The U.S. War on Drugs: Political Economics of a New Slavery
Compiled by Drug Policy Alliance. August 2001.
The U.S. "war on drugs" is big business -- a multi-billion dollar public/private venture that radically inflates the value of illegal drugs and is used to criminalize the poorest people of color, trapping them in a vicious cycle of addiction, unemployment and incarceration:
- $27 billion for interdiction and law enforcement, $1.3 billion for Plan Colombia in 2000.
- $9.4 billion in 2000 to imprison close to 500,000 people convicted of non-violent drug offenses, 75% of whom are Black.
- $80 to $100 billion in lost earnings.
- Untold billions in homeless shelters, healthcare, chemical dependency and psychiatric treatment, etc.
Resources on Prison Privatization
The Raggedness of Prison Privatization:
Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the United States Compared
PRIVATE ADULT PRISONS:
WHAT DO WE REALLY KNOW AND WHY DON’T WE KNOW MORE?*
New Internationalist: Crime pays: well, it does if you run the prison
Grassroots CCA Prison Report 2003
The modern private prison business first emerged and established itself publicly in 1984 when
the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) was awarded a contract to take over a facility in
Hamilton County, Tennessee. This marked the first time that any government in the country had
contracted out the complete operation of a jail to a private operator.1 The following year, CCA
gained further public attention when it offered to take over the entire state prison system of
Tennessee for $200 million. The bid was ultimately defeated due to strong opposition from
public employees and the skepticism of the state legislature.2 Despite that initial defeat, CCA
since then has successfully expanded, as have other for-profit prison companies. As of
December 2000, there were 153 private correctional facilities (prisons, jails and detention
centers) operating in the United States3 with a capacity of over
Private Prisons: Profits of Crime
Private prisons are a symptom, a response by private capital to the "opportunities" created by society's temper tantrum approach
to the problem of criminality.The big business of prisons
By Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans
More than 1.8 million people are currently behind bars in the US -- the highest per capita incarceration rate in the history of the world. In 1995 alone, 150 new US prisons were built and filled.
Privately managed prisons go before the review boardWith 1.5 million people behind bars, the United States imprisons a larger share of its population than any other nation. Indeed, the rate of incarceration in the United States has grown much faster than the population in the past decade, leading to serious overcrowding in local, state and federal al prisons. Federal facilities are operating at 160 percent of capacity, while state facilities are at 117 percent, despite a desired capacity rate of percent that allows for periodic maintenance and repairs, special housing for protective custody, disciplinary cases and emergency needs.
The cost of confining inmates in the United States almost doubled in the past five years, reaching $50 billion lion annually, or $33,334 per inmate, per year. Estimates show that one 700-bed bed jail and one 1,600-bed prison need to be opened every week just to meet the rising demand. The projected annual construction cost of this is $5.98 billion.
But, with the political climate favoring decreasing taxes and reducing the size of government, it is unlikely that cities and counties will be able to build and manage many more prisons.
At the same time, the war on drugs and the get tough, policies, like the "three strikes" laws, will yield even greater numbers of inmates
Real Women’s letter to MP’s has called upon the Harper government to defund the powerful radical feminist lobby that allows only one interpretation of women’s rights and equality to be represented.
Lorraine McNamara, Real Women’s National President, writes, “The feminist ideology does not now, and never has had the support of the vast majority of Canadian women.”
McNamara writes, “Feminist groups have few, if any, members, and are, in effect, mostly phantom organizations sustained only by the funding they receive from the Status of Women. Since these organizations represent no one but the women who run them, they should not receive financial support from the Canadian taxpayer.”
Also see:
The federal government’s budgetary revenues came from a variety of taxes and other sources.
France remains one country where lifestyle and culture are valued. French people still insist on taking time to enjoy life, on having vacations when they are most enjoyable (summer), on receiving a fair wage, and on having some security in one’s job and health. Here in the U.S., we Americans are working longer and harder every year even as our standard of living falls, no one is secure in her job, health benefits are being gutted and our hope of retirement security is being undermined by political charlatans and an administration that is bankrupting the country with outlandishly expensive imperial wars.
The youth of France are standing up and fighting against the effort by a conservative government to Americanize their economy. Good for them!
When will we Americans wake up, take to the streets, and demand that our economy be humanized?
Gas Prices Should be Even Higher, Canadian Researcher ClaimsGee and what would that look like well business already is looking at a new Fordism, hybird and electric car manufacturing. But Fordism none the less“Governments need to make adopting alternative technologies worth it to both the consumer and the producer. One way is by raising, not reducing, fuel taxes.”
The internal combustion/global warming dilemma has been a long time in the making.
For some reason (Tsigaris can’t quite figure why), internal combustion cars were deemed “fittest” back at the turn of the last century in an industrial-Darwinism scenario that continues to influence society and the choices it makes.
What he calls an “historical accident” put society on the internal-combustion super-highway. In the early 1900s, internal combustion, steam and electric technologies used to power automobiles were competing just about equal in the North American market. In fact, electric and steam vehicles were ahead of internal combustion technology at one point in time.
“Imagine what our world would be like if electric cars had won,” dreams Tsigaris. “Imagine what one hundred years of fine-tuning and innovation on electric cars would have produced by now.”
A New Fordism
December 02, 2005
Progressive businesses that downplay whiz-bang marketing ideas and offer real solutions to social ills could start a more meaningful dialogue with consumers. See how it's all shaking out by clicking HERE
On one hand, complex innovations like supermarkets were made possible by the existence of the automobile, on the other hand their growth (by replacing the nearby corner grocery) made the automobile more of a necessity. The relationship was tightly intertwined. In spite of a growing, more urban population, the number of grocery stores topped out in the late 1930's and declined by 40 percent through the postwar years as the larger supermarket became dominant. Sales per store increased dramatically.
The growth of the suburbs was another environmental change that made the auto more of a necessity. Suburbs first developed after the Civil War when electric street cars expanded the boundaries of many cities. Along the street car line sub-developments or suburbs popped up. Many times the street car owner and land developer were one in the same. Of course, the auto made urban decentralization even easier for the developer and more convenient for the consumer. The increased distance to almost anything and the lack of public transportation which characterized the post-World War II suburb made the automobile much more than a luxury.The Growth of Automotive Transportation
Mon 1 May 2006 NDP MPs launch anti-scab bill on May DayNDP MP Pat Martin is introducing legislation today that would ban the use of replacement workers during labour disputes and work stoppages under federal jurisdiction.
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