lobbyists — James Poling

U.S. Prison Industrial Complex: Or How Corporate America Reinvented the Slave Trade

Facts:

1 in 30 men age 20-34 are in prison.
For black males that statistic jumps to 1 in 9.
There are more 17 year old black people in prison than in college.
America makes up 5% the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prison population.

How is this so profitable? Here is some of what prisoners produce.

100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet proof vests, ID tags and other uniform accessories.
93% of all domestically made paints come from prison labor.
36% of all home appliance
21% of all office furniture.

Government spending on corrections has soared since 1997 by 72 percent, up to $74 billion in 2007. And the private prison industry has raked in tremendous profits. Last year the two largest private prison companies — Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group — made over $2.9 billion in revenue…

…the private prison industry uses three strategies to influence public policy: lobbying, direct campaign contributions, and networking. The three main companies have contributed $835,514 to federal candidates and over $6 million to state politicians…

…In Arizona, 30 of the 36 legislators who co-sponsored the state’s controversial immigration law that would undoubtedly put more immigrants behind bars received campaign contributions from private prison lobbyists or companies.

We need to stop all the squabbling and petty quarreling amongst ourselves and find out and who the real enemies our country are and focus our efforts towards stopping them from completely destroying the foundations of the place we call home.

Cowboy Health Care

photo via Stoneth's Flickr

In two or three or four generations I hope the children of our children’s children are wise enough to look back on our generation with kindness. With more of a smirk and sense of wonder at our naivety and unwillingness to do what is right by our fellow man, rather than a bitter disdain for a people that could, on one hand, preach family values and, on the other, allow their neighbors to die, uninsured, as a sacrifice to the all mighty dollar.

I hope they choose to look at the bigger picture and see what has led us to this place where people are willing to vehemently oppose healthcare for people cut from the same cloth as themselves. People who may have been forced into surviving by whatever means they can, even if it means working for a company that doesn’t offer healthcare for its employees just so they can put food on the table.

I hope that they are far enough removed from us, however, that they, no matter how hard they try, cannot quite comprehend how what were otherwise decent, hard working people, associated healthcare with being a “personal ATM”. People who believed that healthcare was a privilege, not an inalienable right.

I hope that they are baffled at how we could have allowed private insurance companies, whose only goal is to turn a profit, to funnel tens of millions of dollars of those profits directly to the politicians who we elected to serve and protect us. The same politicians who, in turn, actively enabled an environment that allowed the least among us to whither and die.

I hope that they can understand the hypocrisy of a nation of people that claim to be a Nation of good, God fearing Christian people.

On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand, “Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me.” Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand and say, “Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink, I was sick and you did not visit me.” These will ask Him, “When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not come to Your help?” And Jesus will answer them, “Whatever you neglected to do unto the least of these, you neglected to do unto Me!”

I hope.
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