The US Prison System and Its Ties to the Economy - Final Installment in Six-part Series

What Can Americans Do?

It starts with those of us who have the right to vote, actually getting up and voting. It also means educating yourself and finding out what the candidates have been been doing. Who have they accepted campaign contributions from? What is their voting record and how does it impact the economy over the long run? We must stop seeing each issue as separate and recognize that they all add up to one grand picture.

The middle and lower classes must begin to realize that we have been manipulated by a divide and conquer mentality. The racism, prejudice and hate mongering is all created to keep the attention from the real issues. We are all in the same sinking boat and instead of bailing water, we've been hitting each other with our buckets and blaming each other for making the hole. All the while, the top 1% sit and laugh at us behind closed doors.

They create laws that are designed to target groups of people. Each year right before an election, voting laws are called into question and changed. The vast majority of people argue over whether or not the law is just, rather than realizing that the timing is such that no one can comply with these new regulations in time – it isn't about whether or not I have to show an ID, in other words. It's about whether or not I have time to get one right now. This is a simple matter of causing trouble and then stepping back and watching the people fight among themselves. We are divided and conquered. They are good at it.

Americans need to stop blaming each other and start looking at the people at the top of the food chain. Corporations have taken away your rights, bit by bit, by lobbying congress and paying the bills of your Senators, some of  whom have been in office for life. We need term limits, we need to abolish laws that aren't serving the middle and lower classes. We need tax reform that is fair and forces corporations to pay their fair share. We need to stop paying salaries of career politicians who serve a term or two and then collect benefits for life.

The reason CEOs make so much salary is because it is a tax write-off for their company! We need to close the tax loopholes that allow them to pay 10% tax while that Walmart employee is making $8 or less per hour and paying 35% of his/her paycheck to state and federal taxes. We need reform of the judicial system and to vote those off the bench who do not deserve to be there.


We need to place blame on ourselves for allowing this to happen to us and to wake-up and realize that the only way it is going to change is to get informed. Stop listening to everything that you hear! Read and research before you vote for someone. End the days of picking a name based on a recommendation that you were given or on a snappy television advertisement that you liked. Stop listening to everything that you hear and fully comprehend that your country has been slowly taken away from you and we are truly at a war to win it back. Ask yourself if the rhetoric being spewed forth by someone running for office is really a smoke screen for the things they do not want you to see. What is the political relevance of some of their arguments?

Understand that what is said is not generally the truth and if you want the best person for the job, you must do some research. Take voting seriously - someone died so that you had that right. If you still have the ability to vote, exercise your right because far too many in our country have lost it! This is not about republican or democrat, this is about your fundamental American freedoms that are being ripped away by both parties.



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The US Prison System and Its Ties to the Economy - Part Two

Part two in the series regarding the US prison system and the drastic way in which it influences our economy and our judicial system. 

What This Means To Americans

For many years, politicians have brought up the “failed prison system” in the United States and told the public how it is bleeding the country dry. What they have failed to mention is that by privatizing prisons, US lawmakers and politicians stand to gain huge campaign contributions by stroking the backs of companies such as Geo and CCA. Not only are these for-profit prisons turning enormous profits, but they are actively seeking more prisoners to fill those beds. Every inmate in these private, for-profit prisons is worth an estimated $2500 each, based on the numbers above; for only one year. A prisoner who has been sentenced for 20 years is now worth $50,000 to the private prison industry, at minimum.

The private system is dependent upon filling beds to keep those profits turning, so it is not all that hard to see why so much money is being spent for lobbying and campaign contributions. But what about the state, county and federal prisons? How are they making money? First of all, nearly every part of the work force in these facilities is now contracted out. The medical care is contracted to medical companies that are being contracted for large amounts of money for providing medical services. Many facilities have private companies in charge of running cafeterias, who often use prisoners as free help but collect large payments for themselves with contracts. Aramark is one such private company that provides meals at over 600 detention facilities nationwide. Most meals are contracted to be provided for at a cost of somewhere between $1.13 and $1.40 per inmate, per day.


The prison system in Alabama had actually budgeted $1.75 a day for inmates back in 1939. This law is still in place today and reads that if the sheriff can feed inmates for less than the budgeted amount, they may keep the difference as a bonus. That was 70 years ago and the law has never been changed, even though the cost of providing enough food to keep an adult healthy has obviously changed.

Recently, a sheriff in Alabama admitted to feeding prisoners watered down milk and hotdogs at every meal until a discounted truckload had been consumed in full. They also were using a lot of powdered foods. The sheriff admitted to pocketing $200k in monies that had been allocated for food, by basically starving prisoners. This was not illegal because of the law on the books. After multiple allegations and lawsuits brought forth from victims who claimed hunger and having lost excessive amounts of weight, the sheriff was finally investigated and charged with contempt. One prisoner lost 100 pounds in a year. While some may argue that he needed to lose this weight, others who were at very normal weights lost as much as 30 pounds in their first month of incarceration.



Prison kitchens have even been shut-down in some states, due to malfunctioning equipment or not being able to pass health inspections. This has resulted in prisoners having to eat cold food for days and weeks on end. While some might say this is just punishment for prisoners, it should be pointed out that the vast majority of these people are in for minor offenses and, in some cases, we are talking about pregnant women who are being malnourished because of traffic violations or charges for prostitution – while Wall Street bankers who bilked people for millions and/or billions of dollars are out on bail or without charges ever even being filed. Some of these people serving time may not even be guilty, as we have already contended. They are currently being held for bail or being held-over without bail, something that is now perfectly legal in our country. “Jail is not supposed to be a hotel, that’s true,” stated criminal defense attorney G. Kerry Haymaker. “That being said, [some of] these people haven’t been convicted of anything and these are the conditions they’ve been subjected to.” In some counties and states, it is common to be held as long as 30 days without even being formerly charged with a crime or having bail set. This is thanks, in part, to changes made during the George W. Bush administration. No longer does it seem that anyone is innocent until proven guilty.

The US Prison System and Its Ties To Economy - Part One

This is part of a six part series on the US Prison System and how it largely impacts US economy and the lives of all private citizens. Prepare to have your eyes opened. 

Part One: How Things Came To Be - A Little Background

The prison system in the United State became widely used after the Revolutionary War, however it wasn't a system based on parole, probation and sentencing until after the Civil War. The system that we have today was born from expansion in the 1970s and has grown by by more than five times the size it was in 1973. In any given year, approximately 7 million persons are are under the supervision of correctional facilities, either on probation or held in facilities. In 2012, there was a total population in the United States of 313.9 million people.


In 1920, the percentage of Americans incarcerated was only .01 percent. By 2008 that number was fast approaching a full 1% of the population. We have, since 2008, nearly doubled to 2%. while only accounting for 5% of the world population. In 2008, the United States accounted for 2.4 million of 9.8 million prisoners held in the entire world. Billboards could be seen at that time that read, “Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners." One might begin to question “Home of the Free” if these numbers were honestly taken into account?

What was the drastic change in the 1970s that caused number to begin to skyrocket? In 1971, Richard Nixon declared the war on drugs. Coincidentally – or not – the United States also began privatizing juvenile correctional facilities at about this same time. This was an experiment that proved profitable. Within a few short years, prisons were overflowing. Following that, came the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. For the last 25 years, America has had private prisons, run as businesses, to handle “overflow” from the already established prison system.


According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are now 1.6 million total state and federal prisons in the United States. 128,195 prisoners are now housed in private, for-profit prison facilities. This number has grown by 37% between 2002 and 2009. There are 66 facilities owned by Corrections Corporations of America. This is the largest for-profit company in the United States. There are 91,000 beds in CCA facilities, currently spread across 20 US states. The total revenue reported by CCA in 2011 was $1.7 billion dollars. Lobby expenditures by CCA, as reported by The Center for Responsive Politics, was $17.4 million dollars over the last ten years. Even further damning is the statistic for the amount of money contributed to political campaigns by CCA from 2003 to 2012: $1.9 million. The CEO, Damon T. Hininger, was paid an executive salary in 2011 of $3.7 million dollars.


The GEO Group is the second largest for-profit private detention company in the US. Their total revenue, according to their own annual report in 2011 was $1.6 billion dollars. They own 65 facilities with over 65,000 beds currently. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that The Geo Group has spend over $2.5 million dollars in lobbying in the last eight years. The National Institute on Money in State Politics reports that from 2003 to 2012, The Geo Group spent $2.9 million dollars in political contributions. Their CEO, George C. Zoley earned a paycheck of $5.7 million dollars in 2011. The company was ordered to pay a fine of $1.1 million that was levied in November of 2011 by the New Mexico Department of Corrections for inadequate staffing. They are currently still appealing another judgment for damages awarded in a wrongful death lawsuit from last June. An inmate was beaten to death by his cellmate at an Oklahoma prison. The judgment was awarded for $6.5 million dollars but the company has filed an appeal and it is still pending.

Up next, Part 2 - What This Means To America

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