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"Mass incarceration makes our country worse off and we need to do something about it," said President Obama, apparently moving away from a drone-strike presidency to a “kinder gentler” look at a hot political issue. Obama addressed the issue of police brutality finally saying it is a “slow rolling crisis.” He commuted the sentences of 46 drug offenders to further dust off his image and put a shine on his legacy. Democrats and Republicans piled on in an election year. Apparently the Black vote still counts. The #Black Lives Matter movement may have something to do with this come to Jesus moment when self-serving politicians decide to defend those abused by a chronically corrupt and unfair American justice system. The continuing Ferguson unrest may also have been a nudge.
The president has finally admitted, "In too many places, Black boys and Black men, and Latino boys and Latino men, experience being treated differently under the law.” So now that Obama has turned his attention to the problem of racial injustice and the criminal justice system, my response would simply be, #What took you so long?
"We should not be tolerating overcrowding in prison. We should not be tolerating gang activity in prison. We should not be tolerating rape in prison — and we shouldn't be making jokes about it in our popular culture. That's no joke. These things are unacceptable," says the president.
That is a laudable statement appealing to moral sentiments and decency, but there are more concrete issues to wrangle. Instead of following our heartstrings to do the right thing, let’s just follow the money.
If the president wants to clean-up the “criminal” in the criminal justice system, he needs to look in his own backyard where congresspeople are greasing their palms with corporate prison money. According to the Washington Post, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio is the largest benefactor of the prison lobby largesse.
There are about 130 private prisons nationwide. GEO and Corrections Corporation of America gets the largest share of taxpayers’ money. Their annual dole is US$3.3 billion dollars. Since 1989 US$10 million have gone into the pockets of political candidates and the lobbying budget of CCA alone was US$21.2 million as of 2014. From 2000 to 2010 private prison industry profits skyrocketed and prison population in the private sector doubled. The Huffington Post reports that half of all immigration offenders are in the clutches of these Wall Street profiteers.
Crime is big business and ultimately very political.
The 1980s was a “tough on crime”, Drug War era when draconian drug laws drove the prison population through the roof. Prison overcrowding became a problem in 1984 and private prisons became a solution when CCA won the first government contract. Although Republicans take the heat for getting tough on crime, Bill Clinton’s presidency was responsible for swelling the prison population more than anyone. This Democrat exceeded Republican Ronald Reagan’s zeal for incarceration by 235,000 inmates. Under Clinton the prison population grew by 673,000. Bill Clinton has done a flimsy “mea culpa” to clean up his record on crime in the ‘90s. A “mea culpa” indeed.
The government was sold a pipedream that corporate prisons would be more efficient and cost-effective. That was the much-publicized line that would keep voters from asking the obvious question of how their family members could receive any rehabilitation in a for-profit industry only concerned with the bottom line and its shareholders.
The myth of efficiency has begun to wear thin.
The Sentencing Project did a study and reported, “No definitive research evidence would lead to the conclusion that inmate services and the quality of confinement are significantly improved in privately operated facilities.” Also a study by James Austin comparing private and public prisons revealed that the private prisons had 65% more inmate on inmate violence and 49% more attacks on staff. Recidivism rates are higher in corporate prisons.
As for our young people, the Department of Justice sued the Jena Juvenile Justice Center in Jena, Louisiana for “inappropriately harsh and brutal methods of behavior control, including physical beatings, verbal abuse, and indiscriminate use of mace and pepper-spray.” The corporation that ran the facility was Wackenhut who later regrouped and changed their name because they had such a bad reputation.
The private prison profiteers that trade our youngsters’ future on Wall Street infiltrate public policy organizations like the American Legislative Exchange Council that develops legislative policies. Forty percent of ALEC’S members come from the corporate prison industrial complex. They help create laws favorable to keeping their institutions filled and their profit margin high.
Presidential candidates are making noise on prison reform, but no one except Independent Bernie Sanders blows the lid off private prisons. The Vermont Senator has a racial justice reform package that includes legislation to end private prisons. Apparently the Black Lives Matter contingency has given a nod to his proposals.
Most presidential candidates seem to prefer pithy sound-bytes to substantial prison reform platforms. Democrat Martin O’Malley, however, has offered comprehensive measures to reform prisons and police departments, but no word on private prisons. Hillary Clinton has taken on the issue; however, Corrections Corporation of America and The Geo Group are some of her top fundraisers.
Presidential hopeful Governor Jeb Bush has received hundreds of thousand dollars from the private prison lobby. Texas Senator Ted Cruz is implicated in a sordid “kids for cash” scandal where judges were paid to send juveniles to private detention facilities. He also has strong ties to ALEC which influences legislation favorable to the private sector. One of Republican candidate Chris Christie’s “closest counselor and most trusted confidant(s),” was a lobbyist for one of the worst New York private institutions, Community Education Centers. Then this lobbyist, Bill Palatucci, became chairman of Christie’s 2013 reelection campaign. Although Texas Governor Rick Perry espouses prison reform, he became enamored with private prisons when lobbyists began to feed his coffers.
The corporate prison question is unlikely to enter the prison reform debate. The private prison lobby is the quiet elephant in a very noisy back room. Incentivizing the criminalization of the American public is a crime within itself. Independent Bernie Sanders has the right idea, but in spite of his surge in the polls, the last time an Independent won a presidential contest was George Washington.
Politicians love promises that wear thin in the light of scrutiny. An unknown source said, “Promises are like babies: easy to make and hard to deliver.”
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