CAGING PEOPLE IS BIG BUSINESS

CANADIANS: Don't get smug and think this is only taking place south of the border. I have said all along that Harper is just another NWO stooge/patsy/servant/traitor. Do you not think he has similar intentions for his country of serfs?  Why else is he so gungho on doubling the number of prisons in our "home and native land" when the crime rate has been dropping steadily for the past few years? 

Remember, Harper serves the same organization as the American leaders, the fanatic Zionist group we know of as the Chabad Lubavitch, and we know what their Talmud says about us goyim. We are all chattel to be used as "our superiors" (meaning Zionist Jews) decide we are to be used and that includes in the businesses legal and illegal that keep them wealthy ~ and us sinking more into debt. These things our Prime Minister does not disclose.

By Noor al Haqiqa

Snippits and Snappits

May 27, 2011

In recent decades, 

the United States prison system

has evolved into an enormous repressive infrastructure 

that reflects the needs of American capitalism, 

not the realities of crime.

 .

At last US industry has figured out how to compete with Third World wages right here at home.  

Psssst.  Hey you, corporate honcho.  Tired of paying American workers five or six bucks an hour, and them still complaining that it's not a living wage?  Well, how would you like to get some of those nice, compliant, super-cheap Third-World workers ~ without even having to move your factories to some Hell-hole in China or El Salvador?

Let me whisper two little words to you: “Prison Labour."

PRISON LABOUR ~

THE POLITICALLY CORRECT TERM

FOR BACK DOOR SLAVERY!

Prisons are the reinvention of slave labor. Importing anything into the USA that is made by slave labor or prisoners is illegal.  However USA prisoners can be used legally to manufacture USA products. Since prisoners are made to work for just pennies a day, this allows USA corporations to cheaply produce products that are competitive with Mexican labor. That's why 1% of American adults are in jail ~ between 2 and 3 million of them. That's more than 1 in every 100 and many of them are in prison for trivial offenses! Any excuse will do to keep the cages full!

Commercialized prison labour has become big business.  Writing in the Madison, Wisconsin Isthmus, investigative reporter Steven Elbow says convict-made goods will reach nearly $9 billion in sales by the year 2000.  

1% of American adults are in jail.

That adds up to between 2 and 3 million.

That's more than 1 in every 100.

The USA has more of its citizens in prison than any other nation on earth. It has 148 prisoners per 100,000 population. That's more than 2 times as many as South Africa, 3 times as many as Iran and 6 times as many as China.

 .

The USA criminal justice system is a "3 strikes legal system based on the game of Baseball.  Isn’t that great and just! If someone has had two offenses in their life (no matter how small), the third offense will get them a life sentence ~ no matter how trivial.

L. Andrea shoplifted 9 video tapes

and got 2 consecutive 25 year sentences.

Kevin Weber, age 26,

stole 6 chocolate chip cookies and got a life sentence

One in thirty men, ages 20 to 30, is in jail.

One in nine black men, ages 20-30, is in jail.

There are more black males in jail than in college.

WHO SAID THAT THE CIVIL WAR ENDED SLAVERY?

With 2.2 million people engaged in catching criminals and putting and keeping them behind bars, "corrections" has become one of the largest sectors of the US economy, employing more people than the combined workforces of General Motors, Ford and Wal-Mart, the three biggest corporate employers in the country.  Correctional officers have developed powerful labour unions.  And most politicians, whether at the local, state or national level, remain acutely aware that allowing themselves to be portrayed as "soft on crime" is the quickest route to electoral defeat.

In the past two decades, hundreds of "prison towns" have multiplied - places that are dependent on prisons for their economic vitality.  Take Fremont County, Colorado, where the number 1 employer is the Colorado Department of Corrections, with 9 prisons, and number 2 is the Federal Bureau of Prisons with 4.  Towns that once might have hesitated about bringing a prison to town now rush to put together incentive packages. 

Abilene, Texas, offered the state incentives worth more than $4 million to get a prison.  The package included a 316-acre site and 1,100 acres of farmland adjacent to the facility.

Buckeye, 35 miles west of Phoenix, was a sleepy little desert outpost with a population of about 5,000 until it competed successfully for a major state prison.  After that the state upgraded the road leading to the town and the population began to explode.  A new movie theatre and a $2.5 million swimming complex opened.  Because Buckeye was sitting on ample supplies of water, it suddenly became prime real estate.  Mayor Dusty Hull reckons the town will reach 35,000 in five years.

According to the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, 245 prisons sprouted in 212 rural counties during the 1990s.  In West Texas, where oil and farming both collapsed, 11 rural counties acquired prisons in that decade.  The Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions in the country, got 7 new prisons. 

Appalachian counties of Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky built 9, partially replacing the collapsing coal-mining industry.  If the prisons closed, these communities would quickly collapse again.

When states try to cut prison budgets, they quickly come up against powerful interests.  In Mississippi in 2001, Governor Ronnie Musgrove vetoed the state's corrections budget so he could spend more money on schools.  The legislature, lobbied by Wackenhut, overrode the veto.  In fiscally distressed California, about 6% of the state budget goes to corrections.  Yet no senior politician, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, has dared challenge the power of the 31,000-member California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which pours 1/3 of the $22 million it collects each year in membership dues into political action committees.

Even efforts by some states to speed up the release of nonviolent offenders are unlikely to reduce the total prison population by much.  The Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that 2/3 of those released from prison on parole are re-arrested within 3 years. 

.

Even efforts by some states to speed up the release of nonviolent offenders are unlikely to reduce the total prison population by much.  The Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that 2/3 of those released from prison on parole are re-arrested within 3 years.  Released prisoners face institutional barriers that make it difficult for them to find a place in society.  Welfare reform legislation in 1996 banned anyone convicted of buying or selling drugs from receiving cash assistance or food stamps for life.  Legislation in 1996 and 1998 also excluded ex-felons and their families from federal housing.

Tens of thousands of US inmates are paid from pennies to minimum for everything from grunt work to firefighting to specialized labor.

So these free enterprising companies not only get labour for minimum wage or, more often, less from the state, but they also provide no health care, no pensions, no vacations, none of those other frills that pampered softies on the outside are always crying about.  Plus these jailbirds always show up on time for work, they don't call in "sick" to go to a ballgame, if they talk back to you, have them thrown in solitary, and they darn sure won't be joining some pesky union.  

Most companies pay the minimum wage, but many get away with paying far less ~ AT&T, for example, paid only $2 an hour for its imprisoned telemarketers, and Honda got its convict-made car parts from the Ohio prison at $2.05 an hour.  The prisoners typically get to keep only 20% of the paycheque, with the state government grabbing the rest, which is why the states are all for it.

 .

Most inmates leave prison with no money and few prospects.  They may get $25 and a bus ticket home if they are lucky.  Studies have found that within a year of release, 60% of ex-inmates remain unemployed.  Several states have barred parolees from working in various professions, including real estate, medicine, nursing, engineering, education and dentistry. 

The Higher Education Act of 1998 bars people convicted of drug offenses from receiving student loans.  Prisoners are told to reform but they are given few tools to do so.  Once they are entangled in the prison system, many belong to it for life.  They may spend stretches of time inside prison and periods outside but they are never truly free.

It's the next best thing to having slaves ~ maybe better, since the company doesn't even have to feed and house them. You don't even run ads or go to the unemployment agency for workers ~ you go to your state prison! 

Just check out this SHORT list of “Made in America” goods that infiltrate the marketplace and lower the standard of living of Americans everywhere.

Starbucks subcontractor Signature Packaging Solutions has hired Washington prisoners to package holiday coffees (as well as Nintendo Game Boys). Confronted by a reporter in 2001, a Starbucks rep called the setup "entirely consistent with our mission statement."

In the mid-1990s, Washington prisoners shrink-wrapped software and up to 20,000 Microsoft mouses for subcontractor Exmark (other reported clients: Costco and JanSport). "We don't see this as a negative," a Microsoft spokesman said at the time. Dell used federal prisoners for PC recycling in 2003, but stopped after a watchdog group warned that it might expose inmates to toxins.

California’s correctional system has become a one-stop-hiring hall for corporations: San Quentin inmates do data entry for Chevron, Macy's and Bank-America; Folsum inmates work for both a plastics manufacturer and a brass faucet maker; and Aveala inmates run an ostrich-slaughtering facility for an exporter that ships the meat to Europe.

Each month, California inmates process more than 680,000 pounds of beef, 400,000 pounds of chicken products, 450,000 gallons of milk, 280,000 loaves of bread, and 2.9 million eggs (from 160,000 inmate-raised hens). 

At California's prison dental laboratory, inmates produce a complete prosthesis selection, including custom trays, try-ins, bite blocks, and dentures.

In the 1990s, subcontractor Third Generation hired 35 female South Carolina inmates to sew lingerie and leisure wear for Victoria's Secret and JCPenney

Ohio prisoners have produced car parts for Honda; prison labourers in Oregon make uniforms for McDonalds

  Prison call center in Arizona

Venturainmates take telephone reservations for TWA (yes, this does mean callers are unwittingly giving their credit card numbers to criminals, and, yes, there have been "incidents"

Kmart, and Eddie Bauer are getting such products as jeans, sweatshirts, and toys made by prisoners in Tennessee and Washington State

Prisoners in for burglary, battery, drug and gun charges, and escape helped build a Wal-Mart distribution center in Wisconsin in 2005, until community uproar halted the program. (Company policy says, "Forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart.")

IBM, Texas Instruments, and Dell Computer all get circuit boards made by Texas prisoners.

 In Texas, prisoners make officers' duty belts, handcuff cases, and prison-cell accessories. California convicts make gun containers, creepers (to peek under vehicles), and human-silhouette targets.

Texas and California inmates make dorm furniture and lockers, diploma covers, binders, logbooks, library book carts, locker room benches, and juice boxes.

Texas inmates produce brooms and brushes, bedding and mattresses, toilets, sinks, showers, and bullwhips. Bullwhips?

Honda has had car parts made in Ohio prisons, AT&T has hired telemarketers in Colorado prisons, and Spalding gets golf balls packed in Hawaii prisons

Prison slave laborers produce: most of the military needs ~ helmets, bags, badges etc.; 93% of domestically produced paints; 36% of home appliances; 21% of office furniture; and much more. 

Federal Prison Industries, a.k.a. Unicor, says that in addition to soldiers' uniforms, bedding, shoes, helmets, and flak vests, inmates have "produced missile cables (including those used on the Patriot missiles during the Gulf War)" and "wiring harnesses for jets and tanks." In 1997, according to Prison Legal News, Boeing subcontractor MicroJet had prisoners cutting airplane components, paying $7 an hour for work that paid union wages of $30 on the outside.

 Convict labour is not totally free enterprise, but it's as close as it gets.  And remember, 20¢-an-hour labour also helps push down wages for all other American workers.  So here's to you corporate honchos and your politicians for making America even more like a Third World nation.

Oh, and here's the best part of all: You can slap a Made-in-the-USA label on every product they make for you! 

In 1997, a California prison put two men in solitary

for telling journalists they were ordered

to replace "Made in Honduras" labels on garments

with "Made in the USA."

Convict-made goods are expected to reach nearly $9 billion in sales by the end of the decade as the prison population swells; as more companies discover the scam, and as more state politicians learn to cash in on it.  

Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, never one to pass up a chance to exploit someone's misery, has been especially adept at huckstering his state's prison force: "Can't find workers?" a state mailing asks corporate executives all across the country.  No problem, proclaims the brochure, "A willing workforce waits" ~ conveniently incarcerated for you in Wisconsin.

Participating firms everywhere sing the praises of this locked-up labour.  In an article in Nation magazine, Bob Tessler of DPAS company in San Francisco gushes:

"We have a captive labour force, a group of men who are dedicated, who want to work.  That makes the whole business profitable." 

That, plus the fact that California taxpayers also give Tessler a 10% tax credit on the first $2000 of each inmate's wages. Cheap prison labour and a subsidy ~ if that won't restore your faith in the working of the free market, nothing will!  It is such a steal of a deal that Tessler has shut down his operation in Mexico, moving his data processing work inside San Quentin. 

"Here we don't have a problem with the language, we have better control of our work and, because it's local, we have a quicker turnaround time."

Timothy Lynch, director of the libertarian Cato Institute's project on criminal justice, states that prison labour is a worthy idea, but says that such programs often fall short of their goal of helping prisoners gain marketable skills.  This is because

while they often put inmates to work producing products that states or federal agencies need ~ producing machine-made furniture, for example ~ the work does not provide the workers with skills, such as carpentry and plumbing, that are applicable to widely available jobs.  Such programmes, he says, do not fulfill their primary mission.

A 1998 study from the University of California, Berkeley, found that state-run prison factories and farms were responsible for more than $150 million annually in direct sales to the states on a range of products ranging from silk-screened clothing to fine-ground optics.  And, yes, the incarcerated workers also made state license plates. 

The researchers found that prisoners lined up for the chance to work at a pay scale ranging from 30¢ ~ 95¢ per hour.  But critics point to the tax dollars used to prop up such systems as proof that the economic impact of these programs is not what proponents make it out to be.  

A 1996 investigation by the California Bureau of State Audits found that over the 13-year history of the state's Prison Industry Authority, the program had lost more than $33 million ~ money that was made up with infusions from state coffers.

SOURCES: 

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