The Prison Industrial Complex. Joe Arpaio is just Part Of The Problem
The Idiot in Charge unsurprisingly pardoned an elderly racist asshole, Arpaio was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to talking about the Prison Indusrial Complex.
What’s hidden behind the walls of America’s prisons
Some may have heard that there are about 2.3 million people behind bars, but that figure tells only part of the story. Yes, in a stunning array of 1,719 state prisons, 102 federal prisons, 901 juvenile correctional facilities, 3,163 local jails and 76 Indian Country jails, as well as in military prisons, immigration detention facilities, civil commitment centers and prisons in the U.S. territories, we physically contain more human beings than any other country in the world. In addition to those actually locked up, there are another 840,000 Americans being supervised on parole and an additional 3.7 million people being monitored on probation.
100 million Americans have a criminal record, it's insane.
The article is well worth a read, Arpaio's self described concentration camps were hardly sickeningly unusual.
How are there so many prisoners?
In 2012 the U.S. penal population was 2.23 million adults, the largest in the world, with an incarceration rate of 707 per 100,000. That year, nearly 25% of the world’s prisoners were held in American prisons, yet the United States constituted just 4.5% of the global population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“During the 1980s, the U.S. Congress and most state legislatures enacted laws mandating lengthy prison sentences — often of 5, 10, and 20 years or longer — for drug offenses, violent offenses, and ‘career criminals.’ In the 1990s, Congress and more than one-half of the states enacted ‘three strikes and you’re out’ laws that mandated minimum sentences of 25 years or longer for affected offenders. A majority of states enacted ‘truth-in-sentencing’ laws requiring affected offenders to serve at least 85% of their nominal prison sentences.”
“From 1980 to 2000, the number of children with incarcerated fathers increased from about 350,000 to 2.1 million — about 3% of all U.S. children. From 1991 to 2007, the number of children with a father or mother in prison increased 77% and 131%, respectively.”
“Among white male high school dropouts born in the late 1970s, about one-third are estimated to have served time in prison by their mid-30s. Yet incarceration rates have reached even higher levels among young black men with little schooling: among black male high school dropouts, about two-thirds have a prison record by that same age — more than twice the rate for their white counterparts. The pervasiveness of imprisonment among men with very little schooling is historically unprecedented, emerging only in the past two decades.”
The raw material of the prison-industrial complex is its inmates: the poor, the homeless, and the mentally ill; drug dealers, drug addicts, alcoholics, and a wide assortment of violent sociopaths. About 70 percent of the prison inmates in the United States are illiterate. Perhaps 200,000 of the country's inmates suffer from a serious mental illness.
One thing that is highly noticeable whether it be a Democratic Party or Republican Party lead
government this industry marches on unabated, prison rape is treated as some kind of joke, as a justifiable part of the punishment even.
We are stronger on crime is often the rallying cry at election time, whatever the fuck that actually means.
Arpaio is just part of the problem, but mainly that honour goes to our successive governments
from the respective Presidents right on down to the local sheriffs.
Our solution has always been to deal with the fallout from our governments neglect rather than to actually try and solve our societies basic flaws/problems.
Greed is good when it is used by the Oligarchs otherwise it's a sin for everyone else.
Just a thought
Comments
Well said n/t
Betty Clermont
This is what Dems would be up
This is what Dems would be up in arms about if they actually gave a crap about race issues.
Instead, they're using statues and some looney fringers on a march to let Arpaio and the thousands of corrupt racist cops like him crawl back under the rug where they'll continue their program of harassment, assault, and murder.
Dems helped build this crime against humanity
This disgusting tweet by guess who
is very representative of the Democratic establishment. Not only does it not address the injustice of our supposed justice system and of Arpaio in particular, but it reeks of white privilege via victim blaming.
Excellent essay.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
Did he really tweet that I see that his own sense of grandeur
It was for reals
I have tried five times to embed this tweet and keep getting an error message. For some reason it will not allow me to embed, so I am copying it instead.
Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy
I see he has another book out I can give a miss to
Trump winning is a nice little money maker.
white, latino, and tone deaf
A gift from Cthulhu that just keeps on giving!
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
The first sentence is fine.
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
What do you do with the people you don't want?
Turn them into revenue and profit for the public and for-profit criminal justice system.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Prison Abolition
Excellent diary on one of my key issues. Abolition is the solution and it is both possible and pragmatic. My previous diary is here with a few introductory Prison Abolition links:
https://caucus99percent.com/content/prison-abolition
The primary obstacles to sentencing reform and prison reform are the Democratic and Republican parties. The Prison Industrial Complex is the money machine that rakes in the profits, lobbies and makes equal opportunity campaign contributions to all takers.
The August issue of Prison Legal News has a great article on Civil Asset Forfeiture :
August Issue:
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2017/jul/28/policing-profit-law-enf...
(I have a subscription. Not certain if there is a paywall)
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Thanks for the link
85 yr old Arpaio no longer has any power,
"Arpaio was just the tip of the iceberg" - He is not even relevant anymore, imo. NYTimes has 4 headlines on his story this AM. In fact, more coverage than Harvey. When is the MSM going to focus on the big problems that affect the whole country instead of playing along with Trump and his identity politics?
How about focus on Bernie and his excellent polling numbers? This is someone who could actually make changes to the present corrupt political system.
To thine own self be true.
The essay was not about Arpaio other than as an example
Any chance of Bernie is four years down the road and even then the corrupt DNC system will keep him out.
No one said your topic was "unimportant"
It is one important problem in a myriad of problems. Do you think there is any chance of reform of the justice system and the prison system under this administration?
Attention to Bernie, rebuilding "the left" should be ongoing, n'est ce pas?
To thine own self be true.
As long as he keep away from the Decocratic Party
BTW, this was not intended towards you,
it was intended to the MSM mentioned in my preceding paragraph. I'm sorry if you thought I was disparaging your excellent essay.
To thine own self be true.
Not a problem I was just confused, ty for the clarifiation
Arapaio Update
Digby is an unrepentent Hillarycrat, but still has some respectable posts. Lots links about Sheriff Joe from The Phoenix New Times here:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2017/08/uncle-joes-legacy.html?m=0
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Indeed he should have been convicted of far worse