This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

Unions want to keep youth detention jobs

by mim52@mim.org

Closings at Michigan's youth detention facility, W.J. Maxey Boys Training School, will result in about 100 employees being laid-off. In part, this is because there are fewer youth being held at Maxey. Those still detained will be transferred to a new building with more built in security devices. Wayne County Circuit Court, the primary feeder to Maxey, has cut back on detention in facilities and has increased sentences involving counseling and community agency supervision. UAW Local 6000 President said "The county sees this as a way to save money, but I think it will fail." According to the Detroit Free Press, "Union leaders criticized the layoffs and said they were a sign that the state wants to privatize all services to children." Whether the so-called services are private or state-run does not matter to MIM. While unions criticize this as 'downsizing' and argue that privatization is a means to undermine union bargaining, we see that the unions merely want to protect their jobs regardless of the oppressive nature of those jobs. Under an imperialist system based upon national oppression and patriarchy, youth are treated as property. From parental control to detention or mandated counseling for youth deemed deviant, this system pushes youth to fit into the prescribed Amerikan mold. Youth detained at Maxey will either fly right -- into the suburban Amerikan dream -- or will be trained to accept of life under the control of prison officials and social workers. Herding youth through detention facilities or through sessions with shrinks is the Amerikan way. MIM organizes youth because the imperialist system does not offer them a good future, from wars, to environmental destruction to growing fascism. We organize youth to build a better society than this one, a society that cherishes the value of humyn life and encourages creativity, logical analysis and productive contributions to the rest of the world.

Note:
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/maxey5_20011105.htm