Cashing in on Black Prisoners Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Sun, 19 Oct 1997 20:35:16 -0500 source: Gillam Kerley ACLU UPDATE: Cashing In On Black Prisoners "African-Americans are grist for the fast-growing prison industry's money mill," says Emerge magazine in a cover story entitled, "Crime Pays." It certainly does pay for those who profit from the expanding correctional-industrial complex, the magazine reports. They include private prison operators, those who build and supply prison cells, the suppliers of food and medicine -- and guards, who recently have realized a new level of clout. Companies vie for everything from building contracts to the right to sell hair products to prisoners, while economically strapped towns see prisons as a source of jobs. "I can't see anyone wanting to deter crime," says Curtiss Neal, president of a black-owned prison telephone service company. "Because there are too many people getting rich behind it." The fear of crime feeds a self-perpetuating cycle: politicians create harsher penalties, as communities compete for facilities, and big financiers underwrite prison construction bonds. But who, Emerge asks, is really paying the price for this boom in the prison industry? The numbers on imprisonment provide the hard facts. The rush to incarcerate has led to a 119 percent increase in the number of inmates from 1985 to June 1996, according to U.S. Justice Department statistics. State incarceration of African-Americans on drug charges increased 707 percent for the same period, while the number for whites rose by 306 percent, less than half. In urban centers, black men involved with the criminal justice system is alarmingly high. According to the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, on any given day, 50 percent of 18-to-35-year-old African-American men in Washington, DC, were under some form of court supervision or being sought on arrest warrants. Hubert Williams, president of the Police Foundation and former police director of Newark, NJ, cites the numerous studies that show African-Americans use fewer illegal drugs than whites or Hispanics, yet are incarcerated at a disproportionately higher rate. Mohamedu Jones, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington-based National Prison Project, agrees. "When you go through these prisons, and I've been through prisons in 10 states, you are forced to come to one of two conclusions: either that young black men are naturally criminals or that there is something serious wrong with the system." A Justice Policy Institute study released this year found that in 1995, for the first time, prison construction surpassed college construction. There was an almost dollar-for-dollar trade-off, with prison-building expenditures jumping by $926 million, and university construction dropping by $954 million. Private prison proponents contend the profit motive forces companies to be more efficient, leading to taxpayer savings. But a federal report reviewing five studies on private prisons said they were inconclusive on the comparative costs and quality of service of private and public prisons. "I'm completely opposed to the concept of private prisons," Jenni Gainsborough, public policy coordinator of the ACLU's National Prison Project, told Emerge. "The most extreme sanction the state has against the individual, short obviously of the death penalty, is imprisonment, and that should not be turned over to an organization whose primary concern is the profit of its shareholders." Because private prison operators are paid by the head, it is in their financial interests to keep convicts incarcerated, argues Maxine Waters, D-CA, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. The profit motive, she says, could weaken rehabilitation and training programs that prepare inmates for release. But private prison executives say there are more criminal offenders out there than there are prison beds. Mark Mauer of the Sentencing Project disagrees. That may be true in the short run, he says, but continued prison expansion and declining crime rates eventually may result in an oversupply of prison beds, leading to increased pressure on private operators to keep their beds filled. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ONLINE RESOURCES FROM THE ACLU NATIONAL OFFICE ---------------------------------------------------------------- ACLU Freedom Network Web Page: http://www.aclu.org America Online users should check out our live chats, auditorium events, *very* active message boards, and complete news on civil liberties, at keyword ACLU. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ACLU Newsfeed American Civil Liberties Union National Office 132 West 43rd Street New York, New York 10036 To subscribe to the ACLU Newsfeed, send a message to majordomo@aclu.org with "subscribe News" in the body of the message. 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