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.