Blog Jun 11, 2009
Prison Industry
I’m sure not too many people noticed but a brief news report from a newspaper in Chattanooga, Tennessee called attention once again to the perils of the privatization of prisons. This story involves the settling of a lawsuit filed against Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the leading private prison company in the world. (Here’s the story , which has a link to the actual lawsuit that you can download). Although the case centered around one prison in Hamilton County, it was a national…
Blog Jun 9, 2009
The Return of the Chain Gang
In my previous blog I referenced a recent book by Douglas Blackmon on the subject of convict leasing. One of the enduring offshoots of this system has been the “chain gang,” popularized by the film “Cool Hand Luke” (with Paul Newman, which carefully tried to make it seem as if it were mostly white) and memorialized in several books (e.g., “I am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang” — also made into a movie, again trying to be race-neutral). Chain gangs began in the South around the turn of…
Blog Jun 8, 2009
Race and the Drug War, Part II
After more than 20 years, even with the heightened awareness of the impact of the drug war on blacks and other minorities, Congress still does nothing. The drug war’s impact has reached directly into minority neighborhoods with devastating results. A recent book by Todd Clear documents the impact of mass incarceration (brought about mostly by the drug war) on these communities. He shows that “get tough on crime” polices in recent years have actually contributed to higher crime rates in these…
Blog Jun 7, 2009
Race and the Drug War, Part I
The “war on drugs” must be seen as a concerted effort (whether this has been intended is irrelevant) to keep the black population in a secondary status. Such an effort can be traced to the days of slavery and even for about 100 years after slavery officially ended, at least in the South (see Douglas Blackmon, Slavery by Another Name ; Anchor Books, 2009). Consider the following data: Overall incarceration rates (2006): White male = 736; Black male = 4,789; lifetime chances of going to prison…
Blog Apr 9, 2009
Fix the Prisons? Part II
I stated in Part I of this blog that the prison system is “functional” in that it benefits some segments of the population. One obvious segment it benefits is all of those who work inside. Indeed, with $68 billion in annual expenditures on the American prison system plus strong unions in many states you have a very strong vested interest in keeping the prison a going concern (the “reforms” would serve mostly to make working conditions and pay and benefits much better). Then too we have all…