The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?

HUMAN rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million - mostly Black and Hispanic - are working for various industries for a pittance.

For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don't have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don't like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

There are approximately 2 million inmates in state, federal and private prisons throughout the country. According to California Prison Focus, "no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens."

The figures show that the United States has locked up more people than any other country: a half million more than China, which has a population five times greater than the U.S. Statistics reveal that the United States holds 25% of the world's prison population, but only 5% of the world's people. From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000.

In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.

What has happened over the last 10 years? Why are there so many prisoners?

"The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners' work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself," says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."

The prison industry complex is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States and its investors are on Wall Street. "This multimillion-dollar industry has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs. It also has direct advertising campaigns, architecture companies, construction companies, investment houses on Wall Street, plumbing supply companies, food supply companies, armed security, and padded cells in a large variety of colors."

According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

CRIME GOES DOWN, JAIL POPULATION GOES UP

According to reports by human rights organizations, these are the factors that increase the profit potential for those who invest in the prison industry complex:

¥ Jailing persons convicted of non-violent crimes, and long prison sentences for possession of microscopic quantities of illegal drugs. Federal law stipulates five years' imprisonment without possibility of parole for possession of 5 grams of crack or 3.5 ounces of heroin, and 10 years for possession of less than 2 ounces of rock-cocaine or crack.

A sentence of 5 years for cocaine powder requires possession of 500 grams - 100 times more than the quantity of rock cocaine for the same sentence. Most of those who use cocaine powder are white, middle-class or rich people, while mostly Blacks and Latinos use rock cocaine. In Texas, a person may be sentenced for up to two years' imprisonment for possessing 4 ounces of marijuana. Here in New York, the 1973 Nelson Rockefeller anti-drug law provides for a mandatory prison sentence of 15 years to life for possession of 4 ounces of any illegal drug.

* The passage in 13 states of the "three strikes" laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.

* Longer sentences.

* The passage of laws that require minimum sentencing, without regard for circumstances.

* A large expansion of work by prisoners creating profits that motivate the incarceration of more people for longer periods of time.

* More punishment of prisoners, so as to lengthen their sentences.

HISTORY OF PRISON LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES

Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the 1861-1865 Civil War, a system of "hiring out prisoners" was introduced in order to continue the slavery tradition. Freed slaves were charged with not carrying out their sharecropping commitments (cultivating someone else's land in exchange for part of the harvest) or petty thievery - which were almost never proven - and were then "hired out" for cotton picking, working in mines and building railroads.

From 1870 until 1910 in the state of Georgia, 88% of hired-out convicts were Black. In Alabama, 93% of "hired-out" miners were Black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced the system of hiring out convicts. The notorious Parchman plantation existed until 1972.

During the post-Civil War period, Jim Crow racial segregation laws were imposed on every state, with legal segregation in schools, housing, marriages and many other aspects of daily life. "Today, a new set of markedly racist laws is imposing slave labor and sweatshops on the criminal justice system, now known as the prison industry complex," comments the Left Business Observer.

Who is investing? At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom's, Revlon, Macy's, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more.

All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month.

The highest-paying private prison is CCA in Tennessee, where prisoners receive 50 cents per hour for what they call "highly skilled positions." At those rates, it is no surprise that inmates find the pay in federal prisons to be very generous. There, they can earn $1.25 an hour and work eight hours a day, and sometimes overtime. They can send home $200-$300 per month.

Thanks to prison labor, the United States is once again an attractive location for investment in work that was designed for Third World labor markets. A company that operated a maquiladora (assembly plant in Mexico near the border) closed down its operations there and relocated to San Quentin State Prison in California. In Texas, a factory fired its 150 workers and contracted the services of prisoner-workers from the private Lockhart Texas prison, where circuit boards are assembled for companies like IBM and Compaq.

Oregon State Representative Kevin Mannix recently urged Nike to cut its production in Indonesia and bring it to his state, telling the shoe manufacturer that "there won't be any transportation costs; we're offering you competitive prison labor (here)."

PRIVATE PRISONS

The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in 1990 under William Clinton, when Wall Street stocks were selling like hotcakes. Clinton's program for cutting the cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.

Private prisons are the biggest business in the prison industry complex. About 18 corporations guard 10,000 prisoners in 27 states. The two largest are Correctional Corporation of America (CCA) and Wackenhut, which together control 75%. Private prisons receive a guaranteed amount of money for each prisoner, independent of what it costs to maintain each one.

According to Russell Boraas, a private prison administrator in Virginia, "the secret to low operating costs is having a minimal number of guards for the maximum number of prisoners." The CCA has an ultra-modern prison in Lawrenceville, Virginia, where five guards on dayshift and two at night watch over 750 prisoners.

In these prisons, inmates may get their sentences reduced for "good behavior," but for any infraction, they get 30 days added - which means more profits for CCA. According to a study of New Mexico prisons, it was found that CCA inmates lost "good behavior time" at a rate eight times higher than those in state prisons.

IMPORTING AND EXPORTING INMATES

Profits are so good that now there is a new business: importing inmates with long sentences, meaning the worst criminals. When a federal judge ruled that overcrowding in Texas prisons was cruel and unusual punishment, the CCA signed contracts with sheriffs in poor counties to build and run new jails and share the profits.

According to a December 1998 Atlantic Monthly magazine article, this program was backed by investors from Merrill-Lynch, Shearson-Lehman, American Express and Allstate, and the operation was scattered all over rural Texas. That state's governor, Ann Richards, followed the example of Mario Cuomo in New York and built so many state prisons that the market became flooded, cutting into private prison profits.

After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 - ending court supervision and decisions - caused overcrowding and violent, unsafe conditions in federal prisons, private prison corporations in Texas began to contact other states whose prisons were overcrowded, offering "rent-a-cell" services in the CCA prisons located in small towns in Texas. The commission for a rent-a-cell salesman is $2.50 to $5.50 per day per bed. The county gets $1.50 for each prisoner.

STATISTICS

Ninety-seven percent of 125,000 federal inmates have been convicted of non-violent crimes. It is believed that more than half of the 623,000 inmates in municipal or county jails are innocent of the crimes they are accused of. Of these, the majority are awaiting trial. Two-thirds of the one million state prisoners have committed non-violent offenses. Sixteen percent of the country's 2 million prisoners suffer from mental illness.

BY VICKY PELAEZ posted 15 October 05

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The U.S. system of 'justice' is a tragic joke

US: Police abuse, and sometimes kill, innocent persons at will. Cops plant evidence, they lie, they coerce confessions and they commit perjury. Many are, simply, criminals.

Prosecutors suborn perjury. They introduce "evidence" they know is false, they fail to disclose and try to suppress exculpatory evidence and they knowingly prosecute innocent people.

The laws against some drugs are primarily a means to give the cops an open-ended warrant for search and seizure and a mechanism to keep poor people, young people and especially poor, young *black* people fearful, off-balance and easy to control.

The law that mandates heavier penalties for crack cocaine possession than for the powdered Hollywood variety is an outrageous act of oppression aimed at ensuring that blacks are punished more harshly than whites for the same offence.

Criminal court judges, for the most part, are in collusion with the cops and prosecutors and many wouldn't know justice if God came down from Heaven and handed it to them on a golden platter.

The result is that almost one in four (23 percent) black men in the age group 20-29 is either in prison, jail, on probation, or parole on any given day (four times that of whites). The number of young black men under the control of the criminal justice system, [criminal law system], is greater than the total number of black men of all ages enrolled in college as of 1996.

That the system is a blunt weapon for the continued oppression of black people - and, in a larger sense, poor people - is so obvious it needs no further assertion.

The prisons are overflowing with people who have never harmed a soul, and uncounted thousands who are innocent of the crimes they were convicted of.

The system must be brought down. It must be strangled, clogged and made so unworkable that it collapses under its own corrupt weight. Once the system grinds to a halt, the powers-that-be will panic, the legislators will be forced to act and the laws will change.

Accomplishing this may not be as difficult as it sounds. What it will take is to educate young people - and especially young BLACK people - to follow a few simple rules when dealing with the authorities.

The rules should be posted in foot-high letters on billboards in every city. They should be scrawled as graffiti on every ghetto wall. They should be taped to lockers in schools and carved into police-cell walls and posted all over the Internet. They should be set to a beat and turned into a hip-hop song. They should be seen wherever people who are the system's favourite targets gather.

If everyone followed the rules to the letter, the system would stumble to a halt under its own ponderous weight. And then, either the laws would change in an attempt to eliminate injustice, or the system would forced to cast off its mask and reveal the monster police state lurking underneath.

If that happens, there can be only one response, and that's to take it to the streets, dismantle the motherfucker and start afresh.

The rules fall into two categories: Stymie the Cops, and Get Your Rights - ALL Your Rights.

You've waited long enough. Here are

THE RULES OF RESISTANCE

NEVER tell the police anything the law doesn't require you to tell.

(According to a disastrous U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2004, that means your name only [unless you're driving a car]. Practice these words for all other cop questions: "I'd rather not say.")

NEVER consent to a search of your person, your vehicle, your possessions or your residence.

(Insist they get a warrant. If they search without one, they generally can't use as evidence whatever they might find.)

NEVER confess. To anything. Never admit to anything.

(If arrested, say "I want to speak to a lawyer." Say nothing until you have. Never believe the cops when they tell you things will "go easier with you" if you give a statement, turn in your partner or point them towards evidence. This is the biggest lie cops tell, everyone knows it and yet, dumb motherfuckers fall for it every day. Don't be a dumb motherfucker.)

NEVER discuss your case with cellmates or others in or out of jail.

(Assume everyone you meet in jail is a police informant. Many of them are.)

NEVER plea bargain.

ALWAYS demand a lawyer.

(From the moment you are arrested, tell the cops you want to speak to a lawyer.

At the police station, tell everyone you come into contact with that you want a lawyer. Don't talk to the cops until you've spoken with a lawyer.)

ALWAYS plead not guilty.

(Even if you're guilty as hell. Make them prove it. Often, they won't be able to if you don't help them.)

ALWAYS demand a full jury trial.

(Use the rights you have. Challenge jurors. Drag out the process. Make it as expensive as possible for the State.)

ALWAYS appeal, if you are convicted.

ALWAYS pass on these rules to everyone you know.

There they are. Ten simple rules that hold awesome power.

Skeptical? Good. But think about it.

Can you imagine what the impact would be on the system if every single mother's son picked up by the cops refused to co-operate? Refused to tell them where he threw the dope, declined to identify the other dudes who were hanging out on the street corner, withheld permission for a search, demanded a lawyer, refused to confess or make a deal and insisted on a trial, complete with a jury of his peers? Do you think the system could withstand that for long?

It could not. The system sustains itself only because it is a revolving door into which the vast majority of its victims are sucked into the vicious vortex of arrest, bargain, confession, guilty plea, prison. Kind of like a giant garbage disposal unit.

But there are not enough public defenders to represent even a small percentage of charged persons if *everyone* demanded a lawyer and pleaded not guilty, not enough prosecutors to prosecute them, not enough courtrooms to try them in and not enough judges to fall asleep during their trials. Just finding enough people to sit on the vastly increased number of juries that would be required would throttle the system into paralysis.

And consider the effects on the police, if they knew that every single sonofabitch they charged would eventually face them in court, demanding to see their evidence, with a lawyer at their side to challenge their every lie.

The costs of running the system would rise astronomically. It could not be sustained. Things would change. And change is good.

So here they are again. The rules. Pass them on. Post them. Give them to your friends.

Think about it - revolution without firing a shot.

You have nothing to lose except the gun in your back.

THE RULES OF RESISTANCE

NEVER tell the police anything.
NEVER consent to a search.
NEVER confess.
NEVER discuss your case with others.
NEVER plea bargain.
ALWAYS demand a lawyer.
ALWAYS plead not guilty.
ALWAYS demand a full jury trial.
ALWAYS appeal, if you are convicted.
ALWAYS pass on these rules.

"Where you find the laws most numerous, there you will find also the greatest injustice." - Arcesilaus.

By Everyone Knows It 5 July 04

Ed: Actually there is no justice in laws made by the ruling class, only their rule of law in their institutions. Justice is the word they use but, it is 'US Law' and much of police corruption starts out as 'Noble Cause Corruption' because The Government is the Problem. Then once the cops get used to that 'Green Light' then, 'Monkey See Monkey Do', for themselves of course, and straight out Police Corruption is born.

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US: If recent incarceration rates remain unchanged, an estimated 1 out of every 20 persons (5.1%) will serve time in a prison during their lifetime.

Helping Prisoners Find Their Way Home?
Antonio Pinder used to be scared of returning home from prison, stricken by fear that he would fall back into the life that landed him behind bars. He hadn't had a steady job before he was sent away 13 years ago, and he worried that he never would. A year out of prison, he is still searching for work.

US Prison system ending love affair with incarceration?
After 25 years of explosive growth in the U.S. prison system, is this country finally ending its love affair with incarceration? Perhaps, but as in any abusive relationship, breaking up will be hard to do.

CONS COMMIT CRIMES IN HASTE, NOW CAN REPENT AT LAWTEY - -- Gov. Jeb Bush, in a Christmas Eve address to prisoners at the nation's first ''faith-based'' prison, in North Florida.

CURE --- Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants
CURE --- is a nation-wide grass roots organization dedicated to reducing crime through reform of the criminal justice system.[Criminal Law System.]

The Truth About Private Prisons
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest operator of prisons for profit, is celebrating its 20th anniversary throughout this year "at both the company's corporate Nashville office and at all of the more than 60 prisons, jails and detention centers under CCA ownership and/or management."

CCA PRIVATE PRISONS: REPORT GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP
New National Study of Corrections Corporation of America Warns Investors and Legislators of Risky Investment. Report explores continuing operational and financial problems; questions CCA's long-term viability as states reassess prison policies.

Finally, States Release The Pressure on Prisons?
US: After decades of massive prison growth, America may be ending its love affair with incarceration. Policymakers around the country, some of whom previously supported ratcheting up punishments, have begun to rethink the wisdom of unbridled prison expansion, and are advocating alternatives to simply "locking them up and throwing away the key."

California Parole System Deemed 'Broken'
SACRAMENTO, Calif: California spends $1.5 billion annually on parolees who mostly fail and are sent back behind bars because they are no better prepared for life on the outside than the day they entered prison, according to a report.

People with Mental Retardation in the Criminal Justice System
Based on the 1990 census, an estimated 6.2 to 7.5 million people in the United States have mental retardation. Various studies have suggested between 2 percent to 10 percent of the prison population has mental retardation.

USA: With Cash Tight, States Reassess Long Jail Terms
OLYMPIA, Wash., Nov. 6 - After two decades of passing ever tougher sentencing laws and prompting a prison building boom, state legislatures facing budget crises are beginning to rethink their costly approaches to crime.

A STRUGGLE ON TWO FRONTS: PRISONS & IMPERIALIST WAR
After a war waged by the U.S. military against Vietnam which took the lives of more than 3 million Vietnamese people and more than 58,000 GIs, the U.S. finally withdrew in 1975. It had suffered its first official major military defeat by a united people struggle led by the Vietnamese, along with a mass U.S. anti-war movement.

Report on State Prisons Cites Mental Illness
NEW YORK: Nearly one of every four New York State prisoners who are kept in punitive segregation [solitary confinement], confined to a small cell at least 23 hours a day are mentally ill, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that has been critical of state prison policies.

High court keeps alive case of prisoners held in solitary
NEW ORLEANS: The nation's highest court refused Monday to kill a lawsuit brought by two prisoners and an ex-prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who spent decades in solitary confinement.

US: Mentally Ill Mistreated in Prison More Mentally Ill in Prison Than in Hospitals (New York, October 22, 2003) Mentally ill offenders face mistreatment and neglect in many U.S. prisons, Human Rights Watch. "Prisons have become the nation's primary mental health facilities. But for those with serious illnesses, prison can be the worst place to be."

Shut down the Security Torture Units
San Francisco: October 18 In solidarity with other prison activist organizations, MIM, RAIL, the Barrio Defense Committee (BDC) and the Prison Reform Unity Project held a four hour rally in San Francisco demanding the Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons be shut down.

Solitary Confinement: Mental illness in prisons
As noted earlier, inmates [prisoners] with mental illness are over represented in our toughest prison settings. Symptoms of mental illness (i.e., delays in response time, paranoia, difficulty interpreting the actions of others, command hallucinations, and so on) can make complying with prison rules difficult.

Post-Incarceration Sentences
Pat: "The 1990s brought a new front in the war on drugs, featuring a new layer of the Prison Industrial Complex, which has the effect of ensuring that people coming in contact with the criminal punishment system remain within the grasp of the Prison Industrial Complex even beyond prison walls."

Inside Prison, Outside the Law
Every year, tens of thousands of prisoners in state and federal custody are attacked. The exact number who die is difficult to determine: According to the nonprofit Criminal Justice Institute, in 2000, the most recent year for which figures have been compiled, 55 prisoners were murdered, 39 died "accidentally," and 118 died for unknown reasons.

Day Seven of the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health:
PASADENA, CALIF: On the seventh day of a hunger strike by six psychiatric survivors to oppose human rights violations in the mental health system, the American Psychiatric Association faces a direct and unprecedented challenge from a Scientific Panel of 14 academics and clinicians.

Supreme Court Justice Criticises Sentencing Guidelines
San Francisco, August 9, 2003, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said today that prison terms are too long and that he favours scrapping the practice of setting mandatory minimum sentences for some federal crimes.

US prison population 2.1 million
The US prison population grew more than twice as fast last year as in 2001, bringing the total number of people held behind bars in the United States to more than 2.1 million, a record, according to a government report.

McKean Federal Prison: An Alleged Model
McKean, a federal correctional institution [? prison], does everything that "make 'em bust rocks" politicians decry--imagine, educating inmates [prisoners]! And it works. [Allegedly works.]

Prisoners Justice Day Press Release (Montreal)
On August 10th, 1974, Eddie Nalon bled to death in a solitary confinement unit at Millhaven Maximum Security Prison near Kingston,Ontario when the emergency call button in his cell failed to work. An inquest later found that the call buttons in that unit had been deactivated by the guards.

Notebook of a Prison Abolitionist
In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass recalls how as a slave he would occasionally hear of the "abolitionists." He did not know the full meaning of the word at first, but he heard it used in ways that he found appealing.

Study Warns of Rising Tide of Released Prisoners
Washington: More than 625,000 former prisoners will be coming back into U.S. society this year, part of a record flow of prisoners who will face crushing obstacles in finding work and housing and repairing long-fractured family ties, according to a newly released study.

Incite Statement Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex
We call social justice movements to develop strategies and analysis that address both state AND interpersonal violence, particularly violence against women.

Second International Conference on Human Rights & Prison Reform
**This second gathering will be much smaller and more in depth in participation. A report on the human rights violation of discrimination in regard to prisoners will be produced. This report will be given to the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights which will be having its annual meeting near our conference and is the"think tank" for the human rights agenda of the United Nations.

Judged Forever- The Orange County Register
US: California's largest job-placement program for parolees will be shut down May 31 after an Orange County Register investigation found that ex-convicts were sent to questionable jobs [?] and that the state was charged for placements that did not occur. [? According to the ruling-class]

California Family Visiting Case
US: CALIFORNIA: Today (5/03/08) in Superior Court around twenty friends and family members of inmates from CSP Solano showed up to show their support in the Gordon vs. CA Department of Corrections (Case #322862) which deals with the subject of bringing back Family Visits to all inmates.

Prison Rates Among Blacks Reach a Peak, Report Finds
An estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20 to 34 are in jail or prison, according to a report released yesterday by the Justice Department.

Justices question prison visitation policies
WASHINGTON: In a case that could affect the visitation rights of millions of prisoners, Supreme Court justices on Wednesday struggled with the question of whether inmates have a constitutional right to visits with friends and family.

How the Prison Service Works

1.Abuse and torture inmates at HMP Wormwood Scrubs
2.Take years to admit a regime of violence and torture.
3.Settle 46 claims, paying 1.7 million to prisoners.
4.Keep 11 of the 14 prison officers responsible in their jobs.

5.Carry on as before.

Don't Let The Bastards Grind You Down

Congratulations to the prisoners employed to put the 1901 census on the internet. HM Prison Service's contract with the Public Records Office did not include anything even approaching the minimum wage for the prisoners doing all the work. But if you pay peanuts, you get monkey business.

As well as going slowly (well very slowly) prisoners ensured that every individual who was listed as a gaoler of prison officer was entered on the database as Screw.

Eventually the contract was taken off the prison service, and completed by workers in India and Sri Lanka.

ONE-LEGGED MAN ON RUN FROM JAIL

Two one-legged convicts scaled security walls to break out of jail. They were among 26 inmates, [prisoners], who sawed the bars of their cells, shinned to the grounds using ropes and then jumped over the wall of the prison in Niteroi, Brazil. Ten convicts, including one of the disabled men, were caught, we are not pulling your leg.

Robbie Stewart

During 2003 Class War (and other political organisation's who support political prisoners) were contacted by Mr Stewart, who is currently in HMP Woodhill. He expressed interest in our ideas and described himself as an Anarchist.

What he did not reveal is that he is the same Robbie Stewart who in 2001 murdered his Asian cell mate, Zahid Mubarek in Feltham Young Offenders Institute. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, he was quoted as expressing support for nail bombings in ethnic areas, and made it clear at his trial that he was a committed racist.

Class War has decided not to correspond with Robbie Stewart due to the nature of the crime he committed. The fact that he chose not to mention why he was in prison, whilst in one letter making the aside that, I have ruined my life, implies that he is not someone who has come to terms with his own actions and the damage they have caused.

We do not know if his interest in Anarchism is genuine, is to pick up intelligence for a racist organisation or if it has been encouraged by the authorities so as to discredit those who support prisoners. We do know his crime is far to recent and vivid to forget. Or to forgive.

Campaign Against Prison Slavery CAPS, now has an excellent website at Campaign Against Prison Slavery Individual subscriptions to the group cost $4 per year, $100 for trades unions and organisations. CAPS can be contacted at PO Box 74, Brighton, BN1 4ZQ.

Riot Round Up

Think there is nothing going on? that everyone has given up? Corporate capital is unchallenged world-wide? save for a few religious mentalists trying to take us back to the twelfth century? Wrong! Have a look at some of these events from the tail end of last year. 7th October, HMP Lewes, England - prisoners damaged two offices and started several fires. 15th October, Baku, Azerbaijan - protesters clashed with police in the worst street fighting in the country since the fall of Communism, in protest at rigged elections.

15th October, Montreal, Canada - punk fans decided to do something useful for a change when their gig was cancelled and went on the rampage in the city centre, smashing shop and car windows, torching more than four cars and injuring two cops.

16th November, Seoul, South Korea - trade unionists hurled molotov cocktails at police, wounding over 44 coppers.

19th November, Seoul, South Korea - trade unionists attacked police with fire bombs and steel pipes in revenge for colleagues who had killed themselves over government policies.

21st November, Miami, Florida - despite facing hundreds of cops armed with batons, concussion grenades, teargas, stinking liquid spray, plastic bullets and stun guns, over 1,000 protesters set fire to rubbish, threw stuff at cops and tried to pull down security fences in opposition to a FTAA free trade meeting.

2nd December, Bangu 3 Prison, Brazil - a group of prisoners took 20 people hostage, killed a screw and wounded two others.

3rd December, Baker, California - prisoners rioted over the arrival of a known snitch.

3rd December, Caracas, Venezuela - street vendors threw firecrackers and fired guns at police after cops tried to seize illegal fireworks.

4th December, Saravan, Iran - protesters clashed with police after cops shot and killed a motorcyclist for failing to stop.

18th December, Manama, Bahrain - stones and petrol bombs were thrown at cops, tyres were set on fire to block roads and photographers suspected of being undercover cops were attacked in protest at officials accused of torturing political prisoners not being prosecuted.

24th December, Colombo, Sri Lanka - Buddhists (!) attacked police at the funeral of monk.

25th December, Qalqiliya, West Bank - 200 people scaled the new wall separating Palestinians and Israelis, burnt tyres and threw rocks at Israeli soldiers, while in Nablus youths threw stones at an Israeli tank and were shot at, one 20 year old Palestinian was killed.

27th December, Nablus, West Bank - Palestinians fired guns, threw bricks and molotovs at Israeli soldiers.

28th December, Grafton, Australia - youths an a juvenile detention centre armed themselves with tools from a workshop and shut down the prison, threatening screws, setting fires and causing a large amount of damage.

29th December, Seoul, South Korea - 3,000 farmers threw stones and steel pipes at cops while a free trade agreement was being discussed in parliament.

30th December, Amsterdam, Holland - residents started fires and threw molotov cocktails at police over a ban on the tradition of burning Christmas trees in the street.

30th December, Taupo, New Zealand - youths threw bottles at cops as they tried to enforce a drinking ban.

One Man Riot

It must have been one of those days! Congratulations to the Winchester man who decided he?d had enough and took direct action. Having been released from custody earlier in the day, the unnamed man returned to Chichester police station on appropriately the 5th of November. By the time he had finished four patrol cars were burnt out completely by petrol bombs, three others severely damaged and several windows in the station broken.

If you are going to do it, do it properly is our message and this was one Guy Fawkes Night that everyone in Winchester can remember!

REOFFENDER OF 2003

A law firm in Orlando, Florida, has been shut down after it was revealed that not only were its partners not lawyers but that the founder was unable to attend evening meetings as he had to return to an open prison each night to complete a five-year term for fraud.

Perhaps George Bush will use them to count the votes in Florida in this years elections!

A Wankers Wanker

Hello to Sgt Sullivan of the State of Washington Department of Corrections. Not content with having to carry a truncheon all day to make up for having a very small penis, Sgt Sullivan gets to censor prisoners mail.

In the UK the authorities are working very hard to re-classify political dissent as terrorism - that's why a bunch of hippies demonstrating outside an arms fair get stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act.

In the USA, those advocating political dissent (and particularly those in prisons) are instead classified as gang members, with a whole set of laws and red-tape given to the authorities to fight this 'gang menace'.

According to Sgt Sullivan the friendly, cuddly, family newspaper you are holding in your hands right now contains 'gang symbols'.

So he bans it. He also deducts the cost of sending a letter to England informing us of this decision from the prisoners pay. All in all not a very nice man. Thanks for your work Sgt Sullivan you have just made some enemies for life.

Chapter 3: Leadership - The foundation for Innovative Practice

Campaign Against Prison Slavery
Millions of men, women and children around the world are in the 21st century still forced to lead lives as slaves - conservatively estimated to be 12 million, [1] more than during the 19th century slave trade. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are bought and sold like objects; forced to work, through mental or physical threat, for little or no pay; owned or controlled by an 'employer', through mental or physical or threatened abuse; and physically constrained or have restrictions placed on their freedom of movement.

By Just Us posted 15 April 04

Related:

Prisoners must get right to vote, says court
UK: The government will be forced to lift a ban on prisoners voting dating back to 1870 after the European court of human rights ruled yesterday it breached a lifer's human rights.

Cherie calls for women to be kept out of jail
UK: Cherie Booth today launches an impassioned attack on the jailing of women, warning of a 'cycle of poverty and crime' spiralling down the generations unless more female criminals are spared prison.

Blunkett charges miscarriage of justice victims 'food and lodgings'
UK: WHAT do you give someone who's been proved innocent after spending the best part of their life behind bars, wrongfully convicted of a crime they didn't commit? An apology, maybe? Counselling? Champagne?Compensation?

Prison needle cleansing programme
The Department of Health and the Prison Service appeared to be at odds last night over a needle cleansing programme designed to protect prisoners from blood-borne infections such as HIV and hepatitis.

England tops the EU in imprisonment
England and Wales jail more offenders per capita than any other European, Union country, according to new figures. The imprisonment rate of 141 per 100,000 makes the countries the prison capital of Europe for the second year running.

Don't put mothers behind bars
If we are to arrest the soaring prison suicide rate among women, we need to look at alternative punishment.

UK Prison Abuse: Guards Holding Nooses
'We will kill you. We will get away with it... we've done it before' Prisoners tell of hanging threats by officers holding nooses.

K K K in the UK
In the documentary it is alleged an officer dressed in a Ku Klux Klan mask at a training centre in north-west England. An undercover reporter from the BBC also claimed to have taped racist comments by some officers.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.

My Sarah was smart and talented - Why did she die in jail?
LONDON: Sarah Campbell was just 18 when she killed herself [? committed suicide,] one of seven women to die in jail this year. Our correspondent asks why so many women kill themselves in prison [? commit suicide in prison.]

US Prison system ending love affair with incarceration?

After 25 years of explosive growth in the U.S. prison system, is this country finally ending its love affair with incarceration? Perhaps, but as in any abusive relationship, breaking up will be hard to do.

Since 1980 the U.S. prison and jail population has quadrupled in size to more than 2 million. In the process, prisons have embedded themselves into the nation's economic and social fabric. A powerful lobby has grown up around the prison system that will fight hard to protect the status quo. There are some positive signs, as set forth in Vincent Schiraldi's Nov. 30 article in the Outlook section. Fiscal pressures may indeed slow the growth of the vast U.S. prison system. But reversing the trend of the past quarter-century is another matter.

Major companies such as Wackenhut Corrections Corp. and Corrections Corp. of America employ sophisticated lobbyists to protect and expand their market share. The law enforcement technology industry, which produces high-tech items such as the latest stab-proof vests, helmets, stun guns, shields, batons and chemical agents, does more than a billion dollars a year in business.

With 2.2 million people engaged in catching criminals and putting and keeping them behind bars, "corrections" has become one of the largest sectors of the U.S. economy, employing more people than the combined workforces of General Motors, Ford and Wal-Mart, the three biggest corporate employers in the country.

Correctional officers, [guards], have developed powerful labor unions. And most politicians, whether at the local, state or national level, remain acutely aware that allowing themselves to be portrayed as "soft on crime" is the quickest route to electoral defeat.

[When the focus should be on crime prevention. Why wait until the horse has bolted? That means politicians have to do something about it to get a vote.]

In the past two decades, hundreds of "prison towns" have multiplied -- places that are dependent on prisons for their economic vitality. Take Fremont County, Colo., where the No. 1 employer is the Colorado Department of Corrections, with nine prisons, and No. 2 is the Federal Bureau of Prisons with four. Towns that once might have hesitated about bringing a prison to town now rush to put together incentive packages.

Abilene, Tex., offered the state incentives worth more than $4 million to get a prison. The package included a 316-acre site and 1,100 acres of farmland adjacent to the facility.

Buckeye, 35 miles west of Phoenix, was a sleepy little desert outpost with a population of about 5,000 until it competed successfully for a major state prison. After that the state upgraded the road leading to the town and the population began to explode. A new movie theater and a $2.5 million swimming complex opened. Because Buckeye was sitting on ample supplies of water, it suddenly became prime real estate. Mayor Dusty Hull reckons the town will reach 35,000 in five years.

According to the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, 245 prisons sprouted in 212 rural counties during the 1990s. In West Texas, where oil and farming both collapsed, 11 rural counties acquired prisons in that decade. The Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions in the country, got seven new prisons. Appalachian counties of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky built nine, partially replacing the collapsing coal-mining industry. If the prisons closed, these communities would quickly collapse again.

When states try to cut prison budgets, they quickly come up against powerful interests. In Mississippi in 2001, Gov. Ronnie Musgrove vetoed the state's corrections budget so he could spend more money on schools.

The legislature, lobbied by Wackenhut, overrode the veto.

In fiscally distressed California, about 6 percent of the state budget goes to corrections. Yet no senior politician, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, has dared challenge the power of the 31,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which pours a third of the $22 million it collects each year in membership dues into political action committees.

Even efforts by some states to speed up the release of nonviolent offenders are unlikely to reduce the total prison population by much.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that two-thirds of those released from prison on parole are re-arrested within three years.

Released prisoners face institutional barriers that make it difficult for them to find a place in society. Welfare, [Social Services], reform legislation in 1996 banned anyone convicted of buying or selling drugs from receiving cash assistance or food stamps for life. Legislation in 1996 and 1998 also excluded ex-felons and their families from federal housing.

Most inmates, [prisoners], leave prison with no money and few prospects. They may get $25 and a bus ticket home if they are lucky. Studies have found that within a year of release, 60 percent of ex-inmates remain unemployed.

Several states have barred parolees from working in various professions, including real estate, medicine, nursing, engineering, education and dentistry. The Higher Education Act of 1998 bars people convicted of drug offenses from receiving student loans.

Prisoners are told to reform but they are given few tools to do so. Once they are entangled in the prison system, many belong to it for life. They may spend stretches of time inside prison and periods outside but they are never truly free.

Last year Robert Presley, secretary of California's correctional agency, noted that after several years of decline, crime rates were rising again and his state's prison population had resumed its growth. Maximum-security inmates, [prisoners], made up the fastest-growing segment.

Despite the building boom of the previous 20 years, prisons were at an average of 191 percent of capacity. This hardly sounds like a recipe for a falling prison population.

Alan Elsner is author of the forthcoming book "Gates of Injustice: America's Prison Crisis."

By Alan Elsner posted 28 January 04

Related:

CONS COMMIT CRIMES IN HASTE, NOW CAN REPENT AT LAWTEY - -- Gov. Jeb Bush, in a Christmas Eve address to prisoners at the nation's first ''faith-based'' prison, in North Florida.

CURE --- Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants
CURE --- is a nation-wide grass roots organization dedicated to reducing crime through reform of the criminal justice system.[Criminal Law System.]

The Truth About Private Prisons
Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest operator of prisons for profit, is celebrating its 20th anniversary throughout this year "at both the company's corporate Nashville office and at all of the more than 60 prisons, jails and detention centers under CCA ownership and/or management."

CCA PRIVATE PRISONS: REPORT GRASSROOTS LEADERSHIP
New National Study of Corrections Corporation of America Warns Investors and Legislators of Risky Investment. Report explores continuing operational and financial problems; questions CCA's long-term viability as states reassess prison policies.

Finally, States Release The Pressure on Prisons?
US: After decades of massive prison growth, America may be ending its love affair with incarceration. Policymakers around the country, some of whom previously supported ratcheting up punishments, have begun to rethink the wisdom of unbridled prison expansion, and are advocating alternatives to simply "locking them up and throwing away the key."

California Parole System Deemed 'Broken'
SACRAMENTO, Calif: California spends $1.5 billion annually on parolees who mostly fail and are sent back behind bars because they are no better prepared for life on the outside than the day they entered prison, according to a report.

People with Mental Retardation in the Criminal Justice System
Based on the 1990 census, an estimated 6.2 to 7.5 million people in the United States have mental retardation. Various studies have suggested between 2 percent to 10 percent of the prison population has mental retardation.

USA: With Cash Tight, States Reassess Long Jail Terms
OLYMPIA, Wash., Nov. 6 - After two decades of passing ever tougher sentencing laws and prompting a prison building boom, state legislatures facing budget crises are beginning to rethink their costly approaches to crime.

A STRUGGLE ON TWO FRONTS: PRISONS & IMPERIALIST WAR
After a war waged by the U.S. military against Vietnam which took the lives of more than 3 million Vietnamese people and more than 58,000 GIs, the U.S. finally withdrew in 1975. It had suffered its first official major military defeat by a united people struggle led by the Vietnamese, along with a mass U.S. anti-war movement.

Report on State Prisons Cites Mental Illness
NEW YORK: Nearly one of every four New York State prisoners who are kept in punitive segregation [solitary confinement], confined to a small cell at least 23 hours a day are mentally ill, according to a new report by a nonprofit group that has been critical of state prison policies.

High court keeps alive case of prisoners held in solitary
NEW ORLEANS: The nation's highest court refused Monday to kill a lawsuit brought by two prisoners and an ex-prisoner at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who spent decades in solitary confinement.

US: Mentally Ill Mistreated in Prison More Mentally Ill in Prison Than in Hospitals (New York, October 22, 2003) Mentally ill offenders face mistreatment and neglect in many U.S. prisons, Human Rights Watch. "Prisons have become the nation's primary mental health facilities. But for those with serious illnesses, prison can be the worst place to be."

Shut down the Security Torture Units
San Francisco: October 18 In solidarity with other prison activist organizations, MIM, RAIL, the Barrio Defense Committee (BDC) and the Prison Reform Unity Project held a four hour rally in San Francisco demanding the Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons be shut down.

Solitary Confinement: Mental illness in prisons
As noted earlier, inmates [prisoners] with mental illness are over represented in our toughest prison settings. Symptoms of mental illness (i.e., delays in response time, paranoia, difficulty interpreting the actions of others, command hallucinations, and so on) can make complying with prison rules difficult.

Post-Incarceration Sentences
Pat: "The 1990s brought a new front in the war on drugs, featuring a new layer of the Prison Industrial Complex, which has the effect of ensuring that people coming in contact with the criminal punishment system remain within the grasp of the Prison Industrial Complex even beyond prison walls."

Inside Prison, Outside the Law
Every year, tens of thousands of prisoners in state and federal custody are attacked. The exact number who die is difficult to determine: According to the nonprofit Criminal Justice Institute, in 2000, the most recent year for which figures have been compiled, 55 prisoners were murdered, 39 died "accidentally," and 118 died for unknown reasons.

Day Seven of the Fast for Freedom in Mental Health:
PASADENA, CALIF: On the seventh day of a hunger strike by six psychiatric survivors to oppose human rights violations in the mental health system, the American Psychiatric Association faces a direct and unprecedented challenge from a Scientific Panel of 14 academics and clinicians.

Supreme Court Justice Criticises Sentencing Guidelines
San Francisco, August 9, 2003, Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said today that prison terms are too long and that he favours scrapping the practice of setting mandatory minimum sentences for some federal crimes.

US prison population 2.1 million
The US prison population grew more than twice as fast last year as in 2001, bringing the total number of people held behind bars in the United States to more than 2.1 million, a record, according to a government report.

McKean Federal Prison: An Alleged Model
McKean, a federal correctional institution [? prison], does everything that "make 'em bust rocks" politicians decry--imagine, educating inmates [prisoners]! And it works. [Allegedly works.]

Prisoners Justice Day Press Release (Montreal)
On August 10th, 1974, Eddie Nalon bled to death in a solitary confinement unit at Millhaven Maximum Security Prison near Kingston,Ontario when the emergency call button in his cell failed to work. An inquest later found that the call buttons in that unit had been deactivated by the guards.

Notebook of a Prison Abolitionist
In his autobiography, Frederick Douglass recalls how as a slave he would occasionally hear of the "abolitionists." He did not know the full meaning of the word at first, but he heard it used in ways that he found appealing.

Study Warns of Rising Tide of Released Prisoners
Washington: More than 625,000 former prisoners will be coming back into U.S. society this year, part of a record flow of prisoners who will face crushing obstacles in finding work and housing and repairing long-fractured family ties, according to a newly released study.

Incite Statement Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex
We call social justice movements to develop strategies and analysis that address both state AND interpersonal violence, particularly violence against women.

Second International Conference on Human Rights & Prison Reform
**This second gathering will be much smaller and more in depth in participation. A report on the human rights violation of discrimination in regard to prisoners will be produced. This report will be given to the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights which will be having its annual meeting near our conference and is the"think tank" for the human rights agenda of the United Nations.

Judged Forever- The Orange County Register
US: California's largest job-placement program for parolees will be shut down May 31 after an Orange County Register investigation found that ex-convicts were sent to questionable jobs [?] and that the state was charged for placements that did not occur. [? According to the ruling-class]

California Family Visiting Case
US: CALIFORNIA: Today (5/03/08) in Superior Court around twenty friends and family members of inmates from CSP Solano showed up to show their support in the Gordon vs. CA Department of Corrections (Case #322862) which deals with the subject of bringing back Family Visits to all inmates.

Prison Rates Among Blacks Reach a Peak, Report Finds
An estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20 to 34 are in jail or prison, according to a report released yesterday by the Justice Department.

Justices question prison visitation policies
WASHINGTON: In a case that could affect the visitation rights of millions of prisoners, Supreme Court justices on Wednesday struggled with the question of whether inmates have a constitutional right to visits with friends and family.

Prison Privatisation: Death camps looming in NSW

Industry V's the Community by Justice Action

Prison privatisation: Industry has a main component and that is profit and the tool is money. The result can be defined as greed. The Community has a main component and that is nurture and the tool is humanity.The result can be defined as love.

Perhaps you can make up your own mind about what I have said after you read this letter?

Mr Peter McDermott Junee Correctional Centre
Office of the NSW Ombudsman
Level 24 580
George Street Sydney
NSW 2000
Phone 02 9286 1000
Fax: 0292832911

Re: Junee Correctional Centre

Dear Mr McDermott,

I contacted Junee Correctional Centre at 10:25 AM on 26 February 03.

I asked if Mr W P was in the Jail because I received a return to sender after I mailed our client.The person I spoke to said that Mr W P was in the Jail but would not give me his location ie wing.

I asked if Mr C K was in the Jail because I received a return to sender after I mailed our client. The same person said that Mr C K was in the jail but would not give me his location ie wing.

I asked for the identification of the person I was speaking to and was told that I was not entitled to that information. I needed to verify the call and asked for a name or number to register my call because I was asked to get those details by my coordinator.

The person refused to identify themselves either by name or number. I asked to be transferred to a senior person and was refused.

The person I spoke to then hung up the phone.

I contacted Liz from your office (Ombudsman) shortly thereafter and was told by her that firstly she was unsure if the person at Junee Correctional Centre had to give me any name or number so I could verify the call I had made to them. I am dissatisfied with the result of not being able to identify the person I spoke to in relation to being able to verify the call I made.

Liz asked me to write to you in relation to what I should expect when I contact a private prison in terms of verification and identity of the person I am speaking to. The person I spoke to insisted that she was not a public servant and did not have to comply with my request, as she is an employee of a private corporation.

I am dissatisfied with the result. Can you please confirm my expectations as soon as possible? Are there these obligations as public servants, and whether these are continued obligations for a private prison?

By Who Am I? 26 Feb 03

Ed: Is this the Secret Service?

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