As I write this, a young, impoverished friend of mine has just gotten out of two weeks in a jail cell on a marijuana charge. (He preferred to use what would have been his bail money to hire an attorney.) Granted, it was stupid of him to drive with a small amount of weed in his car and a broken headlight that signaled a cop, but unfortunately, he had already been convicted on another marijuana charge a few years back, so this time he may end up in prison. What prison? He was arrested on an interstate highway in Kansas. I googled Kansas privatized prisons, and learned that Leavenworth Correctional Center is run by the Corrections Corporation of America. What are they looking for? Bodies. The more bodies, the more revenue. This has nothing to do with justice. My young, gentle, sweet-spirited friend is in danger of being ground into chopped meat.
Though the states, one by one, are legalizing marijuana, and the Justice Department now seeks to curtail stiff drug-related sentences, the fact remains that over 24%% of federal prisoners in the U.S. are corralled into holding pens on non-violent drug-related charges, providing not just fodder for private prison corporations, but cheap labor for U.S. companies. See the documentary Corrections, about how the profit-motive drives up the rate of U.S. incarceration.
How long will it take for us to dissolve money as our so-called “bottom line”? How long will living, breathing humans remain in U.S. jails to enrich others?
The more I learn about how end-stage capitalism works, the more grateful I am for the current ongoing Uranus/Pluto square (2012-2015) which brings everything hidden to the surface and overturns the status quo.
Sweden leads the way.
What’s Right with Sweden? Prisons Close as Demand Falls
With focus on rehabilitation and more reasonable sentencing, nation shutters four state-run jails
November 12, 2013
Jon Queally, staff writer
Prison numbers in Sweden, which have been falling by around 1% a year since 2004, dropped by 6% between 2011 and 2012 and are expected to do the same again both this year and next year. (Photograph: Paul Doyle/Alamy)As study after study (after study) in the United States over the last several decades have shown a prison population explosion that demands additional, larger, more expensive—and increasingly privatized—prisons, the trend in Sweden might hold a lesson on how to end the ever-expanding incarceration rate.
In fact, instead of building new prisons or holding steady with the number they have, the Swedish government—citing a rapid fall in demand—has now ordered the closure of four prisons.
“We have seen an out-of-the-ordinary decline in the number of inmates,” Nils Öberg, the head of Sweden’s prison and probation services, explained to the Guardian. “Now we have the opportunity to close down a part of our infrastructure that we don’t need at this point of time.”
As the Guardian reports:
Prison numbers in Sweden, which have been falling by around 1% a year since 2004, dropped by 6% between 2011 and 2012 and are expected to do the same again both this year and next, Öberg said.
As a result, the prison service has this year closed down prisons in the towns of Åby, Håja, Båtshagen, and Kristianstad, two of which will probably be sold and two of which will be passed for temporary use to other government authorities.
Öberg said that while nobody knew for sure why prison numbers had dropped so steeply, he hoped that Sweden’s liberal prison approach, with its strong focus on rehabilitating prisoners, had played a part.
Swedish authorities explain that this more “liberal” approach includes both the rehabilitation cited, but also a new sentencing structure that has reduced the terms given for drug offenses, theft, and other less serious crimes.
At 112th in the world, Sweden has long been rated well in indexes that calculate the percentage of its population the remains incarcerated. In contrast, the United States has the most heavily-jailed population in the world.
Again, from the Guardian:
According to data collected by the International Centre for Prison Studies, the five countries with the highest prison population are the US, China, Russia, Brazil and India.
The US has a prison population of 2,239,751, equivalent to 716 people per 100,000. China ranks second with 1,640,000 people behind bars, or 121 people per 100,000, while Russia’s inmates are 681,600, amounting to 475 individuals per 100,000.
And, as the Congressional Research Service (CRS) reported earlier this year, the U.S. prison population continues to rise at an unprecedented rate, both federally and across many states. Those rates lead to over-crowding, growing costs, and increasingly unsafe institutions. As an Al-Jazeera investigation, following a report from the Government Accountability Office, found:
The overcrowded facilities have contributed to a multibillion dollar demand for private prisons. The industry argues it is helping the government save money. But others argue that for-profit prisons only increase the incentive to incarcerate more people.
Almost half of those incarcerated in federal prisons are drug offenders. Another 16 percent of inmates are in prison for offences related to weapons, explosives and arson. Those convicted of immigration violations make up 12 percent of the federal prison population.
And the impact of mass imprisonment spreads far beyond the prison walls.
Sociologists have found that the rise in incarceration rates reduce social mobility and ensure both prisoners and their families remain trapped in a cycle of poverty.
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