Tag Archives: CCA

Too many people are making literally billions from the illicit drug trade —Major Neill Franklin

The only way to stop drug lords from reaping billions from the drug trade is to end drug prohibition, says a former leader of the drug war. The same applies to private prison companies reaping millions.

Tony O’Neill wrote 14 June 2011 in The Fix, Why Growing Numbers of Police Are Slamming Drug Prohibition:

For decades, police were convinced that total prohibition was the only way to end America’s deadly drug wars. Now thousands of cops are not only having second thoughts but actually taking to the streets in protest.

“I was pro-prohibition: that’s what my training was about!” says Major Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), who previously served for 33 years with the Maryland State Police and the Baltimore police forces on the front line of America’s longest running war. “Even though I grew up in Baltimore and saw what was going on, we were taught and trained to believe that if we push hard enough, if we lock up the people involved, then this will eventually dissipate, or at least be reduced to a manageable level.” He gives a long, world-weary sigh. “Of course back then I had no clue…You just can’t tell somebody not to use and they’re gonna stop using! As long as there are people willing to buy, and as long as people don’t have employment, then you’re going to have an illicit drug trade. I saw that we made these arrests—we locked up dealers and users alike—and it might get quiet for a few days, or even a couple of weeks, but give it time and it all starts up again.”

The War on Drugs has failed. Like alcohol prohibition before it, it breeds more violence. Law enforcement against it just makes it worse: Continue reading →

Interview with an architect of Portugal’s successful drug decriminalization

One of the architects of Portugal’s successful drug decriminalization policy says, “to make demands of addicts who are enslaved by their addiction is senseless.” Well, it makes sense to those who profit by it, such as private prison companies. And Georgia is now proposing to make field slaves out of them, for failing a drug test.

Inês Subtil wrote for communidad segura 11 May 2009, Portugal: Success in harm reduction:

In 1999, Portugal broke new ground by enacting legislation that decriminalized all drug use. Ten years later, the results are there for all to see, results of a change that João Goulão, president of the do Instituto da Droga e Toxicodependência (The Drugs and Chemical Addiction Institute) IDT, believes show the law has been instrumental in solving the problem of drug abuse, and crucial for bringing legislation into harmony with practices and people.

A family doctor, Goulão was condecorated by the president of the Portuguese Republic, but he says he is always ready for to roll up his sleeves and get out in the field. At 55, he is a candidate for the Presidency of the European Drugs Observatory, but that has not clowded his sobriety about the work at hand.

In an exclusive interview to Comunidad Segura, Goulão discusses the workings and the structure of the institution that he presides over, that has set a world-wide example of success. For him, drug use is closely associated to self-esteem. “If we could restore drug addicts their human dignity, we would be able to demand something in return. But to make demands of addicts who are enslaved by their addiction is senseless,” he said.

Now that makes a lot of sense. And Portugal demonstrates that it works.

He has more sensible things to say in the interview, including this: Continue reading →

Portugal as forerunner for U.S. states repealing drug prohibition

If Portugal can do it, Washington state or even Georgia can do it.

For comparison:

Population
Portugal 10.632 million
Washington (U.S.)6.664 million
Georgia (U.S.)9.829 million
California (U.S.)36.962 million
So Portugal, which has successfully decriminalized drugs, is similar in scale to a mid-sized U.S. state. Somewhat bigger than Washington state, which just almost got marijuana decriminalization on a ballot, and of whose voters almost a majority support it. With a little more work, people against prohibition could get Washington to be the first state to end marijuana prohibition. Too bad they’re not going for all drugs, like Portugal did, but marijuana offences account probably for the most drug-related lockups, so that’s a good place to start. Still, the problem won’t be solved until the drug cartels and the prison-industrial-complex are deprived of their drug-related income by legalizing the rest, and taxing them so states derive income from them.

Meanwhile we could refuse to participate by declining a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia, and spending that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Portugal ends drug prohibition and addiction declines

According to AFP 1 July 2011, Portugal drug law show results ten years on, experts say
Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

“There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal,” said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

The number of addicts considered “problematic” — those who repeatedly use “hard” drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.

Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.

“This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies.”

Portugal’s holistic approach had also led to a “spectacular” reduction in the number of infections among intravenous users and a significant drop in drug-related crimes, he added.

So what did they do? Continue reading →

GA HB 87 ridiculed in California editorial

The Ventura County Star in California editorialized Sunday:
Laws sometimes have unintended consequences, and laws hastily passed in time of high political passions inevitably do.
Continue reading →

“a conflict of interest at its core” —church group on private prisons

Another Sunday, another church group against private prisons. This time, it includes ex-prisoners, and it went to the lion’s den: a CCA shareholder meeting.

Marian Wright Edelman wrote 13 December 2010, Strength to Love: A Challenge to the Private Prison Industry:

A few months ago a group of earnest and determined stockholders traveled together by bus from Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend a shareholders’ meeting for the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the country. The group included ex-offenders who now each hold one share of stock in the same prison company that once held them captive, and they attended the meeting in the hopes of sharing their perspective on how the privatized prison industry can better serve society by rehabilitating inmates, rather than just serving its own profits by perpetuating the prison cycle.

The group, part of Washington, D.C.’s Church of the Saviour, is named Strength to Love, after the title of one of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermon collections. Members explain their mission this way:

Continue reading →

Who wants to live in a prison colony?

Judy Green, a prison policy analyst says:
“The very first contract for the first private prison in America went to CCA, from INS.”
Hear her in this video Private Prisons-Commerce in Souls by Grassroots Leadership that explains the private prison trade of public safety for private profit:

A local leader once called private prisons “good clean industry”. Does locking up people for private profit sound like “good clean industry” to you? Remember, not only is the U.S. the worst in the world for locking people up (more prisoners per capita and total than any other country in the world), but Georgia is the worst in the country, with 1 in 13 adults in the prison system. And private prisons don’t save money and they don’t improve local employment. As someone says in the video, who wants to live in a prison colony?

We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Jeana Brown.

Eligible for prison road labor

In for a drug offense? Got out but failed a drug test? You may be eligible for a prison road gang!

AP wrote 4 July 2011, GA parolees & road maintenance

Georgia is expanding a pilot program that sanctions some parolees by putting them to work rather than returning them to prison.

The program began in Milledgeville, Gainesville, Columbus and Dalton. This summer it will be expanding to communities across Georgia.

Parolees are eligible if they have committed low-level violations of their supervision requirements, such as the onetime failure of a drug test or curfew violations.

How long will it take before these prisoners are sent to work in fields?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to stop wasting taxpayer dollars on locking up people for minor drug offenses?

Or maybe prison slave labor is a good way to celebrate July 4th.

-jsq

PS: Gretchen got this item from Dwight Rewis of Echols County.

We believe the entire law needs to be overturned —UUCA

Another Sunday, another religious group against the incarceration machine.

Jane Osborn sent this, dated 27 June 2011:

Editorial Statement to Atlanta Journal Constitution

Here is the statement Rev. Anthony David and Rev. Marti Keller sent to the Atlanta Journal Constitution editorial page editor today following the federal court ruling placing an injunction on parts of HB 87. We of course do not know if it will be published, but wanted to respond in a timely way.

As Unitarian Universalist ministers, we affirm justice, equity and compassion in human relations. We applaud the federal judge who halted several parts of Georgia’s anti-immigration law, but we believe the entire law needs to be overturned. It cannot substitute for comprehensive immigration reform at a national level. The law in its entirety is unjust, fear-based, and inhumane.

Rev. Anthony David

Rev. Marti Keller

Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta

HB 87 feeds private prison profit at taxpayer and farmer expense. We don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia: spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Anti-HB 87 rally makes national news

Ten thousand or so people marching who mostly never did before. Google news finds 267 articles like this one.

AP reports today, Thousands rally against Ga. immigration law:

Thousands of marchers stormed the Georgia Capitol on Saturday to protest the state’s new immigration law, which they say creates an unwelcome environment for people of color and those in search of a better life.

Men, women and children of all ages converged on downtown Atlanta for the march and rally, cheering speakers while shading themselves with umbrellas and posters from the blazing summer sun. Capitol police and organizers estimated that between 8,000 and 14,000 protesters gathered. They filled the blocks around the Capitol, holding signs decrying House Bill 87 and reading “Immigration Reform Now!”

Friends Jessica Bamaca and Melany Cordero held a poster that read: “How would you feel if your family got broken apart?”

And remember, HB 87 has many provisions that bring “customers” to CCA’s ICE prison.

We don’t need to feed the incarceration machine with a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia. Spend that tax money on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq