itself: money.

Louisiana spends $663 million a year on imprisonment; of this, $182 million goes to for-profit companies or contracted sheriffs. It is perfectly normal for a town to use its prison to fund its law enforcement. In addition, these prisons (whether for-profit or run by the state) give local workers jobs that, without the prisons, may not exist. It’s no exaggeration to say that huge parts of Louisiana’s economy are dependent upon the prison system.

Why does this matter? First, bloody hell, more than 1% of the Louisianian population is currently in prison. That’s expensive for the state (which, in its wisdom, it has solved by making the prisons very very cheap) and it removes people who could be working from the pool of potential employees. Even once they get out of prison, prisoners are less likely to be hired for jobs, making them a drain on the state economy for years after. And do you think that this disproportionately affects people of color, people with mental illnesses, poor people, and men? Yes. Of course it does.

Second, the state has dealt with the whole “expensive imprisonment” problem by simply deciding they weren’t going to pay much for prison; in fact, Louisiana pays less per prisoner than any state in the US. Since these are for-profit prison companies, they can do that. However, since the profit takes some money out of the already tiny amount of money the prisons are getting for each prisoner, the prisons end up cutting basic services. For instance, local for-profit prisons in Louisiana have scant or nonexistent job training and GED classes; quality of life concerns like hobbies and ability to practice one’s religion are ignored. What about mental health treatment? Drug withdrawal? Protection against prison rape? Don’t make me laugh.

I mean, God forbid we give people the things that may keep them out of prison in the future. There goes our revenue source!

Some people will probably respond to this with “why should prisoners get hobbies and GED classes and therapy funded by the state? They’re criminals; they hurt people. Better we keep them out of the general population and make prison unpleasant so people don’t commit crimes.” Remember, 82% of the people in prison are for nonviolent offenses, many of them drug-related; a substantial portion of the population never did violence to another. Isn’t it enough to take away their freedom, do we have to take away everything that makes their lives meaningful too?

Remember also that nonviolent crimes are (usually) not just the random acts of inexplicable EVILLLLL people; they’re logical acts taken from terrible circumstances. People steal because they’re poor; people do drugs because they’re addicted, often because of underlying mental health concerns. Therapy, drug addiction treatment, and job-training classes prevent the problem, which lowers recidivism rates. And isn’t lower crime rates exactly what you want?

The post Louisiana: First In The World For Prisons appeared first on The Good Men Project.


‘China-Like’ Labor Force Used In US Prisons

0
0

inmate labor

Despite American criticism of forced or coerced labor in other countries, a similar trend is occurring among incarcerated Americans, with prisoners having to work for less than a dollar a day.

This post originally appeared at Occupy Democrats

by Justin Acuff

This trend isn’t just beginning — it is now occurring on a massive scale, with a million prisoners doing this work. The worst part is, companies utilizing this cheap labor pool are major corporations, such as Walmart:

One of Walmart’s suppliers, Martori Farms, was the subject of an exposé by Truthout in which one female prisoner described her typical day working for the private company.

Currently, we are forced to work in the blazing sun for eight hours. We run out of water several times a day. We ran out of sunscreen several times a week. They don’t check medical backgrounds or ages before they pull women for these jobs. Many of us cannot do it! If we stop working and sit on the bus or even just take an unauthorized break, we get a major ticket which takes away our ‘good time’.

In response, Joseph Oddo, Martori Farms’ human resource director, told the Guardian that the company is no longer using inmates because prisons are not always able to provide workers on call the way they need. Oddo also said that workers were provided enough water, but the prisoners didn’t sip it slowly enough.

In a press release on Walmart’s site, Ron McCormick, vice-president for produce, said, “our relationship with Martori Farms is an excellent example of the kind of collaboration we strive for with our suppliers.” (Source)

It’s not just that there is the possibility of jobs being taken away from citizens who are not incarcerated — it’s that these prisons market their labor force, and spend millions lobbying for laws that keep them full. It’s a for-profit prison industry with cash incentive to lock people up. Is it any surprise that we have the largest prison system in the world?

Private prisons profit from the incarceration of human beings. As I reported for Addicting Info

Private prisons are similar to the hotel industry in one simple way; they make money when they fill beds. They lose money when beds are empty. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, the prison population has actually declined in recent years.

She goes on to report that the declining prison population has caused for-profit prisons and lobbyists to become more proactive, spending money lobbying Congress and others to create laws that create more prisoners, more people in jail, and, because they also own multiple detention facilities that deal with immigrants, harsher laws regarding immigration.

Another big problem with for-profit prisons is that the goal of profit conflicts with the goal of a prison — to house inmates while they serve their sentences and attempt rehabilitation, preventing recidivism. When you put profit into the equation, you’re giving prisons incentive to ensure that prisoners have a high chance of reoffending.

It is difficult to reconcile the ownership and operation of prisons as a for-profit venture, knowing that they run and thrive on filling beds with offenders, while simultaneously providing ‘rehabilitation’ of inmates. Every prisoner that is helped with treatment, with schooling, with counseling is a potential lost ‘customer’ for the corporation. This leaves little incentive for the for-profit prison system to actually do what the prison system is designed to do. With the exception of those locked up for decades or life, the prison system is a way of isolating offenders for a time so that they can mature, grow, and become better, productive citizens who will be released at some point down the road. A for-profit prison has no reason to make their inmates better people. They need them to reoffend. It’s good for business. (Source)

And like most hugely profitable industries, there are millions spent on lobbying for favorable laws — in this case, things like the drug war, keeping prison populations high. Young Progressive Voices reports,

The industry, through activists and lobbyists, controls legislators on the state level. Take the CCA, for example. Operating in an industry that has exploded by 1600% over the last 20 years, the Corrections Corporation for America is currently housing 80,000 inmates in 60 facilities in 16 different states. Pressure is put on legislators to pass laws that benefit the private prison industry.

Here’s a video from Russia Today talking about the China-like labor force utilized in American prisons:

The post ‘China-Like’ Labor Force Used In US Prisons appeared first on The Good Men Project.

World’s Largest Correctional Association Now Calls for Elimination of Mandatory Minimum Sentences

0
0

ap_juvenile_prison_630x420_1208021-620x412

Wednesday, the world’s largest association for correctional officers became the latest unlikely proponent of criminal justice reform.

This post originally appeared at ThinkProgress

By Nicole Flatow

Last week, the conservative corporate-backed group that advanced Stand Your Ground laws reversed its previous support for mandatory minimum sentences and endorsed reform to curb their use. On Monday, the country’s top law enforcement official said he would order all of his prosecutors to avert mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenders.

And Wednesday, the world’s largest association for correctional officers became the latest unlikely proponent of criminal justice reform, passing its own resolution to “eliminate” mandatory minimum sentences.

“ACA’s members know from long and first-hand experience that crowding within correctional systems increases violence, threatens overall security within a facility, and hampers rehabilitation efforts,” American Corrections Association President Chris Epps said in a statement accompanying the resolution. As an alternative to eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, the resolution endorses both federal and state bills that give judges more discretion to lower onerous prison terms for drug and other offenses. Epps explains:

Prisons are full of nonviolent offenders serving lengthy and mandatory minimum sentences. Our members work hard every day to keep staff, inmates, and the public safe, but the current system is unsustainable. The solution must come from lawmakers, and it must target the long sentences that got us in this mess in the first place. Legislators, prosecutors and judges need to differentiate between who we are afraid of and who we are just mad at and then sentence each appropriately.

Judges, who often have no discretion to lower sentences dictated by a particular criminal charge, have long lamented that low-level drug offenders are given sentences meant for kingpins, to the detriment of those individual offenders, and perpetuating the cycle of mass incarceration. As the U.S. prison population has skyrocketed to eclipse that of any other country in the world, both liberals and conservatives are coming around to the untenable cost in both money and lives of, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder described it, imprisoning “too many Americans” in “too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.”

Versions of the “Justice Safety Valve Act” endorsed by ACA have been introduced by bipartisan coalitions in both houses of Congress, and endorsed by ALEC as models for states. The concept of the bill is that it gives judges a “safety valve” to sentence below statutory mandatory minimum in order to prevent an “unjust sentence.“

Reforming mandatory minimums is one of several measures in the works to alleviate the U.S. epidemic of mass incarceration. In his remarks Monday, Holder called for more discretion by prosecutors in charging offenders, and announced several other initiatives to reduce the federal prison population, including leaving some crimes to the discretion of state law enforcers, increasing reliance on drug courts, and expanding the “compassionate release” program that allows the early release of some elderly prisoners. Two other bills in Congress would also facilitate early release of some low-level offenders, and make retroactive a 2010 law that narrowed the racist disparity between crack and cocaine sentences.

While moves toward what is known as “smart” on crime rather than “tough on crime” are proliferating in several more conservative states, California continues to resist court orders to alleviate its unconstitutional prison overcrowding.

Officials in prisons are directly affected by the safety hazards of overcrowded prisons. But they also stand to lose jobs if the prison population decreases, making their endorsement all-the-more remarkable. And it begs the question: If corrections officers, the country’s top prosecutor, and the conservative group with a history of strong ties to private prisons are all in favor of mandatory minimum reform, is there any remaining momentum against it?

Photo: AP/File

The post World’s Largest Correctional Association Now Calls for Elimination of Mandatory Minimum Sentences appeared first on The Good Men Project.

Lock-Up Quotas are Real

0
0

prison_AP_matt york

Excessive sentences, aka “bonus justice” is the rich soil in which for-profit detention has taken root.

In hopes of extending this infographic’s reach (Huffington Post’s smart use of BJS data) I now present the biggest argument for the growing national dialogue on prison reform in America: Lock-up Quotas.

For years,  Morgan Stanley, Ameriprize, Barclays, Invesco, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, among others, have invested heavily in for-profit detention. So, if you’re someone who still dismisses incarceration as being for “those people,” perhaps you should follow the money. You see, the same idiots who mistakenly foreclose on people’s homes, may wind up deciding just how long your brother, sister, son or daughter are detained for public drunkenness. Operating at such a competency level, and with occupancy the highest priority for private prisons, all bets will soon be off with regards to who fills those beds.

Sound crazy? Sure it does, but at the rate we’re going it’s not hard to imagine a day when banking institutions and financial investment companies open pop-up prisons like so many Wal-Marts.

On the eve of mandatory minimum sentence reform, the billion-dollar private prison industry is the last place America needs a collision between judicial proficiency and corporate shareholder satisfaction. Oh, sorry. Too late! Excessive sentences, aka “bonus justice” is the rich soil in which for-profit detention has taken root. Having served time behind bars, I tend to think the scary part for the public might be the assault rates in corporate prisons being three times higher on average than in state facilities, but those statistics have yet to receive a lot of attention.

Without a complicit criminal justice system, ever more influenced by these financial entities, today’s lock-up quotas wouldn’t be so easily and enthusiastically enforced across the country. Have a look:

HuffPo_Private-Prisons-Infographic1

This post originally appeared at Where Excuses Go To Die

Photo: AP File/Matt York

The post Lock-Up Quotas are Real appeared first on The Good Men Project.

Louisiana: First In The World For Prisons

0
0

Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate of anywhere in the US, which means that it has the highest incarceration rate of anywhere in the world. (Exception: North Korea does not technically report its incarceration rate.) One out of every eighty-six Louisianans is currently in prison. A random Louisianan is five times more likely to be incarcerated than a random Iranian and thirteen times more likely than the average Chinese person.

…So, uh, who’s the police state now?

Why? The proximate cause is multifaceted. Louisiana has the harshest sentencing laws in the nation; for instance, all life sentences in Louisiana are without parole. 82% of Louisianians in prison are in prison for nonviolent offenses, mostly drugs, which suggests that Louisiana is more likely to put nonviolent offenders in prison than other states are.

The ultimate cause, however, is simplicity itself: money.

Louisiana spends $663 million a year on imprisonment; of this, $182 million goes to for-profit companies or contracted sheriffs. It is perfectly normal for a town to use its prison to fund its law enforcement. In addition, these prisons (whether for-profit or run by the state) give local workers jobs that, without the prisons, may not exist. It’s no exaggeration to say that huge parts of Louisiana’s economy are dependent upon the prison system.

Why does this matter? First, bloody hell, more than 1% of the Louisianian population is currently in prison. That’s expensive for the state (which, in its wisdom, it has solved by making the prisons very very cheap) and it removes people who could be working from the pool of potential employees. Even once they get out of prison, prisoners are less likely to be hired for jobs, making them a drain on the state economy for years after. And do you think that this disproportionately affects people of color, people with mental illnesses, poor people, and men? Yes. Of course it does.

Second, the state has dealt with the whole “expensive imprisonment” problem by simply deciding they weren’t going to pay much for prison; in fact, Louisiana pays less per prisoner than any state in the US. Since these are for-profit prison companies, they can do that. However, since the profit takes some money out of the already tiny amount of money the prisons are getting for each prisoner, the prisons end up cutting basic services. For instance, local for-profit prisons in Louisiana have scant or nonexistent job training and GED classes; quality of life concerns like hobbies and ability to practice one’s religion are ignored. What about mental health treatment? Drug withdrawal? Protection against prison rape? Don’t make me laugh.

I mean, God forbid we give people the things that may keep them out of prison in the future. There goes our revenue source!

Some people will probably respond to this with “why should prisoners get hobbies and GED classes and therapy funded by the state? They’re criminals; they hurt people. Better we keep them out of the general population and make prison unpleasant so people don’t commit crimes.” Remember, 82% of the people in prison are for nonviolent offenses, many of them drug-related; a substantial portion of the population never did violence to another. Isn’t it enough to take away their freedom, do we have to take away everything that makes their lives meaningful too?

Remember also that nonviolent crimes are (usually) not just the random acts of inexplicable EVILLLLL people; they’re logical acts taken from terrible circumstances. People steal because they’re poor; people do drugs because they’re addicted, often because of underlying mental health concerns. Therapy, drug addiction treatment, and job-training classes prevent the problem, which lowers recidivism rates. And isn’t lower crime rates exactly what you want?

The post Louisiana: First In The World For Prisons appeared first on The Good Men Project.

‘China-Like’ Labor Force Used In US Prisons

0
0

inmate labor

Despite American criticism of forced or coerced labor in other countries, a similar trend is occurring among incarcerated Americans, with prisoners having to work for less than a dollar a day.

This post originally appeared at Occupy Democrats

by Justin Acuff

This trend isn’t just beginning — it is now occurring on a massive scale, with a million prisoners doing this work. The worst part is, companies utilizing this cheap labor pool are major corporations, such as Walmart:

One of Walmart’s suppliers, Martori Farms, was the subject of an exposé by Truthout in which one female prisoner described her typical day working for the private company.

Currently, we are forced to work in the blazing sun for eight hours. We run out of water several times a day. We ran out of sunscreen several times a week. They don’t check medical backgrounds or ages before they pull women for these jobs. Many of us cannot do it! If we stop working and sit on the bus or even just take an unauthorized break, we get a major ticket which takes away our ‘good time’.

In response, Joseph Oddo, Martori Farms’ human resource director, told the Guardian that the company is no longer using inmates because prisons are not always able to provide workers on call the way they need. Oddo also said that workers were provided enough water, but the prisoners didn’t sip it slowly enough.

In a press release on Walmart’s site, Ron McCormick, vice-president for produce, said, “our relationship with Martori Farms is an excellent example of the kind of collaboration we strive for with our suppliers.” (Source)

It’s not just that there is the possibility of jobs being taken away from citizens who are not incarcerated — it’s that these prisons market their labor force, and spend millions lobbying for laws that keep them full. It’s a for-profit prison industry with cash incentive to lock people up. Is it any surprise that we have the largest prison system in the world?

Private prisons profit from the incarceration of human beings. As I reported for Addicting Info

Private prisons are similar to the hotel industry in one simple way; they make money when they fill beds. They lose money when beds are empty. According to the Bureau of Justice statistics, the prison population has actually declined in recent years.

She goes on to report that the declining prison population has caused for-profit prisons and lobbyists to become more proactive, spending money lobbying Congress and others to create laws that create more prisoners, more people in jail, and, because they also own multiple detention facilities that deal with immigrants, harsher laws regarding immigration.

Another big problem with for-profit prisons is that the goal of profit conflicts with the goal of a prison — to house inmates while they serve their sentences and attempt rehabilitation, preventing recidivism. When you put profit into the equation, you’re giving prisons incentive to ensure that prisoners have a high chance of reoffending.

It is difficult to reconcile the ownership and operation of prisons as a for-profit venture, knowing that they run and thrive on filling beds with offenders, while simultaneously providing ‘rehabilitation’ of inmates. Every prisoner that is helped with treatment, with schooling, with counseling is a potential lost ‘customer’ for the corporation. This leaves little incentive for the for-profit prison system to actually do what the prison system is designed to do. With the exception of those locked up for decades or life, the prison system is a way of isolating offenders for a time so that they can mature, grow, and become better, productive citizens who will be released at some point down the road. A for-profit prison has no reason to make their inmates better people. They need them to reoffend. It’s good for business. (Source)

And like most hugely profitable industries, there are millions spent on lobbying for favorable laws — in this case, things like the drug war, keeping prison populations high. Young Progressive Voices reports,

The industry, through activists and lobbyists, controls legislators on the state level. Take the CCA, for example. Operating in an industry that has exploded by 1600% over the last 20 years, the Corrections Corporation for America is currently housing 80,000 inmates in 60 facilities in 16 different states. Pressure is put on legislators to pass laws that benefit the private prison industry.

Here’s a video from Russia Today talking about the China-like labor force utilized in American prisons:

The post ‘China-Like’ Labor Force Used In US Prisons appeared first on The Good Men Project.

World’s Largest Correctional Association Now Calls for Elimination of Mandatory Minimum Sentences

0
0

ap_juvenile_prison_630x420_1208021-620x412

Wednesday, the world’s largest association for correctional officers became the latest unlikely proponent of criminal justice reform.

This post originally appeared at ThinkProgress

By Nicole Flatow

Last week, the conservative corporate-backed group that advanced Stand Your Ground laws reversed its previous support for mandatory minimum sentences and endorsed reform to curb their use. On Monday, the country’s top law enforcement official said he would order all of his prosecutors to avert mandatory minimum sentences for low-level drug offenders.

And Wednesday, the world’s largest association for correctional officers became the latest unlikely proponent of criminal justice reform, passing its own resolution to “eliminate” mandatory minimum sentences.

“ACA’s members know from long and first-hand experience that crowding within correctional systems increases violence, threatens overall security within a facility, and hampers rehabilitation efforts,” American Corrections Association President Chris Epps said in a statement accompanying the resolution. As an alternative to eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, the resolution endorses both federal and state bills that give judges more discretion to lower onerous prison terms for drug and other offenses. Epps explains:

Prisons are full of nonviolent offenders serving lengthy and mandatory minimum sentences. Our members work hard every day to keep staff, inmates, and the public safe, but the current system is unsustainable. The solution must come from lawmakers, and it must target the long sentences that got us in this mess in the first place. Legislators, prosecutors and judges need to differentiate between who we are afraid of and who we are just mad at and then sentence each appropriately.

Judges, who often have no discretion to lower sentences dictated by a particular criminal charge, have long lamented that low-level drug offenders are given sentences meant for kingpins, to the detriment of those individual offenders, and perpetuating the cycle of mass incarceration. As the U.S. prison population has skyrocketed to eclipse that of any other country in the world, both liberals and conservatives are coming around to the untenable cost in both money and lives of, as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder described it, imprisoning “too many Americans” in “too many prisons for far too long, and for no truly good law enforcement reason.”

Versions of the “Justice Safety Valve Act” endorsed by ACA have been introduced by bipartisan coalitions in both houses of Congress, and endorsed by ALEC as models for states. The concept of the bill is that it gives judges a “safety valve” to sentence below statutory mandatory minimum in order to prevent an “unjust sentence.“

Reforming mandatory minimums is one of several measures in the works to alleviate the U.S. epidemic of mass incarceration. In his remarks Monday, Holder called for more discretion by prosecutors in charging offenders, and announced several other initiatives to reduce the federal prison population, including leaving some crimes to the discretion of state law enforcers, increasing reliance on drug courts, and expanding the “compassionate release” program that allows the early release of some elderly prisoners. Two other bills in Congress would also facilitate early release of some low-level offenders, and make retroactive a 2010 law that narrowed the racist disparity between crack and cocaine sentences.

While moves toward what is known as “smart” on crime rather than “tough on crime” are proliferating in several more conservative states, California continues to resist court orders to alleviate its unconstitutional prison overcrowding.

Officials in prisons are directly affected by the safety hazards of overcrowded prisons. But they also stand to lose jobs if the prison population decreases, making their endorsement all-the-more remarkable. And it begs the question: If corrections officers, the country’s top prosecutor, and the conservative group with a history of strong ties to private prisons are all in favor of mandatory minimum reform, is there any remaining momentum against it?

Photo: AP/File

The post World’s Largest Correctional Association Now Calls for Elimination of Mandatory Minimum Sentences appeared first on The Good Men Project.

Lock-Up Quotas are Real

0
0

prison_AP_matt york

Excessive sentences, aka “bonus justice” is the rich soil in which for-profit detention has taken root.

In hopes of extending this infographic’s reach (Huffington Post’s smart use of BJS data) I now present the biggest argument for the growing national dialogue on prison reform in America: Lock-up Quotas.

For years,  Morgan Stanley, Ameriprize, Barclays, Invesco, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, among others, have invested heavily in for-profit detention. So, if you’re someone who still dismisses incarceration as being for “those people,” perhaps you should follow the money. You see, the same idiots who mistakenly foreclose on people’s homes, may wind up deciding just how long your brother, sister, son or daughter are detained for public drunkenness. Operating at such a competency level, and with occupancy the highest priority for private prisons, all bets will soon be off with regards to who fills those beds.

Sound crazy? Sure it does, but at the rate we’re going it’s not hard to imagine a day when banking institutions and financial investment companies open pop-up prisons like so many Wal-Marts.

On the eve of mandatory minimum sentence reform, the billion-dollar private prison industry is the last place America needs a collision between judicial proficiency and corporate shareholder satisfaction. Oh, sorry. Too late! Excessive sentences, aka “bonus justice” is the rich soil in which for-profit detention has taken root. Having served time behind bars, I tend to think the scary part for the public might be the assault rates in corporate prisons being three times higher on average than in state facilities, but those statistics have yet to receive a lot of attention.

Without a complicit criminal justice system, ever more influenced by these financial entities, today’s lock-up quotas wouldn’t be so easily and enthusiastically enforced across the country. Have a look:

HuffPo_Private-Prisons-Infographic1

This post originally appeared at Where Excuses Go To Die

Photo: AP File/Matt York

The post Lock-Up Quotas are Real appeared first on The Good Men Project.


National Prison Reform – A Call for Submissions

0
0

Embed from Getty Images

In the state most known for its prison population, Louisiana sheriff of Caddo Parish, Steve Prattor is making the case for the long delayed prison reform in his state. Louisiana has the unfortunate reputation of being one of the states with the largest prison populations in the United States and in an even more problematic condition because they depend on prison labor to keep costs down in the state.

His most recent statement has been made the case for prison reform better than almost anything written in the last five years:

“I don’t want state prisoners. They are a necessary evil to keep the doors open, that we keep a few, or keep some out there. And that’s the ones that you can work,” Prattor said earlier this month. “That’s the ones that can pick up trash, the work release programs. But guess what? Those are the ones that they are releasing. In addition to the bad ones … they are releasing some good ones that we use … to wash cars, to change oil in our cars to cook in the kitchen to do all that where we save money.”

The problem with his perspective is most of the prisoners he deems “good” are also in prison on nonviolent offenses. This is not as a result of more violent crimes, but with an increasingly broad range of sentencing options on the part of the judiciary. Since most of the inmates being held there are nonviolent, the excuse they should remain in prison as a function of keeping the society safer is inaccurate belying the state’s true intention: to continue to reap the benefits of the inmates nearly free labor.

◊♦◊

This is not a problem unique to Louisiana. In addition to state-run facilities, private prisons, which began in 1983 enjoyed a boom during the period called The War on Drugs. The largest private prison, Corrections Corporation of America has turned its 66,000 inmates into an  industry making $1.9 billion in revenues and $221 million in net income.

As prison sentencing comes under fire and the cost of keeping prisoners continues to rise, many states are beginning to question their policies, particularly against keeping non-violent prisoners behind bars. New prison reforms are showing up in nearly every state with the largest states acting to reduce those populations.

California plans to free 9,500 inmates over the next four years reducing overcrowding. Prisoners can opt to reduce their sentences by taking classes, getting their GED or engaging in self-help programs such as drug counseling. This reduction in prisoners will save the state of California $600 million dollars.

Prison populations in the United States have exploded from 1978 to 2012. Nationwide, the overall population has risen from 300,000 to 1.5 million prisoners, with many states doubling their prison populations, and in a few, many times that number.

◊♦◊

What do you think? 

Does prison still meet society’s standards of “paying a debt?” Is it time to consider looking at prison differently than we do now?

Should inmates be used as firefighters, for example, while not being paid for such dangerous work?

Has the explosion of prisoners in the early 21’s century changed our ideas of what prison is supposed to be accomplishing?

Should the nation rethink its policies on prisons, sentencing and the creation of private prisons?

Is it finally time to consider different ways of dealing with non-violent criminals who have become the fastest growing segment of the prison population?

Have you had any interaction with the penal-industrial complex? Do you feel prison brings any benefit to society overall?

◊♦◊

If you are already working with an Editor at The Good Men Project, you can request them—or submit your essay and/or request me, Jeremy McKeen, Lead Editor—and I will be happy to assist you.

Please indicate that you are responding to this Call for Submissions. 

Or write on this topic using one of the prompts or anything else you think is relevant.

Then click here to send your post through our submission system.

If you already have an Editor at The Good Men Project, you can request them—or we will match you with an editor.

submit to Good Men Project

◊♦◊

The Good Men Project is different from most media companies. We are a “participatory media company”—which means we don’t just have content you read and share and comment on but it means we have multiple ways you can actively be a part of the conversation. As you become a deeper part of the conversation (Which really is “The Conversation No One Else is Having), you will learn all of the ways we support our Writer’s Community—community FB groups, weekly conference calls, classes in writing, editing platform building and more. 
♦◊♦

Here are more ways to become a part of The Good Men Project community:

Request to join our private Facebook Group for Writers—it’s like our virtual newsroom where you connect with editors and other writers about issues and ideas.

Click here to become a Premium Member of The Good Men Project Community. 1) Get  access to an exclusive “Members Only” Group on Facebook, 2) View the website with no ads 3) Get free access to classes, workshops, and exclusive events 4) Be invited to an exclusive weekly “Call with the Publisher” with other Premium Members 4) Free commenting badge, listing on our Friends page, and more.

Are you stuck on what to write? Sign up for our Writing Prompts emails, you’ll get ideas directly from our editors every Monday and Thursday.

Join our exclusive weekly “Call with the Publisher” — where community members are encouraged to discuss the issues of the week, get story ideas, meet other members and get known for their ideas? To get the call-in information, either join as a member or wait until you get a post published with us. Here are some examples of what we talk about on the calls.

Want to learn practical skills about how to be a better Writer, Editor or Platform Builder? Want to be a Rising Star in Media? Want to learn how to Create Social Change? We have classes in all of those areas. Classes are included free of charge with our $20 a year Gold Membership.

However you engage with The Good Men Project—you can help lead this conversation about the changing roles of men in the 21st century.

◊♦◊

bottom of post widget GMP community logo (1)

Photo: Getty Images

The post National Prison Reform – A Call for Submissions appeared first on The Good Men Project.

Prisons Don’t Reform Inmates – A Call for Submissions

0
0

Embed from Getty Images


America is a punitively-oriented nation which believes “prison is a man paying back his debt to society.” But what happens when that debt to society becomes a problematic millstone around society’s neck?

More than four in ten ex-convicts will return to state prisons within three years of their release. (circa a report from the Pew Trusts, in 2011). States today spend more than $50 billion on corrections, but recidivism remains high. Our prison-industrial complex has become a problem at multiple levels.

The ever-growing population of prisoners is now overwhelming our ability to build new facilities to house them. We produce more prisons nationwide than schools.

When citizens find their way into the penal-industrial complex, they rarely escape it unscathed. Their physical health can be compromised by diseases such as hepatitis or HIV. Their mental health is assuredly challenged due to overcrowding, the stress and violence of prison life, low quality medical care and the brutality of prison guards.

Should a prisoner endure and manage to be released with his “debt to society” paid, he’s still required to mark himself an ex-felon either through extended probations, which if violated, return him to prison, or by having to check a box on applications as an ex-felon, assuring his inability to find meaningful employment.

As a result of this, many ex-felons are driven into a shadow economy, where they are paid in cash, and unable to acquire social security, insurance, or other forms of stable economic opportunities. Those are the fortunate ones. For those unable to find such work, they find themselves working as part of a criminal underground if they cannot find family or other forms of support to keep themselves out of prison. Inevitably, this can lead back to prison.

Nationwide, over 150 cities and counties have adopted what is widely known as “ban the box” so that employers consider a job candidate’s qualifications first, without the stigma of a criminal record. Born out of the work of All of Us or None, these initiatives provide applicants a fair chance by removing the conviction history question on the job application and delaying the background check inquiry until later in the hiring.”

What do you think?

Is excessive recidivism an issue in your state or county?

Should background checks prevent ex-convicts from having employment dealing with children, the elderly or the infirm?

Where do you stand on the “Ban the Box” initiative?

How do we address the issue of ex-convicts not being paid well?

Are there programs where you live which help ex-convicts find gainful employment or return to being part of their community?

♦◊♦

If you are already working with an Editor at The Good Men Project, you can request them—or submit your essay and/or request me, Jeremy McKeen, Lead Editor—and I will be happy to assist you.

Please indicate that you are responding to this Call for Submissions. 

Or write on this topic using one of the prompts or anything else you think is relevant.

Then click here to send your post through our submission system.

If you already have an Editor at The Good Men Project, you can request them—or we will match you with an editor.

 ♦◊♦

submit to Good Men Project

◊♦◊

The Good Men Project is different from most media companies. We are a “participatory media company”—which means we don’t just have content you read and share and comment on but it means we have multiple ways you can actively be a part of the conversation. As you become a deeper part of the conversation (Which really is “The Conversation No One Else is Having), you will learn all of the ways we support our Writer’s Community—community FB groups, weekly conference calls, classes in writing, editing platform building and more. 
♦◊♦

Here are more ways to become a part of The Good Men Project community:

Request to join our private Facebook Group for Writers—it’s like our virtual newsroom where you connect with editors and other writers about issues and ideas.

Click here to become a Premium Member of The Good Men Project Community. 1) Get  access to an exclusive “Members Only” Group on Facebook, 2) View the website with no ads 3) Get free access to classes, workshops, and exclusive events 4) Be invited to an exclusive weekly “Call with the Publisher” with other Premium Members 4) Free commenting badge, listing on our Friends page, and more.

Are you stuck on what to write? Sign up for our Writing Prompts emails, you’ll get ideas directly from our editors every Monday and Thursday.

♦◊♦

Join our exclusive weekly “Call with the Publisher” — where community members are encouraged to discuss the issues of the week, get story ideas, meet other members and get known for their ideas? To get the call-in information, either join as a member or wait until you get a post published with us. Here are some examples of what we talk about on the calls.

Want to learn practical skills about how to be a better Writer, Editor or Platform Builder? Want to be a Rising Star in Media? Want to learn how to Create Social Change? We have classes in all of those areas. Classes are included free of charge with our $20 a year Gold Membership.

However you engage with The Good Men Project—you can help lead this conversation about the changing roles of men in the 21st century.

◊♦◊

bottom of post widget GMP community logo (1)

Photo: Getty Images

The post Prisons Don’t Reform Inmates – A Call for Submissions appeared first on The Good Men Project.

Viewing all 10 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images