Modern Day Slavery, its back.

[Django]

I have often written here on the injustices of the drug war and the penal system here in the USA. In Discuss Detroit under the thread Big Weed Bust some of us got off track talking about the drug war and the issue of modern day slavery.

I'm starting this thread because Big Weed Bust is not the right name for what we are talking about. I'd like to see a bigger discussion.

compn
legalize it, stop wasting tax dollars and police resources on this crap.

the crime labs cant even test rape kits because theres so many drug cases?
courts are full of posession cases.
jails are full of non violent posession probation violations, they let murderers and rapists out on tether.
prohibition hasnt ended drugs, only made the cartels and gangs stronger.
kids can get drugs easier than tobacco / alcohol.

drug war has failed.




old guy.

July-12-1

I'll have to check that movie out. [[The House I Live In)

Here's some info on the privatization of prisons.

The U.S. has the world's highest incarceration rate, with 2.2 million people, or nearly 1 in 100 behind bars. Rising immigration detentions and the disastrous "war on drugs"have helped push inmate numbers to record highs in recent decades. While this growing, largely nonviolent population has stretched federal and state prisons and budgets past their limits, the prison industrial complex has eagerly expanded to accomodate — and anticipate — new masses of inmates.
Corrections Corporation of America [[CCA), now the nation's largest private prison company, was founded just over 30 years ago in Nashville. Since then, it has become a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business with more than 60 facilities across the country. Meanwhile, the U.S. prison population has grown 500 percent.
A look at the CCA's annual shareholder reports over the past few years shows an aggressive business strategy based on building prison beds, or buying them off the government, and contracting them to government authorities — sometimes with decades-long contacts mandating minimum occupancy rates as high as 90 percent. Profits, after lining the pockets of shareholders, are used to create more beds and to lobby state and federal agencies to deliver inmates to fill them. The resulting facilities can be violent and disgusting.
CCA is currently building 10,000 new beds to meet expected demand.

The amazing part of that article is that for CCA to sign a contract to buy or lease a prison, they insist on a minimum occupancy rate for the length of the contract. What does that tell you?

We continue to benefit from a positive environment where the need for prison beds should exceed supply for the foreseeable future.
– CCA 2005 Annual Report

Our compensated man-days, or the number of days we are compensated for the occupancy of one inmate, rose 7.4% to 24.9 million compared with 23.2 million compensated man-days in 2005. The increase in man-days resulted in substantial revenue growth, excellent cash flow growth and strong earnings growth during 2006.
– CCA 2006 Annual Report

Historically, we have been successful in substantially filling our inventory of available beds and the beds that we have constructed. Filling these available beds would provide substantial growth in revenues, cash flow, and earnings per share.
– CCA 2010 Annual Report

We believe we have been successful in increasing the number of residents in our care and continue to pursue a number of initiatives intended to further increase our occupancy and revenue.
– CCA 2010 Annual Report

Any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.
– CCA 2010 Annual Report

Prison facilities consist primarily of concrete and steel and don’t require the level of capital improvements as many traditional real estate properties. Therefore, prison facilities typically have economic lives much longer than many traditional real estate properties.
– CCA 2013 Annual Letter to Shareholders

We are compensated for operating and managing facilities at an inmate per diem rate based upon actual or minimum guaranteed occupancy levels.
– 2009 CCA Annual Report

A recent study released by the Pew Charitable Trust indicates that one in every 100 U.S. adults are in prison or in jail. With the U.S. population estimated to grow by more than 18.5 million between 2007 and 2015, about 20,000 prisoners per year will be added to the system over the next seven years if historical trends in incarceration rates continue.
– CCA 2008 Annual Report

Our primary business strategy is to provide quality corrections services, offer a compelling value, and increase occupancy and revenue, while maintaining our position as the leading owner, operator, and manager of privatized correctional and detention facilities.
– CCA 2011 Annual Report

I strongly believe that the current penal system is becoming our new world of modern day slavery. As so many jobs went overseas to places like China where labor was too cheap to ignore we can now provide cheap labor for ourselves using prison labor. Most of our imprisoned countrymen and women are now considered cheap labor and for non violent offenses, drug crimes being the main supplier of laborers behind bars.

What do you think? Id love to tussle.

[Django]

And this from Jimaz, the companies that keep private prisons going and growing.

Jimaz

Yesterday, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Django

... Im still trying to find a list of companies that use prison labor so I know who not to shop with and make a stink about it....



Here's a partial list from a few years ago:

INSOURCING - Identifying businesses involved in prison labor or supporting those who are


BANKS: American General Financial Group, American Express Company, Bank of America, Community Financial Services Corporation, Credit Card Coalition, Credit Union National Association, Inc., Fidelity Inestments, Harris Trust & Savings Bank, Household International, LaSalle National Bank, J.P. Morgan & Company, Non-Bank Funds Transmitters Group

ENERGY PRODUCERS/OIL: American Petroleum Institute, Amoco Corporation, ARCO, BP America, Inc., Caltex Petroleum, Chevron Corporation, ExxonMobil Corporation, Mobil Oil Corporation, Phillips Petroleum Company.

ENERGY PRODUCERS/UTILITIES: American Electric Power Association, American Gas Association, Center for Energy and Economic Development, Commonwealth Edison Company, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., Edison Electric Institute, Independent Power Producers of New York, Koch Industries, Inc., Mid-American Energy Company, Natural Gas Supply Association, PG&E Corporation/PG&E National Energy Group, U.S. Generating Company.

INSURANCE: Alliance of American Insurers, Allstate Insurance Company, American Council of Life Insurance, American Insurance Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Corporation, Coalition for Asbestos Justice, [[This organization was formed in October 2000 to explore new judicial approaches to asbestos litigation." Its members include ACE-USA, Chubb & Son, CNA service mark companies, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., Kemper Insurance Companies, Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, and St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. Counsel to the coalition is Victor E. Schwartz of the law firm of Crowell & Moring in Washington, D.C., a longtime ALEC ally.)
Fortis Health, GEICO, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Guarantee Trust Life Insurance, MEGA Life and Health Insurance Company, National Association of Independent Insurers, Nationwide Insurance/National Financial, State Farm Insurance Companies, Wausau Insurance Companies, Zurich Insurance.

PHARMACEUTICALS: Abbott Laboratories, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Bayer Corporation, Eli Lilly & Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Glaxo Wellcome, Inc., Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., Merck & Company, Inc., Pfizer, Inc., Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of
America [[PhRMA), Pharmacia Corporation, Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, Inc., Schering-Plough Corporation, Smith, Kline & French, WYETH, a division of American Home Products Corporation.

MANUFACTURING:American Plastics Council, Archer Daniels Midland Corporation, AutoZone, Inc. [[aftermarket automotive parts), Cargill, Inc., Caterpillar, Inc., Chlorine Chemistry Council, Deere & Company, Fruit of the Loom, Grocery Manufacturers of America, Inland Steel Industries, Inc., International Game Technology, International Paper, Johnson & Johnson, Keystone Automotive Industries, Motorola, Inc., Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee Corporation.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS: AT&T, Ameritech, BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., GTE Corporation, MCI, National Cable and Telecommunications Association, SBC Communications, Inc., Sprint, UST Public Affairs, Inc., Verizon Communications, Inc.

TRANSPORTATION: Air Transport Association of America, American Trucking Association, The Boeing Company, United Airlines, United Parcel Service [[UPS).

OTHER U.S. COMPANIES: Amway Corporation, Cabot Sedgewick, Cendant Corporation, Corrections Corporation of America, Dresser Industries, Federated Department Stores, International Gold Corporation, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Microsoft Corporation, Newmont Mining Corporation, Quaker Oats, Sears, Roebuck & Company, Service Corporation International, Taxpayers Network, Inc., Turner Construction, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

ORGANIZATIONS/ASSOCIATIONS: Adolph Coors Foundation, Ameritech Foundation, Bell & Howell Foundation, Carthage Foundation, Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, ELW Foundation, Grocery Manufacturers of America, Heartland Institute of Chicago, The Heritage Foundation, Iowans for Tax Relief, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee, National Pork Producers Association, National Rifle Association, Olin Foundation, Roe Foundation, Scaiffe Foundation, Shell Oil Company Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, Steel Recycling Institute, Tax Education Support Organization, Texas Educational Foundation, UPS Foundation.

[Jimaz]

Then there was this, which ties the private prison problem into the title of this thread:

Total duration 85 minutes:

Setting aside the recent dramatic increase in the exploitation of prison labor due to artificially exaggerated drug enforcement, this type of scheme has a precedent in "post-slavery" America. Here's the sordid prison-profit history we're threatened to relive: *A Must See* :Slavery by Another Name [[PBS Documentary 2012)

The prison labor angle begins 13 minutes into the video.

Synopsis:The South's economy couldn't recover after the Civil War because they had become completely dependent on slave labor. So instead, they criminalized every imaginable petty offense as an excuse to imprison former slaves. The prisoners were then leased to private companies as cheap labor. This scheme turned out to be very lucrative for the parasitic saboteurs in power.

After murders and public outrage, this practice of "peonage" was itself [[ironically) criminalized. The WWII effort led to further reforms beyond mere peonage.

Today we seem to be slipping backward on this justice front.

[gnome]

I believe it is not in anyone's best interest to force prisoners to sit in their cells and rot.

If prisoners can be gainfully employed learning a trade or providing a service and if they are compensated in a way that benefits them and the citizens, then I am in favor of prison employment.

If the prisoners are abused in any way, than no.

As some background, as a teen I worked on the County farm cleaning the animal stalls. It was hot and smelly.

The county ran the farm to feed the jail and the old folks home.

The guys working the fields were the prisoners from the local jail. They tended the animals, milked the cows, worked the horses and did repairs on the barns. My job was below their status.

I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with these guys, besides each one being innocent or having been set up by a ex-wife/girlfriend/friend, they all preferred working on the farm over sitting behind bars.

The county no longer runs the farm because the ACLU filed a suit contending farm labor was slavery. Too bad.

Now the prisoners and old folks eat canned veggies, fruit and meat from North Dakota.

[Papasito]

As soon as drugs do not effect someone's ability to drive safely or operate machinery, where it will not cause harm to others, it should become legal. I can understand the prison overcrowding. We have more people in prison than any other country on the planet. People are treated guilty until proven innocent. People are held in the prison system for years for stupid, petty things while rapists and murderers get a laughable punishment.
But does marijuana, pvp, extacy, lean, meth and other drugs effect your coordination and influence your ability to function normally? hell yeah it does. so if you want to make it legal, that's fine and dandy, but if someone is pulled over or kills someone while under the influence, they should be locked up for endangering themselves and others.
And what about the health factors?

Before and after marijuana

Before and after meth

Before and after exctacy

What about babies?
And birth defects?


C'mon, libs are the one that say it takes a village. What kind of village do you want? The Walking Dead village?

[Django]

QUOTE:
"But does marijuana, pvp, extacy, lean, meth and other drugs effect your coordination and influence your ability to function normally?"

It may effect spelling as well.

But seriously. Gnome, I have no problem with putting prisoners to work making license plates or anything that goes back into the system as long as no one company is making a profit off it. Putting people in prison should not be profitable, that makes it wrong. These corps who use prison labor also lobby for stricter sentencing guidelines, mandatory minimums, anything to put more people behind bars where they will turn a profit, thats where it becomes wrong.

Papasito, the drugs alcohol and tobacco kill far more than all the illegal drugs combined. No drugs should be advertised like they are today. In the safety of your home you should be able to consume whatever you want. Of course if you endanger someone else you should be punished thats a no brainer.
Drugs are bad when abused, I know but more people die OVER drugs than by drugs. Because they are illegal the profits are HUGE. Mexico lost 30,000 people in the last 3 years over drugs but there has never been one documented case of someone dying from a marijuana OD. People do die from heroin overdose but thats mainly because the drug is not regulated. People put a bag of dope in a spoon to cook up and shoot trusting some dealer that they cut it correctly. My friend Anne had a grandson who OD'd about 5 years ago when there was all that fentynal laced heroin going around Detroit killing a number of people .He was a vegetable until last week when he finally, thankfully passed on. He was 18 when it happened. That could have been avoided if the drugs were regulated and controlled.

Are you baiting me Papaito?

[Jimaz]

I thought I'd dig up that Prison Valley documentary in case someone hasn't seen it before now.

Yeah, I don't think anyone wants to deprive prisoners of honest work. The problem escalates when the profit motive overheats, leading the system to incarcerate people who shouldn't be incarcerated. The "Slavery by Another Name" video illustrated that point well.

[Django]

It wouldnt surprise me if companies like CCA, GEO, and UNICOR are big advocates for prisoner rights so they can milk it from all angles.

[compn]

i agree prisons should be non profits.

we seriously need to have rehabilitating services/classes in our prisons.
i've heard they just throw people away in jails, then let them out years later. the only thing they've learned is how to not get shanked and how to be a better criminal.
since ex-cons have difficulties getting jobs, they sometimes resort to criminal activities to pay the rent.

why cant we give prisoners [[the ones who will be released) a training to work program? sentence of 5 years? how about a full welding or carpentry, or mechanics training? computers? mba?

what about setting them up with jobs?
like a job fair, the newly-trained ex-cons pick their workplace.
the jobs can have probation officers to give more efficiency to the process.
if the ex-cons dont want to work, they arent forced to.

i'd like to think the ACLU objected because the farm work wasnt voluntary.
thats the difference between slavery and a job. one is forced labor, the other is voluntary.

but if someone is pulled over or kills someone while under the influence, they should be locked up for endangering themselves and others.

those are already crimes. no one is suggesting to remove those crimes.
what we are suggesting is to remove posession and manufacturing crimes. to repeal prohibition. like they did in the 30s with alcohol prohibition.

as for health impacts, i think most of us here are working on marijuana legalizaiton.
no one has ever died from marijuana overdose. many people die each year from alcohol overdose.
do you think its better to have non-toxic marijuana or alcohol poisoning?
studies have shown there is no link between marijuana smoke and cancer. so marijuana is also better than tobacco.

do you think people should smoke tobacco or marijuana?
many many deaths from tobacco smoking each year.
still zero from marijuana. millions of people smoke marijuana on a regular basis.

we're paying a lot of money to arrest, prosecute and jail people [[mostly black and latino)
now we're paying to fight the cartels, mafia and gangs who sell marijuana.
mexico is paying 10,000 murders a YEAR on the drug war.

legalize marijuana. sell it like budweiser to adults only.
stop the racist drug war and collect taxes on sales.

[old guy]

Great topic. I'm in the middle of roasting peppers [[bumper crop this year) which also involves drinking numerous beers. As soon as I'm done, I'm going to jump in. This is something I think everyone should be aware of, because it just shouldn't be happening. Not in America, not anywhere in the world.

Criminals should be in jail. But quotas, set by corporations for profit and stockholders? Not here, not anywhere.

[oladub]

A judge in Pennsylvania was sentenced to 28 years for selling teens to prisons. That seems like a pretty light sentence for doing such a thing.

"In one reported case, Ciavarella sentenced a child to two years for joyriding in his mom's car. In another, he sentenced a college-bound high school girl to three months in juvenile detention for creating a website that made fun of her assistant principal. Some of the kids he ordered locked up were as young as 10."The numbers of children going into placement in Luzerne County tended to be two to three times higher than in other counties," said Marsha Levick, deputy director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/mark-ciavarella-pa-juvenile-court-judge-convicted-alleged/story?id=12965182

Another teen the judge imprisoned later committed suicide.

[old guy]

I agree with Gnome that prisoners shouldn't just rot in a cell. I watched a documentary Dirt, [[ I live an exciting life) and there was a segment towards the end about prisoners at Rikers Island in N.Y. There was a program that prisoners could join, but weren't forced to. They grew vegetables, planted trees around the city, etc. People that participate in the program, and I don't remember the exact numbers, but the people that did sign in, had a really low rate of being convicted of another crime and returning to jail.

I think the main point here is that prisons going private, for profit, is a bad deal. Insisting on a quota system to fill beds for stockholders to make a profit is insane.

The economy is in a bad place. But to do irresponsible acts to improve it isn't the way to go. Yes, we need energy to fuel the economy. But there are other ways to do it responsibly without ruining the planet. Top oil and gas executives admit that fracking is a bad thing to do. Anyone with half a brain understands that. But we say the economy needs a boost, so we do it.

We blast the tops of mountains and burn forests in Appalachia, to make the extraction of coal cheaper. It makes me sick to my stomach what we're doing to this planet. As humans, we're not really an integral part of the survival of the planet. It would exist without us. And if we screw it up to the point that our existence is not possible, [[ruin the water, soil and air, we might cease to exist and the earth might heal itself.)

What we're doing to people by putting them in prison for profit is a basic indicator that we have very little compassion or knowledge about how society should function, and possibly how we can survive on this planet. WTF are we doing and where are we headed with all this. There are generations beyond us, hopefully for a long time that can be treated humanely and have resources to utilize. What are we turning into, in order to rationalize our needs over what we want?

[old guy]

NASHVILLE, TN -- [[Marketwired) -- 07/18/13 -- CCA [[Corrections Corporation of America) [[NYSE: CXW) announced today that it will release its 2013 second quarter financial results after the market closes on Wednesday, August 7, 2013.

About CCA
CCA, a publicly traded real estate investment trust [[REIT), is the nation's largest owner of partnership correction and detention facilities and one of the largest prison operators in the United States, behind only the federal government and three states. We currently operate 66 facilities, including 51 facilities that we own or control, with a total design capacity of approximately 91,500 beds in 20 states and the District of Columbia. CCA specializes in owning, operating and managing prisons and other correctional facilities and providing inmate residential services for governmental agencies.

Income Statement Evolution

al services for governmental agencies.

CCA President and Chief Executive Officer, Damon Hininger, stated, "Revenues were in line with our expectations while operating expenses were lower than forecasted, which resulted in earnings above our guidance range." Hininger continued, "On May 20, 2013, we will distribute the special dividend completing our requirement to distribute our pre-REIT accumulated earnings and profits, which is the final step necessary to complete our conversion into a REIT effective January 1, 2013."
Revenue for the first quarter of 2013 totaled $425.7 million compared to $435.3 million in the first quarter of 2012. Revenue for the first quarter of 2013 reflects:

• A reduction in compensated man-days driven primarily by the previously disclosed decline in United States Marshals Service [[USMS) populations we experienced during 2012
• An increase in revenue per compensated man-day to $59.43 in the first quarter of 2013 compared to $59.06 in the first quarter of 2012

While USMS populations declined in 2012, we have begun to experience increases in these populations in 2013. We also experienced a slight decline in state populations primarily due to declines in inmate populations from the states of Kentucky, California and Texas, partially offset by increases from Georgia. We also experienced increases in inmate populations pursuant to our recently expanded contract from the state of Oklahoma at our Cimarron Correctional Facility and our Davis Correctional Facility.

These people are maggots and the people that invest in their corporation are also maggots preying on the American public.

[Django]

http://www.beyondbars.org/common_good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVxUJj1jr4w

[Jimaz]

I think the guests in the Current interview didn't emphasize enough that the United States is a statistical outlier regarding per capita prison population. We've had more prisoners per capita than any other country in the world for many decades now. That point needs to be hammered home until people start asking what other countries are doing right that they have so few prisoners. We need to do some of what they're doing.

---

Back in the 60s/70s, Mafia stories appeared in the press far more often than they have since. It seemed mostly driven by the sensationalism that sells papers and the Mafia was nothing if not sensational.

I recall an interview in the 80s of a Mafia member. He was asked where all the Mafia activity had gone because it wasn't showing up in the press anymore. His answer was that, because of deregulation, it had become far more lucrative to become "a legitimate businessman" instead of fussing around with all the overhead of subterfuge involved with illegalities. This was ironic because "I'm a legitimate businessman" had always been the coy, stereotypical denial used by mobsters until that time. But in the 80s, that open lie had become the truth. So, after rabid deregulation, although we may have been showing less organized crime on the books, those who had been involved in organized crime were making even more money than before — "legally." I doubt that their ethics had magically improved during the transition.

The business model of the classical Mafia was no secret. They would simply find activities [[legal or illegal) that made money and simply take them over by any means necessary [[legal or illegal). Prostitution, gambling, extortion, etc. were the classical moneymakers. Interestingly, drugs came later but were shunned by the elder patriarchs [[or so I've read).

So, fast forward to the age of lucrative for-profit prisons. "Legitimate businessmen" who were former mobsters wouldn't possibly want a piece of that action, would they? They'd control the very institutions that law enforcement so desperately tried to send them to for so many decades. On top of that, they'd make a big profit. It's a mobster's wet dream!

Then there's the ultimate irony: organized crime exploiting the very prison system to which they will now never be sent.

This won't end well.

[Jimaz]

Then there was this, which ties the private prison problem into the title of this thread:Synopsis:The South's economy couldn't recover after the Civil War because they had become completely dependent on slave labor. So instead, they criminalized every imaginable petty offense as an excuse to imprison former slaves. The prisoners were then leased to private companies as cheap labor. This scheme turned out to be very lucrative for the parasitic saboteurs in power.

After murders and public outrage, this practice of "peonage" was itself [[ironically) criminalized. The WWII effort led to further reforms beyond mere peonage.

Today we seem to be slipping backward on this justice front.

These YouTube videos go bellyup way too often. See this video instead at the official website: SlaveryByAnotherName.com.

[Jimaz]

From 15 things everyone would know if there were a liberal media:

Which country in the world has the most people in prison?

You might think it would be China [[with 1+ billion people and a restrictive government) or former Soviets still imprisoned in Russia.

Wrong. The United States has the most people in prison by far of any country in the world. With 5% of the world’s population, we have 25% of the world’s prisoners – 2.3 million criminals. China with a population 4 times our size is second with 1.6 million people in prison.

In 1972, 350,000 Americans were in imprisoned. In 2010, this number had grown to 2.3 million. Yet from 1988 – 2008, crime rates have declined by 25%.

Isn't anyone in the "liberal" media interested in why so many people are in prison when crime has dropped? WTF "liberal media"?

[Jimaz]

DetroitYES Home » Non Detroit Issues » Thom Hartmann » What to do with the Slaves When They are no Longer Needed?

[Jimaz]

DetroitYES Home » Non Detroit Issues » Thom Hartmann » Getting rid of the Mandatory Minimums

[old guy]

DetroitYES Home » Non Detroit Issues » Thom Hartmann » What to do with the Slaves When They are no Longer Needed?

That was right on point. Sad but true. We really need to abandon this model of persecution if we want to be a great, or even good society. Compassion seems to be something that no longer exists in this age of greed. A persons life is viewed as a commodity and traded openly on the market just as in days that I thought were a thing of the past. Guess I was wrong.
Honestly, I don't get it, and I'm glad that I don't.

[Django]

We will hopefully have some change in sentencing guidelines thanks to this man. I would think the privatized prisons and all their investors will do what ever they can to stop it so they can keep their prison cells full and the cheap labor rolling.

http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/ag-eric-holder-its-time

[Django]

You beat me to it Jimaz.

[canuck]

Excellent thread Django. The one in a hundred ratio is totally nuts and speaks to the insesnsitivity of the leading classes, both political and financial.

Also, there is the stupid promotion of gang violence in media continuing unabated to feed this hungry system of incarceration for profit. Like everything else in capitalism, the ideal of go-for-broke plays incredible odds against public welfare, safety, and just plain old decency.

[Zacha341]

I'd like to know what things we could know if we had an 'honest' media...

From 15 things everyone would know if there were a liberal media:

[Jimaz]

I'd like to know what things we could know if we had an 'honest' media...

Internet to the rescue!

Cancelled PBS Doc 'Citizen Koch' Rescued by Kickstarter

"Citizen Koch," a highly regarded documentary about the billionaire Koch brothers and the growing influence of money in politics after the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, suffered a major setback earlier this year when PBS pulled the film and the $150,000 in funding that had been promised. Scrambling to find a way to distribute their film, Academy Award-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin turned to Kickstarter in a highly successful move that recently surpassed the funds they had previously expected to receive from public television." The Young Turks discuss this story.

• 'Citizen Koch' Rescued By Small Donors As Documentary Outraises Funds Pulled By PBS
• CitizenKoch.com
• The Young Turks