Prisons for Profit; corporations benefit from slavery

by luna moth Thursday, Feb. 24, 2005 at 11:42 PM

As the economy worsens more low income people are given longer prison sentences and forced into below minimum wage slavery. Centralized prisons consume great amounts of energy, increasing the wealth of corporations while decreasing the health of the community..

What is the vacuum effect on low income/people of color families/communities when parents of young children are incarcerated in prison because they made decisions based on surviving poverty??

What is the communitys' net loss of potential artistic/scientific/etc. talent when a youth is incarcerated for decades after a short term error of judgement deemed "criminal" by society??

How do corporations justify profiting from forcing prisoners to labor for more than 40 hours per week at below minimum wage??

How much energy from hydroelectric dams is needed to operate the high tech maximum security prisons and how much petroleum is needed to deliver food supplies to thousands of people dependent on centralized prison infrastructure??

Why do wardens and prison officals encourage racial segregation and then sit back and watch while European, Latino, Native American and African inmates all fight one another??

As we approach peak oil consumption and begin the economic decline, what role does the expanding prison security system play in continuing corporate profit by forcing incarcerated slave labor??

Recent prisons built in the CA desert require thousands of beds to be filled to justify purchasing the energy needed to operate the massive structure. How many of these thousands of beds will be occupied by non-violent "drug" offenders??

Can people begin to collectively dismantle the energy consuming centralized prison system by providing local community supervised group homes for guidance of seriously disturbed people while returning non-violent offenders their kidnapped freedom??


More info on shutting down prisons for profit;

http://www.prisonwall.org/labor.htm

http://www.plp.org/pamphlets/workfare.html

http://www.injusticeline.com/slave2.html