MIM(Prisons) is a cell of revolutionaries serving the oppressed masses inside U.$. prisons, guided by the communist ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism.
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons) PO Box 40799 San Francisco, CA 94140.
In Texas, every general population prisoner is required to work. They
either work in the service of prison upkeep (i.e. maintenance, food
service, field labor, support service inmate, etc.) or they work in one
of the various factories owned by TCI (Texas Correctional Industries).
TCI is not part of the state. It is not part of the prison system. TCI
is a private conglomerate which contracts with the state for prisoner
labor. They operate metal fabrication plants, stainless steel works,
meat packing plants, furniture factories, computer restoration plants,
and many others throughout the 130+ prison units around the state. These
industries do indeed provide products which the prison system needs for
itself, but these products are also sold to other states for their
prisons and jails at prices greatly marked up. The profits come from the
fact that the prisoner labor is free.
Texas prisoners do not get paid for working.
Now there are a couple of pilot programs which started a couple of years
ago, that do pay their workers a tiny bit. But these programs employ
less than 1% of the 150,000+ prisoner population, and there are no plans
to extend or expand these programs.
When general population prisoners in Texas attempt to involve the U.$.
Department of Labor, OSHA, or other labor organizations concerning the
exploitation of prisoners, we are told that prisoners in Texas
“volunteer” to work, and are therefore not entitled to any support. They
fail to mention that if a prisoner refuses to work, he is subject to
disciplinary action, loses commissary and recreation privileges, has his
good time credits taken away, gets locked up in administrative
segregation - all of which has a negative effect on chances for parole.
So the Catch 22 is: either work for free, or suffer the consequences.
Oh, they tell us that our good time credit is our pay. But good time
only affects non-3G prisoners. It means nothing to the rest of us.
Furthermore, the extent of embezzlement within TCI is outrageous. The
managers and department heads, even the foremen, are ripping off the tax
payers with their thefts. I personally have witnessed many such
incidences. For example: the maintenance department receives a new pump
which it does not need at the time, so it is put into storage. Three
weeks later I can’t find that pump. A month after that, the supply truck
delivers another pump which has the exact same serial number as the
first.
Another example: just before Thanksgiving, the meat packing plant
receives a truckload of frozen turkeys. The plant closes on Friday
evening, and come Monday morning there are 120 frozen turkeys missing.
The official ruling is “inmate theft.” But no prisoners are at the plant
on weekends.
And again: the stainless steel fabrication plant makes the round circles
which are used for the seats we sit on at the chow hall tables. I saw a
bill for 24 of those seats, the price? $40,000 for 24 one foot circles
of stainless steel.
The factories build all the bars, the bunks, the toilets and sinks, the
steel doors, etc., using prison labor. Then TCI sells all that to the
contractors who build the new units at an unbelievable mark-up. The
contractor then builds the prison, and sells it back to the state for an
even more exaggerated price. Meanwhile, briefcases of cash keep changing
hands. How else do you think the state gets away with telling the tax
payers that a new prison costs $64 million when the outside of that
prison is all pre-fab, and the inside is all prisoner built? Where is
the oversight? Where is the accountability? The nature of bureaucracy
allows these things to go on. Hell, they learned it from the feds,
there’s no one left to tell. Those officials who are supposed to look
out for these things just take their share too.
The nature of capitalism ensures that the abuses of prisoner labor and
the rape of tax payers in Texas will continue unchecked while the
imperialistic standards thrive.
MIM(Prisons) responds: This is an excellent exposure of
the prison labor conditions in the state of Texas and the benefit that
private industry is getting for this free labor. The stories of
corruption ring true across the whole federal government. See our
article
on Halliburton/KBR and Blackwater to see parallels in the military
industrial complex.
We only disagree with the author in their assessment that the tax payers
in Texas are being raped. While it is true that the State is paying
ridiculous prices for goods, this is no different than the state paying
high salaries to guards: these things actually work to ensure good jobs
for those working in the service to imperialism. And the vast majority
of taxpayers in Amerika are benefiting from imperialism so we can’t
agree that they are being raped. The criminal injustice system is
helping to prop up the system of imperialism that benefits the
taxpayers, and a little more money exchanging hands to enrich another
imperialist institution (TCI) does not change this situation.
Jobs at this prison, what a joke. I’ve been sitting on my ass for 3
years and still no job. They have few jobs at this place, if you are
lucky you can be a slave and work in a chow hall and bust your ass for
10 hours a day. They have 30 people and only 7 are fortunate to receive
a pay number. The highest paid slave is the clerk, he makes 32 cents an
hour but he owes restitution so they take 55% and he has to pay $5 for
medical so he will take home $1.40 a month. The pig who is his
supervisor makes $43 an hour with all the overtime he wants.
As for other jobs, if you are into boot licking you can be a janitor in
the watch office. All you have to do is clean after the pigs and rat on
everyone, for that you get a whole 8 cents an hour. If you want to learn
a trade they have a few vocational classes. They have auto body and
paint. You get to paint and repair pigs personal cars for free. Does
society know that these scumbags are driving BMWs, Porsches and $50,000
Corvettes? While our families are suffering from the recession these
scumbags are buying cars, houses and all sorts of fun toys, all from the
peoples taxes.
I have no money, no family, no income, I get a bar of soap, a razor,
some tooth powder and a roll of toilet paper once a week. They added the
word rehabilitation to CDC. I want to file a lawsuit for false
advertisement. They offer no form of rehab at all. This is a human
storage unit with babysitters who pull in $130,000 a year, all on the
tax payers.
The program at this prison is getting worse and changing daily. The new
excuse is the budget. We are only getting program every other day
because they can’t afford to pay staff overtime. What a joke! On the
days we are locked down it’s common to see 10 cops sitting on their fat,
overpaid asses, on the yard and eating sunflower seeds.
I overheard a nurse saying that she was working a double shift. She said
she was making $48.50 an hour. Her job consists of dispensing medication
to prisoners. What the hell, this lady is making $582 for her 16 hour
day, she passes out pills two times a day, it takes about one hour to
dispense pills so she is actually doing 2 hours of work and the rest of
her day she sits and complains that our economy is messed up. Damn! She
is why our economy is what it is.
They are still shipping people to different states. A bus load left a
few days ago for Arizona. They will not transfer anyone who has any
medical or dental issues or if you are CCCMS. By a prisoner agreeing to
transfer they are helping this state. It’s crazy that California not
only has the biggest prison system but now we are taking over the
prisons in other states. When will it stop.
They changed the name to California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation. They offer no form of rehabilitation on this yard. Do
you know if I could file a lawsuit for false advertisement?
My respects to all of you. I just wanted to let you know your letter was
a touch down and is being passed around so others can be enlightened on
topics that you provide so the struggle can be strengthened by more
support on the inside.
As always, the condition in the SHU is poor, but I want to bring up
another issue. The CDCR is taking 55% of all money loved ones or friends
send. This is strong arm extortion at the highest level. It can also be
considered robbery since none of my victims have been given a penny in
reimbursement. I’m not alone in this concern. 95% of the prisoners are
effected by this extortion. This needs to be addressed to the state
legislators so they know the prison is not providing jobs to prisoners
to earn money to pay off any restitution owed. It’s been said it may go
to 60% soon. It is not fair to friends or loved ones to pay any
restitution we owe. I am slammed down 24/7 as well as everyone in the
SHU, so none of us are able to get jobs.
SCI Fayette has about 1800 to 2100 prisoners, of those 1200 to 1400 work
for the DOC doing various work assignments. Jobs are related to running
of the facility, such as maintenance, commissary, grounds crews,
schooling, laundry, barber shop, library and janitors. Some also work
for “Correctional Industries.” The pay scale is as follows in
$/hour:
Step A
Step B
Step C
Step D
Class 1
0.19
0.20
0.21
0.23
Class 2
0.24
0.25
0.27
0.29
Class 3
0.33
0.35
0.38
0.42
People usually work from 120 to 160 hours per month, so top pay would be
$50.40 to $67.20. Correctional Industries (CI) makes 51 cents or about
$81.60 a month. Like similar programs that exist in all 50 states,
Pennsylvania Correctional Industries produces things such as furniture,
clothing and personal care products primarily for purchase by state
agencies. However, on their website they claim they are unique in that
they are completely self-sufficient. Like most examples of “industries”
in prisons, they allow the state to save money, but there is no private
profit being made.
There are about 2500 inmates housed here and about 1600 of them have
jobs, the other 900 are inmates in control units.
The prison offers many jobs such as industry, kitchen, yard, unit,
education, assistants, etc. Now all the industry jobs pay between $100
to $175 a month and all the rest pay between $25 to $75 a month, which
is bullshit since the minimum wage is like $7.75 and the amount we get
paid is only a small percentage of regular outside community jobs.
By working in the prison it keeps us focused and able to purchase the
necessities we need to contain proper health & hygiene and things
like food, electronics, etc. But the state charges us double or triple
the price the items cost on the streets.
The kinds of work we do here consists of building furniture, welding,
plumbing, electrical, repairing equipment, washing laundry and the rest
are tutors for the education department and unit orderlies. There are
also kitchen duties such as cooking, washing, dishes, wiping tables and
serving the food.
The industry jobs make couches, chairs, tables and desks for the outside
world. Other jobs make jewelry, saddles, clothes and toys. The lifers
club has a lot of these items in the visiting room so when our people
come to see us they can purchase them.
The Prison Blues clothes are made by prisoners at EOCI in Pendleton and
SRCI. They have construction programs where we build trailers and sheds
for people to live in. So we do more than make license plates, like in
some states. But again, almost all the money made goes to the staff’s
checks, only 10% gets put toward the inmate trust fund.
Now the state of Oregon is making such a big profit off us working for
pennies and they can’t even give us better yard equipment so we can
exercise without having to be careful the cables don’t break while we’re
pumping the weights. So it’s real sad that we live in these conditions.
If the inmates refused to work these jobs like slaves which we our
slaves of the state then nothing would get done. The officers are so
lazy all they do each day is sit around and eat donuts. There ain’t no
real labor in this job for them, but they bitch about always being
tired. So if it weren’t for us they wouldn’t be making such a nice chunk
of money and treating us so bad.
Prisoners make all the clothing and uniforms as well as envelopes and
greeting cards here in MacDougall-Walker CI in Connecticut, and then
they sell them back to us. They even sell jail pillows now. Not real
pillows, jail pillows, the ones the prisoners used to make back in the
day and they confiscated them (we use to make ’em out of old mattresses,
the ones that were ripped up and no longer useful). Now the state
confiscated all those pillows and are now manufacturing our idea in the
prisoners workshop. Same kind of pillow we use to make with the old
mattresses the state is making and selling back to us for $15. They
stole our idea and sell it back to us.
This facility has banned ALL MIM materials and they refuse to allow me
duplications of the Media Review Notices- the only copy I have was sent
back for appeal purposes because it is not “legal” materials!
These fascist pigs have also taken 8 months and 8 days of good time from
me because I reported their employee who was using me as a slave, and
have started a civil suite over it. (see enclosed)
[excerpt from claim]The complaint/grievance was the result of the
claimant’s having been enslaved by Mr. Snye, the horticulture instructor
of Riverview. The claimant was forced to choose between completing a
web-site for one of Mr. Snye’s personal business ventures or punitive
physical measures (being forced to shift enormous stones and to engage
in other extremely demanding physical labor) and, if the claimant
contineud to refuse, expulsion from the program. Threats of bogus
charges and accompanying disciplinary measures were consatntly looming,
along with vague, yet clear indications that there would by SHU time, if
anyone found out.
Safety concerns led the Inspector [General] to place the claimant in
another facility immediately. Within 24 hours of the claimant’s arrival
there, threats toward the claimant required that he be placed in
involuntary protective custody, and be housed with inmates who are in
trouble.
Current conditions have arrested the claimant’s ability to progress in
rehabilitation.
Removal from ASAT (Alcohol Substance Abuse Treatment) hinders the
claimant’s potential time allowance.
Could someone put some pressure on these pigs, particularly Officers
Bartsch, Peters (who is the absolute worst pig I’ve ever encountered),
and Program Assistant Jeff Portersnok, who arbitrarily, with Bartsch as
assistant, removed me form the brainwashing program, effectively
diminishing my good time chances to zero - because he took it upon
himself to investigate the slave labor at Riverview!
Officer Peters arbitrarily writes disciplinary reports and calls me a
“Commie Bastard” regularly, as well as disrespects my family, my person,
and my property.
If some pressure could be applied that won’t result in retaliation it
would help not just me, but the entire compound.
In Struggle, a New York Prisoner
2/24/2008
I am writing regarding Mr. B. Peters, an officer at Cayuga Correctional
Facility who works the 7-3AM shift in B2 Dorm. I have only been in this
dorm for 30 days and it’s been the worst 30 days of my life. Mr. B.
Peters harasses me constantly as well as many other inmates at this
facility.
On February 14, 2008, Mr. B. Peters searched my cube with me present and
during the search he said that he doesn’t like me. I have never done
nothing wrong to this cop and he continues to make slick remarks, call
me names like little shit and spick. He also told me that he can’t wait
to pack me up. I am honestly in fear for my safety and I am nervous that
he might throw something in my cubby while I’m in program or something.
I am also scared that he might retaliate because I’m writing you this
letter.
On February 22, 2008 he gave me a ticket for disobeying a direct order.
This officer tells me to put my personal sheets into a plastic bag
without any explanation as to why he wants my sheets. Then when I asked
him why I have to put my sheets in a bag and bring it to him he said
that he doesn’t have to explain anything to me because I’m in prison. He
also mentioned that if I don’t comply with his demand, he will send my
ass to the box. And since he was so rude and disrespectful I chose not
to give him my sheets… Due to the ticket he wrote me I’m looking toward
30 days in the box.
In Struggle, a second New York Prisoner
4/7/2008
Today, despite tremendous opposition by my captors, I have successfully
defeated the censors here at this Cayuga Correctional Pig Pen (see
enclosed).
Now, the bad news, today was supposed to be my release date. I have sent
copies of numerous document to the party bolstering my position, and
even the state of New York admitted their errors in respect to the
employee who enslaved me, and yet they still won’t let me go free.
Another comrade here, who has a sexual assault investigation pending
against Sgt. Hoadley, the grievance sergeant, is being held past his
date now 2 or 3 months.
Please let me know what is happening as I am certainly becoming less and
less able to proceed. My body is locked up, and I feel my mind is going
too.
How many prisoners at your facility? According to
information online, the capacity is 1825, but there are actually 2,240
prisoners being held here.
How many of them work? An estimate will show that
around 250-280 work as correctional industries employees. About 150 of
these work on the sewing complex. The sewing complex is making most of
the clothes we, the inmates, are provided with. They also produce
materials for out of state contracts. The rest work on welding, license
plates and perhaps other work. They make all types of stuff, from bunks
to tables and everything they need to equip a cell.
Another form of employment that they have for inmates is what they call
“Inmate duties.” They pay from 35-55 dollars per month, depending on
what type of job you get. Basically, this kind of job consists of
cooking, cleaning, serving the food, washing the clothes and anything
that is needed to run and keep a place like this clean. There are
probably another 250-270 inmates working these types of jobs.
Who do they work for? As far as I know, everything
at this place is supposedly run by the state.
What work do they do? As I mentioned earlier, sewing
and welding are the main industrial jobs. The rest are not considered
jobs, but “Inmate duties.”
How much do they get paid? The industrial complexes
pay up to a dollar ten cents per hour. The rest of the jobs go from $35
to 55 per month.
Now, up to this point it might not seem like a big profit is being
taken, but there is. Who is profiting from all this? The working class
in this country, which is not exploited as they claim. Considering that
those industrial complexes are run by the state, this is how I would
explain who is profiting from all this. In this place there are around
280 inmates who are doing correction industries jobs. If we assume that
all of these 280 inmates are working 40 hours per week, we would have
582,400 hours per year of work by this group. At $1.10 per hour, 582,400
hours of labor in the industrial complex would cost $640,640. If now, we
decide to do this job with the same amount of people, but instead of
paying them $1.10, we pay the Washington state minimum wage of $8.07,
then the labor alone would cost $4,682,214. They are saving over four
million dollars by using inmate labor, just in this place alone,
comparing to state minimum wage salary. But most of the state industrial
jobs are well-paid jobs in the outside world. So, if you compare these
kinds of jobs, we have another loop that I cannot resolve myself, but
will likely account for millions of more dollars in cost savings. I
would assume anybody would get paid from 13 to 20 some dollars on the
outside for welding work. This could mean a savings of over $10 million.
So far, we are talking of the cost of labor assuming that the state will
use all of its products, which is a lie because they have sent products
overseas. Now, all this profit will get shared down to every single
person who works for the government, especially the department of
corrections and the state police. How will this be shared? Better
medical care than civilians, better salary than civilians, and better
retirement plans. Better exemptions in tax collection. They benefit in
so many ways, from which regular civilians are excluded. That is the
main reason they support more incarceration rather than trying to
educate the prison population in making better choices, if you want to
call it “making a choice” when you have been culturally bombed to act
stupid.
So when you stated in your
article
about prison labor that “corporate America do not benefit or do not
benefit as much as people have suggested,” I believe you are wrong,
especially when you look at the benefits of corporate America not as
monetary benefits, but rather ideological. Even though there are
monetary benefits. Let me ask the following question: Who opposes
socialism and the road to communism? Who is in charge of destroying any
community based programs for society? Who is in charge of blocking any
type of political analysis that tries to make society aware of the
necessity to change? Who is in charge of the bad propaganda about Mao,
Stalin or Lenin? It is the same corporate America and allies who created
the first and second World Wars. To them, the government is just the
legal way to repress rebellion. Government bodies are just structures
that are defined by how we use them. When Lenin took power, the
philosophical structure of the government remained in place, but the
practice changed, that is why I believe that you are wrong on this
point.
And why is it that when you try to tell people employed by the
government about a conscious analysis of history they most likely will
reject you? It may not be as big as exploiting the national resources of
Third World countries in monetary measurements, but at home they have no
opposition because of the juicy salaries they are able to give to their
war machine, which is from the DOC all they way up to the presidency.
Everybody gets enough to live a luxurious life, when the rest of the
world gets screwed.
And the big help lately has been the “cheap labor,” the inmates who
willingly and ignorantly help the government oppress the rest. So I do
not think it is correct to say that the government and corporate America
do not benefit from it. Inmate labor is too important for this system
that the prison population will only increase in this country and in any
other capitalist country.
MIM(Prisons) responds: After a discussion with the
author we uphold that we have less disagreement than they seem to think
we do. MIM(Prisons) never stated that corporate amerika does not benefit
from the institution of prison labor or prisons in general. And we agree
with the author that the bourgeois state serves to benefit the
imperialists as a whole. We have only suggested that it is not corporate
profit motives behind decades of prison boom, but rather the national
and bureaucratic interests of the oppressor nation that the author
describes above. We can even agree that prison labor is too important to
the system for it to go away. But that is because it would become cost
prohibitive to run the prisons that are already becoming too expensive
for public tastes. This is in contrast to the super-exploitation of the
Third World (in terms of labor, not just natural resources) that the
imperialist countries could not exist without.
Other than asking what are the interests behind the u$ prison industrial
complex, we are also looking at the question of the existence of a
proletariat within u$ borders in our research on prison labor.
Competitiveness on the international market for low-tech items such as
clothing indicate that Washington’s correctional industries pay a wage
that is approximately competitive with the Third World, ignoring state
subsidies and other trade irregularities that prevent a truly free
competition. One such subsidy is the fact that prisoners are provided
room, board and limited necessities before they are paid the $1.10 per
hour. For this reason these wage rates are not directly comparable to
the Third World. Regardless, these figures seem to suggest that there is
legitimate exploitation of labor power going on here, and not just the
transfer of surplus value between various labor aristocrats as occurs in
most of the First World economy. But being a part of this greater social
reality, and considering that most will likely be free u$ citizens again
someday, we still see a predominately petty bourgeois consciousness
among u$ prisoners. More are amerikan dreaming to be the next Jay-Z or
Big Pun instead of trying to organize prison labor to seize the means of
production for the people.
The calculations done by the comrade above are an excellent example of
exposing the economic realities within u$ borders, and we encourage
others to follow this example to create reports in their own state or
facility to print in Under Lock & Key. Of course, if prisons didn’t
use prison labor, they would probably import furniture from China, not
hire amerikan welders. This cost comparison would be harder to come up
with, though certainly the prisons themselves have done it and decided
that prison labor is cheaper. However, work that must be done on site
would be paid the minimum wage at least, and would account for
additional millions of dollars added to the estimate above.
Finally, one of the most important points we can take from this report
is that this is all state run, as is most common across the country. As
we argued in our article that sparked this discussion,
Amerikans:
Oppressing for a Living, the cost savings are going to reduce the
need for taxes for all u$ citizens, while providing the funds for wages
and benefits for those who work for the state and especially the
departments of corrections and the police, as stated above. If these
industries are also pulling in profits from sales overseas, again this
money is presumably going to offset/subsidize state expenditures. It is
a form of state capitalism that lays the groundwork for fascism quite
nicely integrating the corporation into the state and providing direct
monetary benefits to the general population for expanded oppression.
Critics of amerika’s unprecedentedly high incarceration rates have
stressed that increased imprisonment does not correspond to less crime.
And despite decreasing crime rates, imprisonment continues to rise. How
is this possible?
A recent report from the JFA Institute describes how the increase in
prison populations is a result of a change in laws and policies in
enforcement. (1) We have been in the era of “tough on crime” politics
for decades, but most amerikans will still hide the fact that this
translates into increased control and repression of the internal
semi-colonies. At the same time, millions of amerikkkans are supporting
these laws as a means of securing the jobs and livelihood of themselves
and their families. While white people like to look at slavery and
genocide as things in the past, the amerikkkan nation has probably never
been so deeply entrenched and invested as a nation of oppressors as they
are today with millions serving as cops, spies and military personnel.
And while the white media would have you believe that “tough on crime”
policies are protecting amerikans from murderers and sexual predators,
about two-thirds of the 650,000 prison admissions each year are people
who have violated their probation or parole. And half of these
violations are technical, in other words, they’re going to prison for
things most people could not be put in prison for. (1) The demand for
more incarceration is putting hundreds of thousands of people in prison
each year for doing things not generally considered crimes under u$ law.
Who’s Profiting?
The progressive groups opposing the prison industrial complex like to
condemn so-called “prisons-for-profit.” But it isn’t primarily corporate
profits behind the three decades long prison boom and the so-called
“tough on crime” legislation. It is amerikan cops and bureaucrats
maneuvering for government funds (money that comes from taxing amerikans
whose wealth comes from the exploitation of labor and resources from the
Third World). And it is career politicians catering to a white
nationalist vote. “Tough on crime” stances aren’t tolerated in amerikan
politics, rather, they are demanded by the voting public. Politicians
who have attempted to go against the tide can attest to this.
Other than “prisons are big business” the other popular argument
explaining the surge in incarceration is that it is “modern day
slavery.” As an economic force behind imprisonment, this too is largely
a myth. If the motivation for being the number one imprisonment country
in all of history was exploiting labor then you would see the majority
of prisoners engaged in productive labor. While some sources claim half
of all prisoners work, one study from 1994 found less than 10% are
involved in work other than maintenance and housekeeping. (2) More
recent statistics by state indicate industrial employment at similar low
rates. (3) The estimate of half of prisoners working seems reasonable if
we acknowledge that most of those prisoners have part-time jobs doing
upkeep of the prison. While also dated, MIM cited statistics from 1995
showing that only 6.4% of sales stemming from prison labor in the united
$tates was private in MIM Theory 11: Amerikkkan Prisons on Trial.
Generally, if prisoners work for an outside corporation and produce
goods for interstate commerce, then they are legally required to receive
amerikkkan exploiter level wages. The benefit to the companies is that
they can skimp on benefits and don’t need to give raises. Small business
owners have fought to limit the benefits of those who use prison labor,
since they lack the capital to take advantage of such competitive
advantages. The petty bourgeois interests here keep those of the
imperialists in check. (4)
Therefore, most prison labor is done for the state, who can pay whatever
they want, and increasingly garnish most of the wages to pay for the
prisoners’ own imprisonment. These prisoners are either working to run
the prison and therefore allowing the amerikkkans in charge of the
prison to work as well-payed bureaucrats and not have to worry about
cooking and cleaning, or they are working for government industries that
supply state agencies and therefore subsidize the tax money of the state
as a whole by reducing state expenses. The National Correctional
Industries Association says state industries contributed $25 million by
garnishing inmates wages, not a very large contribution to the cost of
the u$ prison system. However, one estimate done by MIM 10 years ago
indicates the savings in wages overall (not including benefits) could be
on the order of 10% or more of current overall state expenditures on
corrections (5), which have risen sharply (see graph).
Some state industries export products to other countries, but interstate
commerce has largely been restricted by the efforts of small business
interests and amerikan labor unions. Since the 1980s, the federal
government has tried to embrace the model of “factories with fences.”
But the free market for slave labor continues to be hampered by state
laws. This year, Alaska passed a law that allows the Department of Labor
and Workforce Development can enter into contracts with private
companies or individuals to sell them prison labor,
provided that the commissioner consults with local union organizations
beforehand in order to ensure that the contract will not result in the
displacement of employed workers, will not be applied in skills, crafts,
or trades in which there is a surplus of available gainful labor in the
locality, and will not impair existing contracts for services. A
contract with an individual or a private organization must require that
the commissioner be paid the minimum wage for each hour worked by a
prisoner.” (10)
Clearly this has nothing to do with prisoners’ rights, but it is crafted
for the protection of labor aristocracy jobs and small businesses. And
as many states do, Alaska allows for the wages to be garnished before
disbursing them to the prisoner. So there is no law that the prisoner
must be paid a certain wage.
What about the one industry that does have unfettered access to prison
labor? Theoretically, private prisons could collect fat contracts from
the state and let prisoners do much of the work to run the facility. But
after 3 decades of prison boom, still less than 5% of prisons are
privately owned, at least partially due to an inability to remain
profitable. (4) It is often pointed out that it costs more to keep a
persyn in prison for a year than send them to college. (The difference
for sending youth to a correctional facility compared to grade school
can be differences in order of magnitude). This is a price that largely
tax-averse amerikkkans are willing to pay.
State Bureaucrats and National Oppression
Strictly speaking, prisons are a net loss financially for the amerikkkan
nation. And the boom cannot be blamed on any major corporate interests.
What a beefed up injustice system does offer economically is a means of
employing millions of people at cushy exploiter wages. It is a means of
shuffling the super-profits around the pigsty and maintaining a consumer
population. These millions of people provide a self-perpetuating demand
for more prisoners, and more funding for various law enforcement
projects.
One example of this self-perpetuating bureaucracy dates back to 1983
when James Gonzalez became Deputy Director of the California Department
of Corrections. He immediately expanded the department’s planning staff
from 3 to 118 and began focusing on modeling that would forecast
increasing needs for expansion into the future (it’s not just COs
getting the jobs). (6) Since then California has built 23 major new
prisons, expanded other prisons and increased its prison population
500%. (7) With more prisons, come more prison guards, creating the
31,000 strong California Correctional Peace Officers Association with
yearly dues totaling $21.9 million. (8) This is the same union that
earned itself a raise following the exposure of gladiator fights staged
by guards at Corcoran State Prison, where many prisoners were murdered.
The very same that was behind the 3 strikes laws to put people away for
25 to life for petty crimes, and that has campaigned repeatedly to
eliminate educational programs for prisoners.
The CO’s are partners with the private industry that has boomed off of
an economy based on war and repression. A visit to the American
Corrections Association conference will tell you it’s not just a few
imperialist suits in a smoke-filled room. It is a getaway for a large
mix of salesmen, cops and CO’s; just regular amerikkkans. (9)
In the united $tates there are laws that prevent the military from
lobbying the government as a safeguard against war being carried out in
the interests of the warmakers. There are no such limits on the police
and correctional officers (COs), allowing the war on gangs to go on
perpetuating itself both politically and economically. The NYPD and LAPD
have arsenals and capabilities that rival many nations’ armed forces,
and they are allowed to influence politics on the local, state and even
federal level both directly and indirectly.
On the local level police departments have undermined trends toward
so-called “community policing.” Where youth in the community have been
effective at reducing violence through dialogue and organizing, the
police have rejected these programs in favor of community
representatives who will rubber stamp their continued strategies of
suppression and harassment of oppressed nation youth. When street
organizations came together to form peace treaties in Los Angeles and
Chicago in the 1990s, the police responded immediately through the white
media saying it was a hoax and it would never last. Let there be no
confusion, the police created these wars and the police will not let
them stop.
In the late 1990s, the New York Times reported that most white residents
of New York City were comfortable with police behavior, while 9 out of
10 Blacks believed brutality against Blacks to be frequent. The regular
“stop and frisking” by police that was then practiced under Mayor
Giuliani, was found to be directed at Blacks and Latinos 90% of the
time. (11)
Politically, the rest of the oppressor nation is willing to go along
with the job security plans of the police and correctional officers as a
means of protecting their collective privilege. One of the few things
amerikkkans can agree to spend state money on. With that, the injustice
system becomes an important part of the national culture in rallying the
people in material support of the imperialist system that they benefit
from.
Who’s being locked up?
While the question of who is profiting from the prison industrial
complex is a bit cloudy and controversial, everyone knows who is being
locked up. In a half century, amerikan prisons have gone from white
dominated to Black dominated in a period where the Black population has
increased less than 2 percentage points to its current level of about
12%. And yet amerikkkans are not outraged.
As
we
recently reported, Blacks are imprisoned at rates 10 times those of
whites for drug charges and the increase in drug-related prison
sentences was 77% for Blacks compared to 28% for whites. (12) So, the
increase in sentences that is behind the current prison boom is
targeting certain populations.
The JFA Institute report references research indicating that
incarceration often encourages crime. In their summary of literature,
they point to evidence that people will leave criminal lifestyles when
given opportunities. No shit? Stopping crime isn’t exactly rocket
science. While communists know how to put an end to crime, the pigs and
their fans have demonstrated that they aren’t really interested in that.
That would involve destroying their own privilege. In it’s advanced
stage of parasitism, the amerikkkan nation has a well-entrenched sector
of pigs who get job security and pay raises from perpetuating crime and
imprisonment.
Interestingly, the report also points to a number of studies indicating
that government run programs have very marginal effects on reducing
recidivism. This conclusion is supported by reports we get from
comrades
criticizing government programs. (13) Apparently, the literature
also supports the need for programs like MIM(Prisons) Prisoner Re-Lease
on Life program, because the only programs that seem to be effective in
treatment and rehabilitation are independent from the government. (1)
The people aren’t stupid, they know what the state is there to do.