Plenty of Money for Prisons, Not for Social Services

[Panaconda]

U.S. Money for Prisons, Not for Social Services

by Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK, Sep 16, 2010 (IPS) - Many of those who have lost their jobs and homes in the United States due to the lingering economic recession are ending up in jail, according to a new study released by an independent think tank Thursday.


Due to the prolonged economic meltdown, many states are now making drastic cuts in funding for social services - such as health, education, and public housing - but not on policing and prison improvement and expansion. (photo by Flickr user seantoyer)

There is a strong link between poverty and incarceration in the United states, according to the report, "Money Well Spent: How positive social investments will reduce incarceration rates", by the Justice Policy Institute (JPI).

The report's findings on the relationship between poverty and the justice system suggests that more and more people from poor and low-income communities are being arrested and jailed, even though nationwide, crime rates have fallen.

"What we have seen in this research is that there is less focus on safety for the poor and more on policing and arrests," Tracy Velázquez, executive director of the Washington-based JPI, told IPS.

...

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52868

[Lyric]

1. Of course.

Because it's safer, politically, to lock people up and boast that you're "tough on crime" than to address the root causes of crime and prevent it from happening in the first place--a.k.a., poverty relief. The right-wing mental midgets are just FINE with vast increases in prison spending, but god forbid that you ease welfare restrictions and raise Food Stamp benefits so that fewer people feel the need to COMMIT crimes in pursuit of their survival.

Expensive prisons? Oh my YES! But adequate public assistance that reduces the NEED for prisons? NOOOOO! That's a HANDOUT!

:sarcasm:

[Fire1]

2. Nail on the head! n/t

[Panaconda]

5. Prisons are Big Business

Prisons are Big Business

Like the military/industrial complex, the prison/industrial complex is an interweaving of private business and government interests. Its twofold purpose is profit and social control. Its public rationale is the fight against crime.

Not so long ago, communism was "the enemy" and communists were demonized as a way of justifying gargantuan military expenditures. Now, fear of crime and the demonization of criminals serve a similar ideological purpose: to justify the use of tax dollars for the repression and incarceration of a growing percentage of our population. The omnipresent media blitz about serial killers, missing children, and "random violence" feeds our fear. In reality, however, most of the "criminals" we lock up are poor people who commit nonviolent crimes out of economic need. Violence occurs in less than 14% of all reported crime, and injuries occur in just 3%. In California, the top three charges for those entering prison are: possession of a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale, and robbery. Violent crimes like murder, rape, manslaughter and kidnaping don't even make the top ten.

Like fear of communism during the Cold War, fear of crime is a great selling tool for a dubious product.

As with the building and maintenance of weapons and armies, the building and maintenance of prisons are big business. Investment houses, construction companies, architects, and support services such as food, medical, transportation and furniture, all stand to profit by prison expansion. A burgeoning "specialty item" industry sells fencing, handcuffs, drug detectors, protective vests, and other security devices to prisons.

...

http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg/art/prisomindus.htm

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41GKJQA7HHL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

[Tsiyu]

3. We seem to be making felons faster than

we can churn out college graduates, business owners, artists, scholars or doctors.

Very soon, I predict America will be made up of 50% felons.

Perhaps then there won't be any stigma attached to the moniker, and we can work on making a better nation, not a bigger prison population.

[laughingliberal]

6. And they say America doesn't make anything anymore. eom

[aquart]

4. Privatized prisons are big business.

[maryf]

7. Good comments

at another site where this is posted:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/09/17-0

Thanks for posting this here. K&R