In Case You Missed This... 'Immigrants for Sale' (Private Prison Industry) - TheNation

Immigrants for Sale
Peter Rothberg | TheNation
May 12, 2011


Today, our friends at Brave New Foundation launched the 'Immigrants for Sale' campaign <2> with a powerful animated video exposing the way private prisons profit off the passage of anti-immigrant legislation, and what that means for the democratic process.

The video is the first in an on-going series documenting the abuse, corruption and corporate influence that drives both the rush to privatize incarceration and the draconian sentencing and immigration laws that make the rush profitable.

The three largest corporate players in the industry -- CCA (the Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations -- reap annual profits of more than $5 billion a year at the same time as they dole out more than $20 million annually in lobbying to (mostly rightwing) state legislators to ensure the approval of the regional anti-immigrant laws that fill their coffers.

An NPR report <3>outlined how CCA and co. aim to translate the anti-immigrant rhetoric and political void into a long-lasting cash drive -- believing that illegal immigrants will continue to provide a fresh and highly profitable influx of new inmates to their cells if harsh anti-immigration legislation Arizona-style stays popular.

As Brave New Films' Alex Cabbellero writes at Huffington Post <4>, "CCA founder Tomas Beasly once called his scheme 'more profitable' than selling burgers or cars -- a clear indication that any sense of justice in the prison industry will be forever trumped by cash flows and profit margins."

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More: http://www.thenation.com/blog/160650/immigrants-sale

DU Political Videos Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x583093

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The prospect of being able to sentence illegals to prisons for years before deporting them to their homelands is the impetus of many of the "papers, please" laws suggested in parts of the country.

Also, the drug-related "Three Strikes" laws serve to insure that non-violent offenders wind up serving stiff prison sentences instead of just doing probation.

The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners.......and the Prison Industrial Complex likes this just fine!

OMG, there's tape of her begging for something to drink. She had been to the hospital for two days prior... withdrawing from heroin. She's been throwing up, diarrhea for days and she's dehydrated. They throw her back in this private place and she drops to the ground. When they finally come in, they roll her around, walk away and wait a while before calling medics. Cause of death: dehydration.

Being a private company, they just ignore media questions, no accountability.

I looked up the company and there have been several complaints and other deaths.

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